WTDWTF Fitness Group



  • @heterodox said in The Official Status Thread:

    @izzion said in The Official Status Thread:

    Status: After having been hard stuck on my 5K times between 42:20 and 43:00 for 4 weeks worth of 5Ks (over 6 weeks of time, boo weather and work), my last three times have been 41:50, 40:00, and 40:00. #newstratsop

    And a WTDWTF fitness group (actually of those two, this would be the most awesome to see, I think).

    Alright, so if we're gonna have a group, we should probably have an official group thread. At least until someone gets around to making an admin do work and create a sub-forum for us or something. :p

    Thred rules:

    • Be civil and positive - constructive criticism (not garage content) and don't pester people with advice if they don't want it
    • Celebrate your successes, commiserate your struggles, suggest workout or ask for advice


  • Oh, interesting. Recently started running after a while of being sedentary. Been running 5K every other day, steadily improving my times from 36:50 three weeks ago to my last three times 33:06, 32:01 and 31:02.

    Always struggle with keeping at it though. I get months where I'm super motivated and productive (like this one) and others where I don't want to do anything.


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    Always struggle with keeping at it though. I get months where I'm super motivated and productive (like this one) and others where I don't want to do anything.

    Have you thought about training for a road race before? If you haven't, it's a really good way to give yourself motivation to get out there. I've spent the past few months training for a race for exactly this reason, because I went through a several month long stretch where I almost didn't do anything.

    Great pace improvements, by the way.



  • Because I haven't figured out how to commute by bike...if I bike to work I have stinky clothes (we now have an open office). To only bike home means I have to bring the bike to work during rush hour which is both difficult and judged harshly.

    I've been thinking about a scooter or some kind of skates that go over shoes.

    I ended up deciding to get a new set of skates because I need the ankle support. My old skates were over 15 yrs old (I skated home on 9/11 with them).

    They are currently back ordered but I can't wait to get them. I really need to get back int regular exercise.



  • @Placeholder said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    Have you thought about training for a road race before?

    That, along with good old fashioned peer pressure, is what has been my motivating factor this year. They had a weight loss challenge at work, and one of the "side challenges" to go with it was to find the most inventive way to complete a specific walking/jogging route near work in the shortest distance possible. That circuit was around 5km long (me and my friend's winning shortest distance was 2.97mi = 4.75km), so I was like "hey, I can do this and start doing it for time, see if I can get a good time in the June 5K race that happens locally.

    So far, i've lost 12 minutes and 10 pounds since the end of February :D



  • @izzion said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    That, along with good old fashioned peer pressure,

    That's why I decided to post here. I had to go running today, and saying it out loud makes it feel like more of an obligation. At least until it becomes part of my routine and I no longer think about it.

    Today's time was 29:45 (full circuit is 5.5 Km, Endomondo says my 5K time was 27:02). I'm taking it easy and trying to push myself a bit further each time but without reaching the point where my breathing becomes agitated, curious to see when I reach my limit.

    @izzion said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    So far, i've lost 12 minutes and 10 pounds since the end of February

    Congrats! I've gained that much since December, one reason why I wanted to start running. I'd been going home from work by bike for the past year, but then I changed jobs and that was no longer feasible, so I went from 25 Km by bike daily to nothing.


  • BINNED

    @Karla
    No changing room, shower or lockers at work?
    Damn even we have those. Bikes can be stored in closed bike shed. It could use a coat of paint ...
    Anyway there is this one weirdo who uses this:

    0_1496471016963_96ce540a-2aa7-42c3-849f-d0c3e407b655-image.png


  • area_can

    Maybe someone can make a Strava group...(it has groups, right?)



  • @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    Oh, interesting. Recently started running after a while of being sedentary. Been running 5K every other day, steadily improving my times from 36:50 three weeks ago to my last three times 33:06, 32:01 and 31:02.

    Always struggle with keeping at it though. I get months where I'm super motivated and productive (like this one) and others where I don't want to do anything.

    I'd really like to run but I'm always getting shin splints (on both legs) after about a mere kilometer or so. Already been to several doctors to see if it's something seriously wrong - but an x-ray showed nothing, there's no inflammation, muscles are in the correct position and my nerves are conducting, if anything, faster than average.

    So, the last current guess is that I'm using the wrong movements - would have to do a movement analysis and then retraining... :(



  • @Rhywden
    One thing I did to help with shin splints was to change how I stretch out before going.

    1. Find a small step with something nearby you can hold on to for maintaining balance.
    2. Stand on step with only about the front half of your foot on the step, so that your heels are hanging off into space.
    3. Slowly rise up onto your tiptoes, hold for a few seconds.
    4. Slowly dip so your heels are below the step, as far as you can go without falling off, hold for a few seconds.
    5. Repeat 3 & 4 a few times.

    Proved to be pretty effective at reducing the severity of my shin splints while I built up muscle strength/ endurance. Now I don't really have to stretch that way any more since I'm more used to running.



  • Missing: @izzion's 13th minute. If found, don't bother calling 😆

    It's really interesting to me to look at my per-km splits over the past two weeks, now that I've changed to a strategy of walking slower while I'm sucking wind from not having enough endurance to jog the whole distance.

    Date     km 1   km 2   km 3   km 4   km 5   Total
    May 25   6:24   9:25   8:43   8:43   8:32   41:47
    May 27   7:02   7:39   8:29   8:32   8:09   39:51
    Jun 1    6:55   7:44   8:20   8:44   8:19   40:02
    Jun 3    7:16   6:47   8:31   7:45   8:26   38:45
    

    First time, I pushed my opening run for a full 5 minutes, was pretty winded and didn't really recover until the 15 minute mark. After that, I've changed to be more like "run until I'm moderately winded, then walk until I'm mostly breathing normal, and repeat", and while my middle segment runs are definitely not as long, I'm at least not fighting through tight ankles/calves during the back half of the run.



  • @izzion Something that really helped me improve my times was a trainer at the gym telling me, while I was on the treadmill, to not push so hard that I'm breathing hard. Find what pace you can maintain while breathing only through your nose, and keep it up for the whole run. Over time that pace will go up as your body gets used to the effort, and your times will improve. I've been doing that for the first 4 km of my runs, with a higher pace for the last km that almost pushes me over but doesn't leave me panting.



  • @Luhmann said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla
    No changing room, shower or lockers at work?
    No. I don't know any workplace that does. I previously would use the gym to change.

    The issue is we have such close quarters that the sweat of my clothes can be smelled by those nearby.

    Damn even we have those. Bikes can be stored in closed bike shed. It could use a coat of paint ...

    We have indoor bike parking so that isn't a problem.

    Anyway there is this one weirdo who uses this:

    0_1496471016963_96ce540a-2aa7-42c3-849f-d0c3e407b655-image.png

    That looks interesting.


  • :belt_onion:

    0_1496606123552__20170603_222726.JPG

    Boy, did this hurt yesterday. Surprisingly not as sore as I expected today, though I still want a foot massage. :P



  • @heterodox said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    0_1496606123552__20170603_222726.JPG

    Boy, did this hurt yesterday. Surprisingly not as sore as I expected today, though I still want a foot massage. :P

    I misread that second bubble from the right. That would be some very fast talking to call 4288 people in 399 minutes.



  • Well, looks like I reached my limit today. Time was 29:59 for 5.5 km, +14 s compared to Friday's 29:45. That said, my split times today were:

    5:06, 5:18, 5:38, 6:02, 5:26 and 2:30 for the last 0.5 km

    compared to my Friday's split times;

    5:24, 5:26, 5:31, 5:37, 5:15 and 2:33.

    I kept a better pace for the first three km, but I was feeling side stitches and ankle pain and had to slow down for the fourth. It went away near the end and I powered through what remained for the last km, but my time was already shot by then. Still, I should be able to cut 30 s over the next couple of runs if I get over the side stitches. This site suggests some ways to prevent/deal with them: http://www.military.com/military-fitness/fitness-test-prep/avoiding-stomach-cramps



  • @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    my split times

    I've only ever heard that phrase in speedrunning of video games. TIL.



  • @ben_lubar Made me check, I misused the term. I gave my lap times, not my split times. Split times would be the sum of the lap times. So for today's run, 5:06, 10:24, 16:02, 22:04, 27:30 and 29:59.



  • @Kian
    Eh, when people speedrun video games, they use the term "split time" to indicate each individual segment ("lap time"), so I understood what you meant :P



  • @Karla
    Several of my co-workers maintain a supply of Dude Wipes (baby wipes rebranded for marketing to grown men, it looks like) under their desks - if they go jogging over lunch, they'll wipe themselves down and change shirts when they get back. Not sure if that would be a practical solution for you (or if they even make Femme Fatale Wipes...)



  • @izzion said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla
    Several of my co-workers maintain a supply of Dude Wipes (baby wipes rebranded for marketing to grown men, it looks like) under their desks - if they go jogging over lunch, they'll wipe themselves down and change shirts when they get back. Not sure if that would be a practical solution for you

    Yeah, not really. The gym worked but not for my clothes.

    In our old location we had large cubes and extra cubes (my boss*2 let me park the bike in an empty cube-he biked too).

    We are just too close to each other now.

    (or if they even make Femme Fatale Wipes...)

    😄



  • @Karla said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    Yeah, not really. The gym worked but not for my clothes.

    Generally, clothes don't have muscles. If your clothes have muscles, you might be wearing some animal instead of clothes.



  • @ben_lubar said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    Yeah, not really. The gym worked but not for my clothes.

    Generally, clothes don't have muscles. If your clothes have muscles, you might be wearing some animal instead of clothes.

    LOL

    They gym shower worked to clean the sweat off of me but not my clothes.

    My commute is 10 miles in NYC traffic while the way there is overall downhill there are still quite a few uphills.



  • @Karla Is it feasible to bring your clothes in a bag? While wearing something else on the bike, obviously.



  • @CarrieVS said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla Is it feasible to bring your clothes in a bag? While wearing something else on the bike, obviously.

    I do. I could not even imagine riding in the same clothes I work in.

    It is the wet sweaty clothes that I'd ride in that would bother the neighbors. I would also try to air them out so they would dry.

    In the old building I could hang a some on the bike itself, open my file cabinets, and even just on the floor under my desk because the cubes were so large. I did have a couple air fresheners under my desk. Which probably helped. Now, not enough floor space, not enough cabinet space, not enough distance between cubes.


  • BINNED

    @CarrieVS said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    While wearing something else on the bike

    I don't see why this is a requirement...


  • BINNED

    @Karla said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    hills

    A yeah, I live on a pancake (to use a badly translated Flemish proverb). It's all below sealevel except for man made heaps.



  • @ben_lubar said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    my split times

    I've only ever heard that phrase in speedrunning of video games. TIL.

    t's not that much of a logical jump to apply it to speedrunning on roads TBH


  • BINNED

    @Luhmann
    Back on topic: I cycled just short of 4 hours past week. Next step is going full cyclo and buy a racebike.



  • @Luhmann said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @CarrieVS said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    While wearing something else on the bike

    I don't see why this is a requirement...

    I can name several:

    obscenity laws
    chafing
    frostbite
    hypothermia
    sunburn
    windburn
    risk of road pizza on much more surface area


  • BINNED

    @Karla
    Reality really is a :barrier: to all fun



  • @Karla said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    risk of road pizza

    That sounds so much more fun than it actually is.



  • @Luhmann said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    racebike

    🇬🇧



  • @hungrier said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @ben_lubar said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    my split times

    I've only ever heard that phrase in speedrunning of video games. TIL.

    t's not that much of a logical jump to apply it to speedrunning on roads TBH

    I won't be interested in real life sports until someone can figure out how to ABH in real life.



  • @ben_lubar said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    risk of road pizza

    That sounds so much more fun than it actually is.

    Yes.

    0_1496753000318_ded84427-fc8f-4fe6-9b41-b4fc4d6e122e-image.png

    ETA: This pic is from 2009. I am wearing that same T-shirt right now.



  • @ben_lubar
    And then the boobs become ouch.



  • I have been going to the gym with some regularity for the past three years now. In that time I have managed to lose about 20 kilos, have the ability to move heavier objects some distance with ease and can actually walk a fair way now without getting puffed out, all of which is nice.

    That said, I have had a couple of weeks off due to doing something to my back and not wanting to cause further injury (probably due to the weird standing\twisting I've been doing at work that is probably frowned upon). Was going to go tonight as it's all good now, only to get up from sitting down, and holy crap on a cracker my right shoulder was not happy. Pain right up to the neck. So that scuttled that particular plan.

    So we'll see how it is in a few days time.



  • Finished today's run in 29:30, -29 s compared to Sunday. So my estimate of being able to shave 30 s was pretty on point :D I was doing pretty well until the last km, where I got side pain again, so that kept me from being able to up the pace for the end of the run. Should work that out for Thursday, I hope, and cut another 10 s from my time.

    Lap times: 5:03, 5:12, 5:39, 5:34, 5:35 and 2:27
    5 km time: 26:51

    Planning to change my routine on Saturday, and go from running every other day to 3 runs per week (Tue, Thu, Sat), with Saturday going for a longer run (starting with 7.5 km). That gives me two days to recover from the extra effort.



  • So, since my skates are backordered I decided to see if could switch to a pair that was in stock.

    Opened a chat on the website, 👨 said I would have to call, but offered to call me. He suggested we keep the chat open so he can send me links while we talk.

    He insisted I properly measure my foot**, and explained that I shouldn't go up in the wheel size as much as I wanted to because it is much harder to stop.

    He recommended a skate that was actually cheaper than the one I was looking at and recommend I join their membership to have free returns and get a 15% discount.

    Cost of membership is buying a $10 T-shirt with their logo.

    **After measuring I totally ordered the wrong size in the first skate so it was actually good they were backordered.

    I get my order on Tuesday!

    ETA: The link of the skates:

    http://www.inlinewarehouse.com/Powerslide_Phuzion_Cruiser_Skates_Womens/descpage-940620.html



  • @Karla Nice! I haven't skated in years. So will you be skating to work, or only on the return trip? At least the issue of storing them is easier to solve compared to a bike. I wish I had a shower at the office so I could commute by bike, but at least the train ride gives me time to read the news and study Japanese.

    Pretty happy with my times today. Managed to go the whole distance without feeling the side pain that had bothered me on the previous runs, and it showed. Run duration was 28:35 for 5.5 km, -55 s compared to Tuesday.

    Lap times: 4:37, 5:25, 5:28, 5:34, 5:02 and 2:30
    5 km time: 26:02

    It's interesting that my worst lap time today (5:34) is the same as my best lap time 10 days (5 runs) ago, also 5:34. I'm tempted to get an HR monitor and track more stuff. Anyone use a good fitness app? I'm using Endomondo, but they want me to pay a subscription for the heart rate monitoring functionality and a few other things. It's $2 monthly, but I had already bought the "pro" version when they started out, before they made the premium tier, and I'm holding a grudge since then. Curious how the competition compares, if anyone has used anything like it.



  • @Kian said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    @Karla Nice! I haven't skated in years. So will you be skating to work, or only on the return trip? At least the issue of storing them is easier to solve compared to a bike. I wish I had a shower at the office so I could commute by bike, but at least the train ride gives me time to read the news and study Japanese.

    Pretty happy with my times today. Managed to go the whole distance without feeling the side pain that had bothered me on the previous runs, and it showed. Run duration was 28:35 for 5.5 km, -55 s compared to Tuesday.

    Lap times: 4:37, 5:25, 5:28, 5:34, 5:02 and 2:30
    5 km time: 26:02

    It's interesting that my worst lap time today (5:34) is the same as my best lap time 10 days (5 runs) ago, also 5:34. I'm tempted to get an HR monitor and track more stuff. Anyone use a good fitness app? I'm using Endomondo, but they want me to pay a subscription for the heart rate monitoring functionality and a few other things. It's $2 monthly, but I had already bought the "pro" version when they started out, before they made the premium tier, and I'm holding a grudge since then. Curious how the competition compares, if anyone has used anything like it.

    I'll start with the return trip and only some of it to begin with. Make it a habit before pushing too hard.

    One of my mentors when I was a personal trainer:

    http://www.menshealth.com/author/alwyn-cosgrove **

    Would often say, overtraining is worse than undertraining, overtraining is worse than undertraining, overtraining is worse than undertraining.

    **I also have a bit of a platonic crush on him



  • The official time is in! 38:43.5 (beat my target by over a minute). And I went back and looked, my actual time last year (mostly walking) was 49:09.2. Kind of floors me to think I gained those 10 minutes in just 3 months of actually trying.

    Next local race is the end of September, goal is to go under 35.



  • @izzion Congrats! That's great :D Good luck cutting off those last three minutes. Keep at it and you'll probably do much better on September.

    I'm pretty happy with myself. I almost convinced myself not to go running today, but then that made me feel bad so I went running in the end. Motivation is hard.

    I did 8.18 km today (doing a somewhat longer circuit on Saturdays) in 44:45. It was actually worse than last Saturday's time (8.24 km in 44:02) but my times were more consistent.

    Last Saturday:
    4:18, 5:04, 5:34, 5:42, 5:27, 6:02, 5:40, 5:07 and 1:09
    Today:
    5:22, 5:22, 5:26, 5:26, 5:37, 5:17, 5:48, 5:28 and 1:00

    Also, I was taking it a bit easier (didn't try to go all out for the end or the beginning).


  • Garbage Person

    FiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiine. I'll go to the gym. After dinner.


  • Considered Harmful

    I walk dozens, if not hundreds, of steps, every day, and I owe everything I owe for that to this group.



  • @Gribnit I lift weights all day while sitting at my desk.

    Thanks $diety for coffee 🍹


  • Considered Harmful

    @TimeBandit Yeah, that's a good system. Lets you do really long exhaustion sets, taking off a little bit of weight at a time.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    I seem to be getting less fit the more I try to exercise. I'm down to about two casual walks around the block before I'm ready to fall over.

    I don't feel like tracking numbers, that would be depressing...


  • 🚽 Regular

    @Tsaukpaetra said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    I seem to be getting less fit the more I try to exercise. I'm down to about two casual walks around the block before I'm ready to fall over.

    I don't feel like tracking numbers, that would be depressing...

    Have you tried high-intensity training? The idea is to do whatever it is for a very short time, say 5 minutes, but to do it as hard as you possibly can. Then you can fall over after that.
    Some nice lab results from training like that: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18362686

    I'm trying 2:5 fasting currently. This is day 2 of my first two-day period eating nothing. I don't feel hungry at all currently, although it was slightly uncomfortable late last night.
    Intermittent fasting should work way better than calorie restriction because your metabolism doesn't seem to really drop down until at least 3 days without food, ergo 2 days should burn the most fat without putting yourself into starvation-mode and stopping the weight loss.
    We'll see though after a few months.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @Cursorkeys said in WTDWTF Fitness Group:

    putting yourself into starvation-mode and

    I feel like I've been in starvation more for the last decade...


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