Atlanta Streets Alive October 17th: Recap!

Atlanta Streets Alive was last week.

Me and my volunteer crew of 2 headed down shortly after kickoff.
Sporting our new T-shirts from vistaprint.com we started in Woodruff Park with the engineers without borders booth where we attempted to dunk an engineer.  My little cousin was much closer to that than I was.  Then we made our way up Edgewood to Hurt Park to check out the space for my workouts.

I really enjoyed working out in the park.  I spend 8 hours a day indoors at a desk job with a little window for sunlight.  After that, I usually go inside the gym and spend 1 hour either teaching or training and spend about 2 hours training myself.  Then it is dark out.  To spend the afternoon outside in the sunlight felt so freeing. Using the grass as my work out mat, the wind was my fan, and my participants were my mirror and I was theirs.  It was so nice to roam free. It made me more excited about starting my fitness business and take advantage of the great weather we have hear in Atlanta.

After the workout we roamed around the entire area.   I learned that my mom is an excellent hula hooper.  We made a pit stop at one of the Hula Hoop action points about the route, apparently Hula Hoop is a hot fitness trend and sooooo fun.  We spent about 10 minutes Hooping it up!  Til the little 8 year old showed us all up by whipping around like 8 at once.  Then we hit up Urban Relay and did a quick relay race, I won !We walked about 3 miles all the way up Edgewood and back. 

It was a lot of fun, and I hope they invite me out again next time!

Health and Happiness

-L-

Stuff I Love: Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor

This is my newest toy.  Last year my FT1 battery finally died, right at the end of my Thanksgiving Half Marathon, and rather than replace it, I decided it was time to upgrade.  Hello Polar FT7!!!

The FT1 was a great starter monitor.  it has one touch button and tracks your max heart rate and allows you to program your heart rate range.  It allows you a recent workout recall but does not have long term data memory storage.

Why I LOVE my FT7

Heart Rate Ranges:  I have the ability to set my target Heart Rate Zone and I get a visual reminder where my heart rate is throughout my session.  Visual fat burn(low intensity) and fitness zone markers.  Fat burn on the FT7 is anything les than the HR required to get into your cardio conditioning zone (60% to 90% THRR).

Coded Monitor: Less cross talk between my monitor and other devices.  i used to run into the problem of picking up someone else's heart rate on my receiver with the old device.  This happens a lot less often with the new device.  also the newer monitor devices use a cloth strap so they are much more comfortable than the old school hard plastic polar.

Calorie Track:  This was my main motivator for buying the device.  Sure there are formulas to estimate your caloric burn, but they rely heavily on your heart rate.  So if your heart rate or the intensity you are working continually varies it makes it hard to calculate the calories you burn.  you can enter your age, weight, sex, and height, for the most accurate calorie tracking.

Data Storage: The FT7 can hold up to 99 files!  As well as weekly training data.  This way you can have a record of all your workouts within a given micro cycle (4 to 6 week training session)

Data Transfer:  This is the feature I am looking forward to investing in next.  The FT7 has a transfer device.  With the polar flow link you can upload all your data to polarpersonaltrainer.com and get a visual depiction of how your workouts have progressed.

Are you currently using a device to track your workout?
What kind of device do you use?
What do you love about it?

Post to the comment section

Health and Happiness

L

1/2 Marathon Training: Week 8

This week was a cold one. The temperature was a chilly 43 degrees to start our run. Our running coach, Tina, has a great blog entry about choosing clothing for different temperatures, Whatever Shall I Wear. Our long run took us from Dick's Sporting Goods to Oglethorpe University and back. I was very glad I opted to sport the running gloves, cold hands are completely distracting. Within the 1st 2 miles a silver fire hydrant tried to jump up and trip me, but I won that battle. I felt I had a good solid tempo and I was even able to chat up some fellow runners and several of the running coaches. At the end of the run my legs were sore but overall I felt really good.

This weeks speaker was Dr. Perry H. Julien, a sport podiatrist's in Atlanta that has been working with the Atlanta Track Club for several years. Dr. Julien was great, he had lots of really graphic pictures and great practical advice. He talked about all the different sports injuries runner's can suffer and how about 90% of those injuries are preventable. He gave us all a copy of his book Sure Footing: A Sports Podiatrist's Perspective on Running-and Exercise-Related Injuries, it is filled with pictures and is a fairly easy read. One of the coaches said it is a great reference/diagnostic guide for any injury below the waist. This will be a great help to me as I continue my runner's journey as well as guide me in assisting a client who suffers an injury.

Runner's Log Week 8

Pre Run Rest: 6 hours

Temperature: 43'
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1:37:08
Pace: ~5.6 MPH
Calories Used: 1162
Average HR: 168 BPM
Max HR: 191 BPM

Post Run Stretch: 10 Leg Swings, 10s alt unilateral quad stretch, 10s unilateral hamstring stretch, 10s unilateral calf stretch - Repeat 2x, bilateral hamstring stretch, unilateral hipflexor stretch, abductor hip push - Repeat 2x

Post Run Rest: Midnight to 9am, 9 hours, yaaay sleep

Health and Happiness

L

1/2 Marathon Runner's Log: Week 7

As part of the training program we attend seminars.
This weekend's seminar was on injury prevention.
Dr. Josh H. Glass from Georgia Sports Chiropractic suggested we keep a runner's log of distance, stretch routine, and recovery so that we can diagnose overtraining or any cause of injury.

So I'll be posting at least 3 times a week with training updates.

Date: 10/12/2010

Distance: 5.26 miles
Speed: Varied 4.0, 6.0, 6.3, 6.5, 7.0
Time: 55:08, 3 minute warmup, 3 minute cool down
Calories Burned: 618 kcal (P FT7)

Stretch: Leg Swings (5x), Unilateral(one sided) Standing Hamstring Stretch (10s), Unilat Stand Quad Stretch (10 s), Unilat Stand Calf Stretch Gastrocnemius (10 s) Soleus (10s) - Alternate right and left 2x at 10 seconds each, Alternating Unilateral Leg Swings (5x), Alt Unilat Stand Quad Stretch (15s), Bilateral (2 sided) hamstring stretch, Downward facing dog /Bilat calf stretch (15s), Cross over hamstring Stretch (15s ea side)

Post Shower Stretch Routine: Foam Roller(FR) Abductors R/L, Standing Hip Push R/L (15 s), FR Hamstring, Seated Hamstring Reach (15 s), FR Quads, Standing Quad Stretch (15 s) R/L, FR Calf Stetch, and Downward Dog/Bilateral Calf Stretch (15 s)

Sleep/Recovery: 5:45 AM, 5 hours and 45 minutes

So overall a pretty good training night I really need to do better on the sleep/recovery and get at least 7 hours. Sleep is the time that our body can fully recover from all the wear and tear on our bodies. Recently a study was published in the IDEA Fitness journal about rest and it's connection to obesity.

So look forward to a post reviewing that article and discussing the importance of recovery time!

Health and Happiness

L