Active Community: Message List

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:57:21 GMT

John,

What type of beer is your home brew? I love all things except dark stouts and really strong IPA's. My new favorite is the Sweetwater Blue, blueberry wheat beer.

Next time my wife and I come to NYC, we will have to stop in for a pint. Start us a tab........

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:51:26 GMT

I use two sites regularly besides this community on active.com. I log all my exercise activity using http://trainer.active.com. I log everything from running to biking, to yoga and weight training. It tracks calories, my weight, my miles, my hours, a whole bunch of things. I love it. I also use www.mapmyrun.com or www.mapmyride.com to log any routes that I do when running outside or on the bike. It tracks calories too, and anything I log on either of these sites, I transfer over to http://trainer.active.com so I will add to my totals. These are my stats since I started in March.

Katie, I would take all the pups if I could, but my shar-pei mix would most definitely get jealous. She freaked out when I pet the cat..... LOL. I bet they are so cute though. What are you going to do with the 3 males?

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:09:46 GMT

Michael,

I said it once, and I'll say it again. "You are a machine", obviously running on solar power, since all this sun, and heat, and humidity just makes you run more... HA Ha.

John,

Welcome to the group. It's great to see that you shaved 3 minutes off your 5K time the second time around. Good Luck with B210K. I am just doing 30 minute runs every other day now, just to get my endurance and stamina built up. On the off days, I am doing strength training with weights at work, and cardio workouts on Exercise TV with my wife at home. I hope to bike to work this week at least once. I should have done it today, but it was too busy of a morning. Maybe tomorrow. I need to check the weather.

Where are you from John? I looked at your Facebook page and I see you love beer as much as me.

Where's the girls at? I am glad to see Bayley is back. Nice job on another 5K. Where's the rest of you hiding? Hope you are getting your workouts and runs in, even if you don't have time to write to us.

I'm off to get my run and weights in today since I didn't do either all weekend. My wife and I spent all weekend hiking, walking, and doing yoga and pilates on TV. My abs hurt today after the core workout we did last night. Ha Ha.

Good luck everyone.

Simon.

PS: I just started growing a beard. I have the full support of my wife, so relax, I am not rebelling against the misses. Do you think the wind resistance of my new face curls will slow down my race times? LOL. Like I care about the times. I just like to finish in one piece.

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:39:12 GMT

Sounds like you either need to find an 24-hour gym, or move closer to where you work. I am fortunate enough to live 4 miles from work now and it's great. Some days I drive, and some days I bike. There is a greenway that runs pretty close to the office. That route is about 8 to 9 miles, but it keeps me off the main roads. I wish this heat wave would disappear so I can start riding again. You said your husband works up there too? Yeah, maybe you should move closer, and raise your family is the new location, closer to work and near a gym you can use whether you are working or not....... Of course, I know buying a treadmill is less frustrating than moving, and I am sure there are many reasons you live where you do, so whatever works for you. I know if someone gave me a choice to move again or buy a treadmill, I would buy the treadmill. I hate moving, and besides the price of gas pissing me off, I enjoyed the 30 minute commute every morning and evening at my last job. It gave me time to focus for the day on the way to work, and one the way home, I had time to relax and forget about work before I got home.

So to sum it up, I don't have a good answer for you. Do you have a timeframe of when you want to start a family and be at home? Maybe you can find a gym by your work that does Month to month payments, or a quarterly contract instead of an annual one. Or just tell them up front that you are trying for a family, and ask them to make an exception for you when the baby does come and you stay at home. They usually will work with you if you have a solid plan. Maybe if your husband joined too and you got the family plan, he could continue to use it after you stay home, and without breaking the contract, he could simply update the membership to single instead of family. Ask them about that in advance too. I'm sure you can sweet talk them into a deal. And one final option that i can see is to Join the YMCA. More than likely, if you join the one near work, and when you decide to stay home when pregnant, you can transfer your membership to the one near your home without paying the initial fees again, and whatever contract you have, if any, will transfer also. Just some ideas.

Whatever you decide.......if you decide to buy a machine, make sure you at least get a 3 day pass to a gym or something and try out both machines before you choose one.

Hope this helps a little...

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:05:01 GMT

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:55:38 GMT

All I can tell you Katie is that when I started running, I hated the treadmill too, but I have grown to love it. I still prefer the outdoors and being in nature, but in this heat, I welcome the sight of the moving sidewalk. I always thought the treadmill was what made my knees hurt, but I guess that was just conditioning, because my knees no longer hurt, whether I am outside on on the belt. I just needed to start slowly and work up to it. The best thing I like about the treadmill is that it keeps my pace for me. I think that is the hardest thing to do for me,

I can also say that I really don't like the elliptical machines. Of course, I really haven't given them a chance either. Maybe it would work for me too if I trained slower and built up to it. One machine I love, and that is the Strider. It's like a cross between an treadmill, an elliptical, and a stair stepper. They had two of them at the YMCA where I used to go and if I did a Hilly 30 minutes program, I could burn 700 calories. It was a real workout.

Instead of forking over the cash for one machine, you could just join a gym and have access to all of the machines, and save space at your house. Just my thoughts. I'm fortunate enough to have a gym at work, but it's not nearly as equipped as a public fitness center. We have 5 treadmills, 2 stair steppers, 2 ellipticals, 3 recumbent bikes, 2 regular bikes, a multigym weight machine, a dumbbell set from 5 to 50 lbs., 2 inclinable benches, and a few plate machines, like a leg press, a leg curl, and a ab curl. The multigym has all the basics, like bench press, fly, cable row, pull downs, pull ups, shoulder press, and a combination of a whole bunch more. It's nice, for a company gym. It even feels like a real gym because there are 3 TV's on the wall, and the treadmills have those channel select boxes where you can plug in your headphones and listen to the TV of your choice. In the changing room, there are 3 showers, and even a sauna.

So does that give you an insight?........didn't think so. I probably confused you even more huh? Ha Ha.

Don't be jealous of my story telling abilities. I am a natural optimist, so I spin my stories in the positive direction no matter what, for your benefit, in my attempt to help motivate you. But it's not easy staying active. A lot of the time, I am tired and don't want to do anything, but I know I need to do something. My wife says she doesn't know where i get the energy to just keep going and going. I try to stay active, and I try really hard not to let it get routine and boring. Every time I workout, I try to change it up a bit. When I ride my bike, I always plan a new route. And when I do my treadmill runs, as boring as running in place seems to me, I try to make it fun by having different music every time. So please use my posts, not to see what you are missing, but as a motivator for your next activity. I want to inspire everyone who reads this to get up and go, no matter where your feet take you, no matter if you have plain Jane shoes, or yummy orange ones. As long as those feet are moving, it's a good thing.

Keep up the good work and don't stop.

Simon.

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:12:19 GMT

So I've been looking for a bike trailer to carry my dog since she is not the type to be jogging next to the bike, nor is she trained that well, not to get herself run over. Friday night, I finally snagged on on Craigslist really cheap, but it was an hour an a half away from home. The good news is that where I had to go get it was 10 miles from a Rail Trail that i love to ride. I figured while I was in that area, I would take the trailer to the trail and try it out. Well, Saturday, I made the trip to pick it up and the transaction went smoothly, but it was getting so hot by then, I opted to skip the trail ride and just come home and install the trailer. My garage was like an oven, even with my fan on high. Luckily the weather got real nasty later and the storm brought some cooler breezes. Anyways, I got it all done, but it wasn't easy. First of all, the quick release bracket for the trailer tow arm was not a quick install. It would have been if I didn't have a wheel mounted pannier rack and a wheel mounted kickstand. Grinding, cutting, bending, filing, and 2 jizsaw metal cutting blades later, I was able to get everything to fit back on the bike. The kickstand works, the pannier rack was secure, and the trailer hitch bracket was installed. Then I had to modify the trailer itself. It was made to seat two kids, not one dog. I took out the seats, moved the back of the seats back to make the rear wall, and drilled new holes to secure it all up. Then I put a blanklet inside for the dog to lay on. Worked like a charm. I think I lost 5 pounds in sweat while doing all this. After it rained a bit, I was able to take the dog for a little test ride, and she seemed to not mind at all.

I think she likes it...........

Very comfortable....... LOL.

"Slow down........... Slow down.......... Ha Ha.

Sunday, myself and 6 others kayaked for 7 miles around the lake in High Point. I was wore slap out. I even jumped out of the kayak twice just to get wet, and then had to crawl back in without flipping the boat over.

Today, I did an easy 3 mile run on the treadmill at work. It was hard, I guess because I haven't ran since last Thursday I think, but I made it.

So I don't really have a point to this, just letting you all know that I might not have ran all weekend, but I was doing something....... LOL.

Keep up the good work Team.

Simon

Re: getting back into things

guest — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:27:24 GMT

Katie,

No wonder you are putting up such good times.....Those shoes look FAST. And I do like the orange. My sunglasses are orange, although a little dark shade than your shoes. I could deal with that color I think. It's the color of the inside of your shoe that I can't stand. If I had to run in "tennis ball green-yellow" shoes, I wouldn't be a happy camper. I would demand they start another production line to make a different color. But orange I could deal with. My wife and I both like orange. Nice shoes.

And as for the Running store situation in my area. I am fortunate enough to live right in the middle of a running mecca. 15 miles West is Winston Salem and plenty of stores. 10 miles East is Greensboro, which is also where I work, and they have plenty of stores too. Where I live in High Point even has an Omega Sports only 3 miles from home, but it's a brand new store and I opted to drive to the other side of Greensboro after work yesterday to visit a store that has a strong reputation in the area. It was only 10 miles out of my way. For any accessories I need later, I will most likely just go to the store down the street.

Re: getting back into things

guest — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:53:30 GMT

I'm just so thankful that the only pair right for me wasn't $150 or $200, and not a bright neon color. That would be a deal breaker for me. Ha Ha. I didn't have quite as far of a drive as Denise, but having to drive across the city at all, and having to go through the process of jogginig around the store and tryinig all those shoes on, I was not leaving there empty handed..... If these shoes are the right ones, the next pair I need, I will be purchasing them online. Less hassle, and I can most likely find them cheaper too.

Re: From C25k to B210k

guest — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:48:38 GMT

Watch out team, I got new shoes. LOL.

Now that I am an official 5K runner, I decided it was time to get actual running shoes. So after work yesterday, I headed to the running store and went through the whole treadmill video camera test. They fitted me out in a pair of Saucony ProGrid Omni 10 shoes. I am going to use them indoors for awhile, just in case I need to switch them up or something, they will still be in returnable condition. That won't be a problem since it's so hot outside, unless of course I decide to do another 5K this weekend. We'll see how my run goes this afternoon.

Keep it going team.

Simon