Spinning With A Netbook

I arrived home late from work last Monday morning (I work nights) at about 9:00 a.m. By the time I went to the front gate to pick up the newspaper, it was gone and most likely stolen. I requested a replacement but it never arrived. Since I also get the online version of the paper (the pages are arranged exactly like the hardcopy), I had no choice but to read the news on my computer.

                If you have read this blog before, you know I like reading the newspaper while riding the stationary bike, using the elliptical machine, or walking on the treadmill. Well, I’ve never tried doing that with a computer so this was going to be a first. Monday was a spinning bike day, so I fired up my netbook, logged on to the Press Telegram website, mounted the wide open netbook on the book rack of the bike, then started pedaling. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. For sure I wouldn’t be able to do stand ups or the computer might fall over. That was fine with me because I like to do high cadence spinning anyway which simulates breathing like running. Reading the print wasn’t a problem even with darkening skies outside because of the computer backlight. If I was reading the paper version, I might have had to turn on the lights in my living room.

                So anyway, reading was not a problem. The difficult part was using the touchpad to turn the pages because of the movement of my body and the pedals. It took several tries to smoothen the movements of my fingers before I could turn a page. I never liked touchpads in the first place and I always use a mouse. That wouldn’t have worked on a book rack mounted netbook. You know what? I think coordinating the page turning with pedaling actually made the workout a wee bit more challenging. I was able to do 40 minutes on the spinning bike and did 10 minutes on the recumbent bike just to see if it was easier to turn the page while semi-reclined. It wasn’t. This is probably better done with a  table PC which I don’t have. It would have been easier turning pages with a swipe of a finger.

                If I don’t receive the newspaper next time, I may have to try this netbook technique again on the treadmill. Not only will I wish that the computer doesn’t fall off, but that I wouldn’t either. Oh, boy, what I have to do just to satisfy my endorphin cravings!

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Aerobicizing Without Running

Equipment I used to have years ago. The upright bike and stairstepper have been replaced with a spinning bike and treadmill plus an elliptical machine.

I’ve been trying to hold off from walking or jogging the past couple of weeks and confined myself to the recumbent and spinning bikes at home. I’m trying to get my left ankle to heal as much as possible even though it’s tempting to get out and pound the pavement. One moment I don’t feel any pain then the next moment the pain comes for no reason at all.

On the spinning bike, I noticed that when I start on a low gear and ramp it up ever so slowly while trying to keep the cadence high, the breathing pattern feels like doing an easy run then progressing to a tempo run. Because of that, the endorphin high feels similar too. The only difference is the pain in the butt. For some strange reason, doing stand ups on heavier gears, even though it feels harder,  doesn’t have the same effect.

Unfortunately the elliptical machine isn’t working too well for my ankles because there is too much up and down motion which overstretches the already tender tendons. I’ll try wearing running shoes with heel lifts and use a lower tension next time. Maybe that would help.

I’m considering using the rowing machine again but I don’t like the inconvenience of dragging it from it’s corner and unfolding it. Besides, I can’t do any reading while rowing which I like to do while stationary cycling. If I had more room I’d keep it open and probably use it more. I used to do a variation of circuit training where I do five minutes each on the rowing machine, recumbent bike, and upright bike for three or four sets. It breaks the monotony of using only one machine for a whole workout. I still do this sometimes with the spinning bike, recumbent bike, and elliptical machine.

          I haven’t resorted to my old Taebo DVD yet. I’m not even sure if I can find it any more.

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Recent Workouts in the Month of February 2011

          This one is a few days late being posted since I blogged for five days in a row last week, which was more than I’ve ever done before. After that flurry, I needed a break.

          Here are some thoughts about recent workouts on the stationary bike and the treadmill. How about running out of newspaper before finishing a stationary bike workout? Well that happened to me one time and I had to go back to the front page and reread some articles until I completed the workout.

          I did my longest workout on the spinning bike last week: 10 minutes warm up + 5 sets of 3/2/2 stand up intervals with 1 minute recoveries + 10 minutes cool down for a total of 1 hour and 10 minutes. It helps to break down the workout in segments to keep from being bored.

          Another recent workout consisted of 15 minutes each on the spinning bike, recumbent bike, elliptical machine, back to the spinning bike and the recumbent bike for a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes. It would have been too hard mentally to do it that long using just one machine.

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been running more often on the treadmill and a couple of days back, I exceeded my usual hour with an extra 10 minutes thus making it the longest I’ve run on my treadmill. Let me tell you this: Even jogging slowly on the treadmill feels better afterwards compared to cycling. Damn running is like cocaine!

          When I do weight training, I usually take my good old time to recover between sets. However when I’m pressed for time I do a blitz workout wherein I considerably decrease my recovery time. Even though I can do lesser reps on subsequent sets, it still gives me a better pump. I usually lift twice a week. My workouts are very basic: chest, upper back, biceps, shoulders, triceps, and abs. On days I really get lazy, I just do several sets of the clean and jerk which hits several muscle groups at once.

So I did this 4 minute run/1 minute walk workout last Saturday morning (2/19/11) before it started raining and was able to go for an hour and 15 minutes. A couple of hours post run, while tiptoeing over a puddle of water, I tweaked my bad right ankle tendon. It doesn’t take much to aggravate that darn tendon nowadays specially when at a weakened state after only an hour and 15 minutes of running. An that’s the reason why I did a 2 hour walk on the treadmill on Monday morning (2/21/11) instead of running. I haven’t done a walk since, well, I don’t remember, maybe last October or November and that was probably for an hour while carrying 15 pounds of weights in a backpack. If I can get it up to about 3 hours and my if ankles hold up, I just might attempt to finish a half marathon in the next few months.

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Tales of Spinning and Running

Other than the errand runs I’ve been doing lately, here are a couple of workouts that happened in the past week. In terms of energy expenditure, calorie burn, and sweat rate, my back up workout to running in recent weeks has been the spinning bike. Because it has a heavy flywheel, you can feel yourself working even when you don’t increase the tension. Let me tell you about the self propelled workout I had last week. I pedaled on an easy tension for 10 minutes as a warm up, then for one minute I increased the tension slightly and pedaled while sitting, another minute I increased the tension more to do stand up pedaling, then one minute on easy tension for recovery. I kept repeating those intervals until I reached an hour. To say the least, it was an exhausting workout. Some days I would do two minutes of stand ups with one minute recovery. All that while reading the newspaper. Since my watch has an interval timer, I change positions or increase/decrease the tension of the pedals when I hear the warning beeps.

Last Saturday morning I was back running with the AREC winter group. I was slightly concerned of having tired legs because of the spinning workout I mentioned above which I did the day before. That concern faded into the background when I was able to run alongside Rich S. from start to finish on an 8 miler. He told me about his and wife Colleen’s recent trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, and I had a lot of questions for him about the place. So for the first half of the run, Rich told me about how to get there, where they stayed, the hiking and climbing they did, the tourist season, and people who lived on reed islands on a river. It was very enlightening to learn about another culture. The second half of the run was spent talking about plans for retirement. We are both the same age and he had planned on retiring when he reached 55 (as did I when the stock market was soaring in the 90’s and mid 2000’s). He remains on track with his plan which is very admirable. In my case, I will have to wait a little longer. I told him my emergency plan was to retire in the Philippines if my nest egg will not suffice if I stay in the U.S.

With everything that we talked about, the 8 miles passed rather quickly and almost effortlessly. Rich - my lungs, legs, and ankles thank you and your stories for a nice leisurely run. The 8 miles would have been much harder without your company.

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Pre and Post 2010 Thanksgiving Dinner Workouts

Click me and see me trot

While a lot of people started their Thanksgiving Day doing 5 or 10K Turkey Trots in different venues, I, being a wimpy turkey trying to avoid the colder than usual temperature, opted out and did my own trot on the treadmill instead. Not that I wasn’t about to go out and run on the streets, but the late newspaper delivery (9:00 a.m.!!!) sealed my decision to make a run to nowhere, at the same time saving time and reading the newspaper. An hour plus an extra five minutes for the extra spoonful that I may eat during Thanksgiving dinner (unfortunately I lost control and ate more spoonfuls than I needed). What I noticed was that when I increased the pace towards the end of the run, I bounced lesser and was actually able to read the paper better. If only I could run that smoothly all the time.

After visiting a couple of stores on Black Friday (I’ll touch on that in another post), my day after Thanksgiving workout consisted of Spinning. No, I didn’t go to a gym and sign up for a class. However, I downloaded a free Spinning video and tried that workout for the first time. With the warm up and cool down, it was supposed to last an hour but the actual pedaling itself lasted only 50 minutes, but a tough 50 minutes it was. I added another 10 minutes to round it up to an hour. There was a lot of hill climbing and jumps in between seated pedaling using variable tension adjustments. It was a darn good workout leaving my calves slightly sore afterwards. It helped burn up a bit of my cousin’s good cooking from dinner the previous night.

It’s cold enough running outside at 9:00 A.M. so why would I want to wake up at 5:00 to run at 7:00? After all, I wimped out and ran on the treadmill on Thanksgiving morning. Well, after procrastinating the last few weeks whether to join the AREC winter group, I finally did on Saturday morning, without even knowing how far they were planning on running.  It was so darn cold that my face felt numb and to add to the discomfort, I forgot to bring my gloves, but I showed up and introduced myself to Gisele who organized it. She gave me a printout of the directions. The shorter run was supposed to be 7 miles and the longer, 13 miles. I haven’t run 7 miles much less 13 miles in months. My longest run was 6.75 miles earlier in the week and that was a run/walk. We started out and I found myself running alone because I couldn’t find someone with the same pace. After climbing the hill at the 4 mile mark, I saw Rosie and Tina, whom I ran 16 miles with last year, and joined them. We ran together for about 3 miles and I want to thank them for letting me pace with them because I didn’t want to run alone. That’s the reason why I woke up early to run there in the first place, so I can run with others. It turned out the shorter run was actually 8 miles instead of 7, which was not a problem for me on this particular day because running with Rosie and Tina helped a lot. My solo runs in recent months have taken a lot of effort to finish, even the ones which I run for 4 minutes and walk for 1 minute. Having company on Saturday morning plus not trying to push the pace made for a more comfortable run even with the extra mile or so. My ankles weren’t even hurting as much afterwards. If that’s the case, I may even return next week! Just remind me to bring my gloves and maybe even a ski mask.

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Last Week's Sights and Sounds in Life

October 17^th to 23^rd, 2010

When I got home from work last week, I saw a man who was using one of those motorized scooter wheelchairs and he was dumpster diving. How physically disabled can he be when he can climb up, bend and reach over a dumpster to look for recyclable cans?

I called my mom on her birthday last week and it just occurred to me afterwards that we communicated mostly in Tagalog. Well, I grew up speaking Tagalog at home instead of our native Tausug dialect, that’s why. My mom was chattier than usual and we talked for more than an hour.

I must be getting old. I can’t understand text messages anymore especially the ones from the Philippines which come with a mix of English, Tagalog, and a slew of other dialects. And in shorthand to boot.

What feels good to me nowadays? When you can no longer take things for granted, you appreciate them more when you can have or do them. That’s why I savor every run I can do these days. Unfortunately I don’t have a Long Beach Marathon story to tell this year because I didn’t participate in it. As I mentioned previously, this was the first time I missed the race since 1999 so I can’t say that I partied like its 1999.

Yay! I got all my rewards for this year from Healthyroads.com for doing something I already do every day - exercising. A pedometer and weight training stretch band for signing up, a water bottle after working out for 12 days, a workout towel after 36 days, and lastly for this year, a t-shirt for finishing 72 workouts. The website doesn’t say if they are going to have another cycle of rewards next year.

After watching a movie with a convertible in it, I remembered that I used to drive one - a Volkswagen Rabbit Cabriolet which I had from 1984 to 1998. I remember driving on the freeway in downtown L.A. during the Olympics with my stereo blasting Olympics music from that year. The car was finally donated to charity in 2000 and I saw it one day on the 710 freeway. I thought it looked familiar and when I saw the license plate, it confirmed my sighting that it was indeed my old car.

                Last Friday morning I wasn’t in a Spinning class and I had no Spinning DVD. What I did was a self-propelled workout on the spinning bike consisting of a 10 minute warm up, then 40 minutes of 1 minute pickups, stand ups, and recoveries, plus a 5 minute cool down to finish. It’s a workout I used to do on the turbo trainer a long time ago. It helps to break it down to 1 minute segments of variable intensities.

Regarding recently fired Juan Williams’ comment about him getting nervous when he sees people wearing Muslim dress on planes, did he really think that suicide bombers would wear something so conspicuous as to potentially arouse suspicion, not to mention racial profiling? I would think a suicide bomber would dress so he/she would blend in with the crowd.

On my way home from work Sunday morning (please forgive me, this was the 24^th of October), I stopped by a gas station to buy my lotto ticket for the coming week. As I stepped out of the store, I espied a woman in a very short dress with nice long legs just outside the door. With a quick glance, I noticed the sharp features of the “woman” and it turned out that it was a man in drag. As I drove away I saw him “fixing” himself, you know, rearranging whatever he had stuffed in the chest area and also readjusting whatever he was hiding in his nether regions. It was indeed a bit of a shock to see a transvestite so early in the morning. 

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My New Spinning Bike

Oh no! Not another exercise machine! In the quest for another endorphin producing activity as a substitute to running, another workout device appeared in my living room last week. I’ve always wanted to get a spinning bike even before I wanted a treadmill and elliptical machine. More than a decade ago, I used an old bike mounted on what used to be called a turbo trainer, but I had since disposed of that.  Until this year, the prices of spinning bikes were not within the range of my meager income and strict budget, with the cheapest one at $600. That was even down from over $1000 maybe just 5 years ago. In the past year, with the popularity of spinning classes in gyms, the imitators have finally caught up and started manufacturing cheaper spinning bikes for home use. When the lowest price Proform brand bike went down to $299 a couple of months ago, it piqued my interest in buying one but couldn’t at that time because I had to send some money to my mom in the Philippines for her birthday. After that, I started shopping around. The Sports Authority store had it on sale for $299 last week, but with the sales tax and shipping charges, that would have brought the price close to $400. Meanwhile on Amazon.com, the base price was the same but without the extra charges, so I ordered one last Monday and it arrived on Friday morning. Amazon.com was able to get the product to me pretty fast because it was available at their Los Angeles distribution warehouse. Normally, with free shipping, it would have taken a couple of weeks.

So I was helping the delivery guy carry the 112 pound box up the stairs and to keep it steady, I had the left side of my face supporting the box while I lifted with my arms.  Well, when he pulled from above and I pushed from below, the box scratched my right temple drawing blood and bent my eyeglass frame. So now you can call me Scarface and I can also say that the machine cost me money and blood. All that was missing was spilled guts.

Exercise machines should be made this way: mostly preassembled at the factory so it’s easier to put together the rest at home. All I needed to do was attach the front and back base, pedals, handlebars, seat post, and seat to the main frame and flywheel. After that, it was just a matter of making adjustments to fit me. Even out of the box this machine is so darn heavy. My back still felt tired, though fortunately not strained, three days after helping the delivery guy and moving the machine around.

So what did I do to the old upright stationary bike? I considered offering it for free to any neighbor who might be interested or selling it. But since I had stripped it down to the bare necessities, I didn’t think anyone would want it. I moved it to the garage instead and wrapped it in plastic. What I couldn’t do with the old bike was stand ups on the pedals because the handlebars were too high and it felt unbalanced. Now I can do stand ups on the spinning bike. I was able to transfer the old magazine/book holder from the old bike to the new one by replacing the plastic ties that secure it to the handlebars. I have a bunch of plastic ties that I bought years ago from the 99 cent store (the kind the cops use for disposable handcuffs).

                On Sunday, while my friends were running the Long Beach Marathon or half, I was at home trying out my new spinning bike. After warming up and getting a feel for it, I started doing one minute stand ups, which increased the intensity and subsequent calorie burn of the workout. I did a few stand ups and recoveries until I reached one hour. This machine really makes me sweat! I’ve never gotten my tops of my socks wet while riding a bike until now. The next day, I was planning on running but my right calf was still slightly sore from Saturday’s run, so I mounted the spinning bike again. During the one hour workout, I was able to do several repeats of 2 minute stand ups. I’m already loving my new spinning bike! The workouts are exhausting. Spilled sweat, yes, but no spilled guts… yet.

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