Lately I have been thinking about getting a new piece of exercise equipment to start off 2011 – either a replacement treadmill for the one I already have or a new elliptical, something I have used only a few times in a hotel gym. To help me make a decision between the two (or maybe I'll just get a new flat panel television instead) I figured I'd do a little research on both types of exercise equipment to try to make an informed decision. I'll start with treadmills:

So why am I looking at getting a replacement treadmill? Well the one I have was bought in 1998 or so, meaning it is a dozen years old. It's a pretty solid one, a foldable "Spacesaver" Pro Form J8 with multiple programs, heart rate sensor (that hasn't worked in years), incline, cushioned belt, etc. I wish I could say I've put thousands of miles on it but that wouldn't be true – but I've put hundreds on it anyway.

I want to start exercising more and the biggest issue I am having with this treadmill is that I just can't get the belt adjusted in a way that doesn't make it slip periodically. It's no fun running on a treadmill where the belt is slipping. I've tried every trick in the book (Google) and while I have improved the problem significantly, it still is an issue. I wouldn't say it was an excuse for why I am not using the treadmill like I should, but it sure doesn't help.

So, why a treadmill?

Treadmill Benefits

Studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association show treadmills burn more calories per hour than any other piece of fitness equipment tested. Throw in the convenience factor-no foul weather, mad dogs, strangers or potholes-and you've got an ideal solution for successful home fitness.

Compared to exercise equipment like bicycles, treadmills burn more calories per hour because running on a treadmill is a weight bearing exercise. While I have been enjoying my outdoor walks recently the fact is that, particularly in a cold weather state like Minnesota, I often need to get my exercise indoors – whether it's the weather or the time of day. I don't like to go for walks at night if I don't have to.

My goal is to start running in 5ks and eventually 10ks and in order to get into shape for those I need to start running. The treadmill is of course the only piece of exercise equipment that prepares you for running.

Treadmill Features

I mentioned that my current treadmill is foldable. While that is a great feature for some people it isn't one that I need – I have my own room for my equipment and the only time I have ever folded this treadmill up is when we moved. So that really isn't a feature I need. What other features should I be looking for? How about:

• The motor – the bigger the motor the smoother the workout. Get the biggest motor your budget can afford.
• The deck – again, bigger is better. Assuming you have the space available, get the biggest deck you an afford, particulary if you are big like me.
• Incline – For sure get a treadmill with an adjustable incline, this helps to mimic outdoor running across varied terrain.
• Cushioning – Different levels of cushioning are available – try to get a machine with adjustable cushioning.
• Programs – Modern treadmills will offer a plethora of available programs, both speed and incline.
• Extras – These days there are a whole bunch of different options available that I don't think were there the last time I was looking at treadmills – think things like integrated television and iPod/MP3 integration.

It's not really a feature per se, but make sure you check the weight limits on the treadmill so that you get one beefy enough to handle you. My guess is that because I plan to get a big motor and a big deck that I will be fine, but I'll still need to check that out.

Treadmill Workouts

One of the benefits of getting a top quality treadmill is the number of workout programs available. There will be a number of pre-programmed ones or you can make your own. Personally, I will be going with a modified version of the Couch to 5K program that has you start walking and then slowly incorporate running until you are running an entire 5K. It's a pretty ingenious program because slow and steady wins the race. If you have an incline option on your treadmill you can use that to make the runs more challenging. Because you will be exercising indoors you will need to keep your workouts interesting and one way to do that is to vary between speed and incline programs.

As I have been looking around at all of the treadmills available these days I have gotten pretty excited about getting an upgrade.

I don't have much experience with treadmill brands beyond the one I have. Anyone have a suggestion for a rock-solid treadmill that won't totally bust the bank? (I am willing to spend $$$ if I need to though)

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Time For a New Treadmill?

I did a couple of things yesterday at work that I rarely do individually, and probably have never done together.

I packed a lunch and took a walk at work over the lunch hour.

Monday night was my birthday and I made dinner of T-Bone steak (I had the 4oz fillet part), grilled asparagus, chopped garbage salad and gazpacho. I actually have my own gazpacho recipe but since I was reminded of making this wonderful cold soup by the Pioneer Woman recently I went ahead and tried her recipe, although I omitted the sour cream. Not because I was being health conscious but because I forgot to buy it! Not used to buying sour cream when I make gazpacho.

Anyway, the meal was great and we had plenty of leftovers. I put the rest of the chopped salad into a container, filled a small mason jar with gazpacho and included a piece of birthday cake my wife made – and then I'll be darned if I didn't bring that meal to work yesterday. I really should do that more often. The salad was worse for the wear the next day, mostly because of the avocado, but it will tasted great. Sipping gazpacho out of a mason jar was a fun way to have soup. Only downside to bringing a lunch is taking home the dishes, but that's something I should be able to deal with.

I travel around to a number of different offices so I don't have this opportunity every day, but outside of my main office we have a lake with a walking path and yesterday I explored it for the first time. I ended up not walking around the entire thing as I didn't have enough time for that but I did end up getting a 30 minute walk in. Oh I forgot to mention, I actually brought running shoes to change into, so I was totally planning to do this. The problem is the shoes I grabbed were ones that have been sitting in my closet forever and there was something wrong with them that I didn't rmember and once I got into my walk I realized what it was – they cause blisters on my heals. So after the walk I pitched the shoes in the trash and will be buying another pair of my current running shoes to keep at work.

I sure felt the burn of the walk and because of the humidity it made the sweat even worse. I'm not used to working up a sweat in my work clothes, and frankly that shouldn't be happening in a 30 minute walk. But I can't let that scare me off – more walking means less sweat eventually!

I don't know that this is totally a new habit yet, but the fact I planned to walk by bringing shoes and then actually did it is a good sign. It will be an even better sign if I go through with buying the new shoes and keeping them at work.

Small incremental changes have helped me in the past and they will do so again.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Did Something New Yesterday

One of the things I know I have to do to be successful with losing weight this year is to put more time on the treadmill. But it's so darn boring! Workout music helps, but if you are going to run for at least an hour like I want to start doing, then you need to kick things up a notch. To help me put in longer times on the treadmill I added a little table that I could put my laptop on so that I could use the laptop while on the treadmill. I've got some ideas to make it even better and once I get some pictures of it I'll put up a post. I think it's pretty cool so subscribe for free to my blog if you want to be notified as soon as I post it!

I want to tell you about the hour I put on the treadmill today, but first I thought I'd share a story about Bob, a guy I lived and worked with when I was 19. Bob was a little weird and some of it rubbed off on me. He got me into Kahlil Gibran, for goodness sakes. At one point he was reading a lot about extreme yoga that involved ritual washing of the intestines, although I don't think he ever actually went through with it. He did spend a lot of time in the bathroom but I don't think he was soaking…

Anyway, we worked in a restaurant doing a variety of jobs and one day we were both busboys with him doing the floor and me washing dishes. By then we were both good at our jobs and the work was easy and boring. So we would find different strange things to do to keep us interested and challenged. On this particular day I was keeping up easily on dishes and had a lot of empty stainless steel counter-top to work with. For no reason that I can recall I thoroughly soaked a paper towel and then spread it out to dry. Bob asked me what I thought would happen when it dried out and I said I thought it would result in a stiff piece of paper towel.

"Have you ever done it before?" he asked. After I said that I had not he remarked, "If you haven't done it before, how do you know for sure what the result will be? What if nobody in the world had done some strange thing, could you know for sure that it wouldn't spontaneously combust, for example?"

How do you answer that? Well I didn't have a good answer so we spent the better part of the day doing all sorts of strange things we figured nobody had ever done before, just to see if something unexpected happened, similar to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory, which basically says that "nothing is real unless it is observed." (Google is my friend!)

So what caused me to think about Bob today?

Because I did something I don't think had every been done before on my treadmill, and a strange result did indeed ensue.

The good news is that I put in over an hour on the treadmill, walking at a leisurely 3.2 m.p.h pace, but sweating nonetheless. The bad news is that shortly after hitting the hour mark my treadmill, which had surely never been running for over an hour at a time, spontaneously combusted.

OK, maybe not. But it did power-down. And I can't get it powered-up. Which is a bummer because I had big plans for putting more time in on this thing and I can't afford a new treadmill right now.

That hour may have been my last for awhile.

P.S. – From what I can tell, there has never before been a blog post made referencing Kahlil Gibran, Quantum Physics, spontaneous combustion and exercising. I wonder what will happen when I click Publish?

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

An Hour on the Treadmill

Well so much for NaBloPoMo! My best intentions of posting every day this month went up in flames on Wednesday, then I had a decided lack of motivation yesterday after knowing that I won't be hitting what I had hoped was a simple goal – writing every day this month. I also have not run every day this week like I had set out to. After doing cardio on Monday and Tuesday I took Wednesday off (although I did do a 4 mile walk around the lake with my wife) and then for the same reason that I didn't write yesterday I also didn't exercise.

But here it is Friday and I just knocked out a couple of miles on the treadmill and I had a whey protein shake for dinner. What got me motivated after a couple of days off from exercising?

Music.

I received a couple of packages today. The first was a replacement battery for an APC UPS that was croaking (is there anything more irritating than the beeping from a dying UPS?). Looking forward to getting that thing fixed. The second package was a care package from my friends at Sansa, who sent me a couple of cool new music players to try out.

One of the devices comes preloaded with workout music – the Sansa slotMusic bundle with the Don't Quit card. I decided that it would be a pretty good excuse to hit the treadmill with my new music, and half an hour later I was covered in sweat and totally tired.

All thanks to some new music.

I'll post a full review of the music player later, but for now I'll say it's a pretty cool little player with a lot of possibilities. It got me to workout tonight – that's something!

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Motivated by Music

photo credit: Blondie5000

So far I feel pretty good about the first week of my Kick Ass November. I'm not documenting what I eat every day, darn it, but I am watching it and I've been pretty good. Where I am definitely excelling is in getting back on my exercise plan. So far this week I have done my strength training program each morning, Monday through Wednesday and yesterday I did cardio as well, which I plan to do every other day for starters.

I'm so sore right now!

For the strength training, the upper body workout I did yesterday was the first one that I have done since the beginning of May. Every time since then that I have tried to get started again on the program I've started with lower body, and since I never put two consecutive days together, I never ended up doing upper body.

For the cardio, I restarted at week 4 of the Couch to 5k and I was doing it exactly so until the last 5 minute run. My heartrate did not drop below 150 during the walk period prior, and it quickly shot up to 170 in the run and I just couldn't keep it there so I needed to walk. Still, I felt good to only have to go back to Week 4, and tomorrow I'm shooting to nail it 100%.

So, now I've put three consecutive days of exercise together and it feels great. Doesn't feel great being so damned sore, but it does feel great to be throwing wet, stinky clothes in the dirty clothes basket.

That means I'm working at it. That means I'm kicking ass in November!

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

The Sweet Smell of Wet, Stinky Gym Clothes

Like many of my fellow fatbloggers I've signed up for the One Hundred Pushups Challenge. The correspsonding program is a progressive training program designed to slowly, over a period of at least 6 weeks, get you from sloth to stud. At least that's the idea.

Yesterday I did the initial test which simply calls for you to do as many well-formed pushups as you can. I managed 15 before I crumpled to the ground in a quivering mass. The program calls for a 5 level progression done 3 times per week. I will normally be doing it Monday, Wednesday and Friday but since I am anxious to start and I took the initial test on Monday, I started day One today.

Based on the results of my initial test for week one I need to do 10, 10, 8 and 6 pushups with a 60 second rest in between and then a final level of as many as you can do with a minimum of 7. I managed 11.

Seemed as though it started off pretty rough. Tomorrow I'm going to need to do 12,12,10,10 and at least 10.

I like the idea though, and I like how I could feel both my heart working and my abs, so this is more than just for my arms.

Given my weight, I can't imagine being able to do 100 pushups in a row but I'm going to start the program and see how far I can get. Who knows?!

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Trying for 100 Pushups

I don't believe I have mentioned it before, but we have an in-ground pool. We put it in 4 years ago or so and if you don't try to calculate the per-swim cost it's been great. The idea behind getting the pool was that the kids and their friends would tend to congregate at our house, and so then we could keep an eye on them. So far it's worked.

Having a pool when you are overweight is interesting. On the one hand, it's a great opportunity to get some exercise in. On the other hand, you don't find yourself swimming much because you don't like to take your shirt off in public. So I don't use it as much as I would like.

I've started trying to use the pool more for exercise lately – last night was the third time in the last couple of weeks that I have swam 50 laps with a timer. Our pool is 20×44 feet with the last 4 feet being steps, so each lap is 40 feet. 50 laps is 2000 feet then, or about 2/5ths of a mile. My times so far have been 21:48, 21:32 and last night, 19:48. I'm going to simply work on getting that time lower and lower.

I don't exactly glide through the water with grace, but what the hell, exercise is exercise.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Swimming for Health

I lifted weights this morning for the first time in almost two months and for only the second time since February 12th. Forcing myself to get up at 4:00am to workout wasn't easy, but it is a habit I just have to get back into – I don't have the luxury of being able to get daily strength training and cardio without doing so.

Previously when I had taken short breaks from weight training I had noticed that if I took a week off that I actually felt stronger when I got back into. This is because I gave my muscles enough time to rest and re-grow the torn tissues that happens when you lift. So I actually had incorporated that into my training schedule where every few weeks I would take a week off. Worked out great.

What doesn't work out great is taking months off. Then, it's not so easy. I couldn't get the same reps in at the weights I had been at previously. And I really noticed it for overhead presses and chest flys – even with reduced weights and reps my arms literally turned to jello each set. By the last rep of my 3rd set I could barely lift the weights, and I am sure my form was absolute crap. I should probably lower the weights even more.

Still, I started the week off how I wanted to – by getting back into the habit of working out.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Arms of Jello

I took a walk this morning with our new puppy Maddie (I'll have to write up a post about her later, she's a real cutie!), an approximate 4 mile loop to a local lake and back, with on occasional jog here and there. I probably only jogged about a half mile out of the four mile walk.

As I have been reminded of before, taking a break from cardio like I have been doing really makes it tough when you try to get back on the horse. So where I had jogged a couple of miles straight back in January, I could not even muster a quarter of a mile today. Granted, I had a 25 pound dog on a leash to contend with, but still, that is not the problem.

The problem is, I have been eating too much, of too poor quality, and not exercising. In the past as I thought about feeling guilty about making a poor food decision I related it directly to the scale. "Those 10 Thin Mints you just ate – that's going to hurt you on the scale."

But today as I was running I came to a different conclusion – those 10 Thin Mints had affected my ability to run in the way I want to be able to run. I realized that I had been cheating the runner in me who wants to be able to run that 4 mile loop instead of walking.

I honestly don't know if this change in mindset is going to work but I am going to give it a try. As I catch myself contemplating poor food choices I am going to focus on the runner I am cheating rather than the scale.

Are you cheating the runner in you?

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Are You Cheating The Runner in You?

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Gone Skiing – I'll Be Back April 7th

My three largest dumbells are 25, 35 and 45 pounds.  When I started this weight loss journey back in August I already had a small set of rarely used dumbells ranging in size from 5 to 25 pounds.  You will notice that the 25 pound one looks rusty.  That's because it is.  I bought these nice dumbells and then never used them.  Until I needed to weigh down a tarp on our deck that was covering our deck furniture over the winter.  That's what my 25 pound dumbell was used for the last couple of winters.  A dead, rusting weight.

No more.  Now I lift it occasionally.  And I am getting stronger.  A few months ago I bought the 35 pound dumbell and just today I added the 45 pounder.

I have a lot more weight to lose and muscle to gain, but buying bigger weights sure is a good feeling I am doing something right.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

No More Rusty Dumbells

One of my 43 Things Goals is Run 1 Mile Without Stopping.  I've also got 2, 3 and 5 miles.  But you've got to start somewhere, so 1 little mile is the first goal.

I'm in week 4 of the Couch to 5K program (see my cardio page for more info) which means the most I run at any one time is 5 minutes.  I'm currently running at a 12:45/mile pace, which means when I do run I'm not even running for a half mile.

I didn't exercise yesterday morning so when I got home from work the first thing I did was hop on the treadmill.  I decided that rather than do my normal 5 minute warm-up walk and interval running and walking that I was going to go for that first goal.  I was going to run a mile.

So I strapped on my heart rate monitor, laced up my shoes and hit the treadmill.  And I ran.  My heart rate got up into the 160s a couple of times, but really once I got into a groove it wasn't that bad.  Quarter mile gone.  Half mile.  Three quarters.  And there it is – I completed my goal of running one mile without stopping.

But why stop there?  I felt pretty good – could I go for two miles?  Inconceivable!

So I decided to run for up to 15 minutes.  And when that passed, to get to 1.25 miles.  I was still going strong, time to push for 1.50.  At this point my thighs were feeling it.  I could have quit and been very happy to achieve my goal.  But I couldn't stop now, I was so close.  1.75 miles.  A lousy quarter of a mile to go.  One ring of red lights on my treadmill.  My thighs burned.  My heartrate was touching 170.

But I had written this goal down, and I looked at it every day.  And it was in sight.  So I pushed on.

And damn if I didn't hit the 2 mile mark after running for 25 minutes, 34 seconds straight.

3 miles would have to be saved for another day.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Running Milestone Achieved

Adding a morning strength training routine to my daily schedule has been one of the best things I have done over the last five months of my journey from fat to fit.  It's also been one of the most challenging.  Because of my travel and work schedule I was already getting up early in the morning, typically somewhere between 5:00 am and 6:00 am.  I would use this morning time to catch up on personal email, blogs, etc.  So when I decided that it was important to my future to start exercising in the morning it wasn't that big of a deal – I've always been a morning person. 

Until I realized that I needed that morning time to stay caught up.

So now I typically awake somewhere between 3:30 am and 4:30 am, which gives me the time to get a workout in and stay caught up on the digital side of my life.  This worked well at first until I started multi-tasking.  I would do a set and then while resting would go to the computer.  A minute rest would stretch into two, then five.  Before you know it my 45 minute workout was taking 90 minutes.

And because I was resting too much my heart rate was not staying elevated so I wasn't getting any cardio benefits from the workout either.

So on Saturday I finally decided to do something about it.  No computer during the workout.  Did some additional super-sets.  Got my upper-body workout down to 38 minutes, during which time my heart rate stayed elevated.

It was tough but it needed to be done. 

Does your routine need to be tightened up?

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Tightening Up My Strength Training Routine

In Tuesday's Don't Skip the Cardio! I conceded defeat to my treadmill, which totally and completely kicked my butt as I made a lame attempt at Week 4 of the Couch to 5k plan.  In fact it was so lame that in my recording of the times I recorded it as yet another Week 3.  And I was prepared to stay at Week 3 for awhile until I thought I was ready to make another run at it.

That is until I read the following comment from Chris on my blog:

I’ve been following the Couch-to-5K program for the last 2 1/2 months, and I’m on week 9. Not only have I never been what anyone would call an athlete, I absolutely hated running for my entire life until I started this program. Now I can run over 2.5 miles uninterrupted.

Nothing special jumped out at me in the comment but I love hearing from new readers so I checked out his blog.  And what I found was a guy who since October has gone from 301 to 271 pounds.  He's like me!  And damn if he didn't just call out my manhood!

This is the kind of interaction I was talking about in my post on why you should write a weightloss blog.  Here's someone I don't know from Adam coming out of the woodwork and inspiring me to take another run at Week 4.

And take another run I did.  I lowered my walking and jogging speeds a little bit but I put in a full Week 4, which took 26.5 minutes, then I walked the rest of the way to 45 minutes.  My heartrate was in the 150s for the jogs but didn't elevate into the 160s.  Damn it felt good!  My plan from here is to spend however long I need to at Level 4 as I increase the speeds to where I want them.  Then when I tackle Week 5 I'll start out by lowering the speeds a little bit first. 

Because of my support network I've just got over a key hurdle.

Thanks Chris!

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Take That, Treadmill!

It's been about 5 weeks since I have used the treadmill.  Since that time I did get three 3 miles run in, but other than that – no cardio.  As you may remember (or maybe not since it has been so long since I have done any!) I am basing my cardio workout on the Couch to 5k plan.  This is a 9 week plan but I think that truly is for athletes getting off the couch – not people like me.  Me, I've been stuck on week 3 for two months now.

The good news is I have started up the cardio again like I promised myself I would this week.  The other good news is that I was so encouraged by my outdoor runs, despite not hitting the treadmill for over a month and not coming anywhere near actually fully completing a week 3 workout, that I actually stepped it up to week 4 this week.  The bad news is my treadmill totally kicked me in the arse.

For those of you following at home, this is what week 4 looks like:

Brisk 5 minute walk
Jog for 3 minutes
Walk for 90 seconds
Jog for 5 minutes
…

And a bunch of other things that don't matter because this is where I downshifted back into a week 3 interval.  That first 3 minutes I was able to do but I only got about 2 minutes into the 5 minute run when my heart rate elevated past 170 and I just had to slow down.  And then I ended up walking most of the way and I quit after 30 minutes rather than going the full 45.

So that's kind of depressing.

With strength training I have noticed that when I take a break I come back stronger than before.  Not so with cardio though, I think this is something I need to stick with.  I'm definitely back to week 3 for awhile.

Don't skip the cardio!

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Don't Skip the Cardio

I passed the 1,000,000 pound mark in my strength training program today.  On August 13th, a couple of weeks into my weight loss program, I started the strength training portion of my plan.  I started light, lifting a total of 6,750 pounds over 4 exercises.  I'm now up to 22,110 or 24,075 pounds lifted in a day depending on if it is my upper day or my lower day.  Today's workout pushed my total lifted weight to 1,010,430 pounds.  Over 500 tons.

What, you thought I lifted it all at once?  There I go with the misleading headlines again!

I've documented the details of my strength training plan here.  Of course the secret to lifting one million pounds is longevity – over time it adds up, particularly if you slowly bump the weights up and stick to the plan.  This week I lifted every day and my max for the week is now 135,495 pounds, meaning if I was able to stick to the plan every day it would take less than 8 weeks to get another million in.

Keep in mind I've never been very strong, and these weights, while having been increased, are still pretty light.  Guys like Israel or John probably lift this much in a week.  But it's a big milestone for me.

One million pounds.

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Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

How I Lifted One Million Pounds

I didn't need to read this study to know that soccer is a better workout than jogging.  I played soccer for about a dozen years growing up and it always kept me in good shape.  Last night, to celebrate the end of my son's 5th & 6th grade fall soccer season, we had a parent/kid game. 

"Even though the football (soccer) players were untrained, there were periods in the game that were so intense that their cardiovascular was maximally taxed, just like professional football (soccer) players," said Dr. Peter Krustrup, head of Copenhagen University's department of exercise and sport sciences, who led the study.

Krustrup and his colleagues found there were periods during soccer matches when the players' hearts were pumping at 90 percent their full capacity. But the joggers' hearts were never pushed as hard.

I played halfback for the full hour.  I wore my heart rate monitor so I could see where I stood and let's just say I got a good cardio workout in, I stayed between 135 and 165 the entire time, usually around 140-145.

Unlike the soccer players, the joggers consistently thought their runs were exhausting.

"The soccer players were having more fun, so they were more focused on scoring goals and helping the team, rather than the feeling of strain and muscle pain," Krustrup said.

I kept my heart rate up for 20 minutes longer than I normally do, yet I did not sweat nearly as much and other than being winded I felt no pain.  Except for today that is, wow am I sore!

My son is playing winter soccer and I volunteered to be head coach.  I'll find out this week if I am needed.  Another good excuse to get up and move around!

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Soccer Is Good For You

I mentioned before that my heart rate was occasionally exceeding my maximum heart rate during my cardio workouts.  Now that I have purchased a proper heart rate monitor and have calibrated my treadmill I am confident that never happened, and even if it did it won't happen again because I am not running as fast as I was before.

When you only have your treadmill to judge by you really just trust what it says for speed.  After being on my cardio program for awhile I had a pretty good feel for how fast my paces for both walking and running were, and how much my heart was beating during the running portions.

The first time I used another treadmill I was surprised at how slower I was moving.  Then I used another treadmill at another hotel and on it too I was moving slower.  Both of these foreign machines were high-quality treadmills.  So I knew something was up with mine.

Fortunately the instructions for my treadmill, which is almost 10 years old now, were still sealed up inside the machine.  So I was able to determine how to turn on the diagnostics mode and calibrate the speed.  What I found was that the treadmill was running at .8 mph faster than what it was showing on the display.  So my warm-up walks of 3.5 mph were really 4.3 mph and my running pace of 5.0 mph was really 5.8 mph.

Now that I have my treadmill calibrated correctly I have starting pushing up the pace, as well as the incline which I set up to 3 degrees.  I am staying with 5.0 mph as my target running pace but now I think I'll be able to get there faster.  I had thought I was going to have to stay at Week 2 of the couch to 5k for a few more weeks but now I am thinking that next week I may graduate to week 3.  My heart rate is staying in a range between 135 and 150 during the cardio which is much better.

If you use a treadmill it would be a good idea to calibrate it.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

I Calibrated My Treadmill

On Tuesday I officially started Week 2 of the Couch-to-5k running program that is the basis for my cardio workouts. 

I am warming up with a 5 minute walk at 3.5mph then alternating 90 seconds of jogging at 5.0mph with 2 minutes of walking at 3.0. I repeat this for 9 intervals with the last walk being an extra 30 seconds to get me to 37 minutes exactly.

The first day was pretty tough; I wanted to quit a couple of times. Wednesday was a little easier but there was a couple of times my heart rate got up to 188 according to my treadmill, which is actually above my maximum heart rate.  Probably shouldn't be doing that!  If it's true, who knows with the treadmill.  My range for these workouts is normally between 145 and 165. Yesterday was pretty easy – my legs felt heavy toward the end but I made it through fairly easily, even pumping my arms like Rocky through one running interval as Billy Idol's Rebel Yell played on my MP3 player.

I spent 4 weeks on Week 1 of the program and I am in no rush to get out of Week 2.  I'm hoping to get another day in this week and then next week I think I'll start upping my walking pace. 

Slowly and surely I'll get there.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

Started Week 2

I've never been great at sticking to things, and certainly not exercise.  But I'm seeing lots of signs that I am changing and staying with the program.

Like yesterday, when I got up at 3:45am to lift weights for 45 minutes before I got on a plane to Chicago.  After a long day I ended up getting home at 11:00pm and proceeded to get caught up via DVR on my Monday night shows I missed, such as High Stakes Poker, Prison Break and Heroes.  I didn't get to bed until almost 1:30am.  But there I was waking up this morning at 5:00am and putting in another 45 minutes of lifting.  And then after work today I did 37 minutes on the treadmill as I started week 2 of my cardio program.  Serious sweat.  My kids laughed when they saw how sweaty I was.  My daughter asked if I poured a bucket of water over my head.  And I love it.

Now that's not a work and sleep schedule I would condone, but it's pretty typical to something I might have been before I was working out only now I have the added benefit of sweating a couple of times a day.  That can't be a bad thing.

I almost feel like I can do this.

Post from: John Is Fit - Personal Weight Loss Blog

More Signs of Dedication