tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76288061377253220512012-01-31T15:45:24.884-06:00This blog provides information for those of us 50 and older who are already involved, or who want to get involved, in fitness. Unlike some other sites covering fitness and aging, this blog will not attempt to sell anything. Rather, it will provide information oriented toward the DIY crowd. It will describe my own fitness pursuits, review fitness regimens, and provide links to info about fitness. While general fitness info will be given much of the content will be geared toward those 50 and over.J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.comBlogger1071100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-67211521786528303152012-01-31T15:32:00.001-06:002012-01-31T15:32:28.449-06:00

It's high time I stopped neglecting this blog and did some posting. And what better day to start than the last day of the second month during which I've posted nothing? Yes, that was a facetious remark. Part of the reason I haven't posted is that not a whole lot is happening. I mean that in a good sense. In the context of a fitness blog, the good sense has the meaning that our fitness routine

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-42076211550299766922011-11-30T17:20:00.002-06:002011-11-30T17:21:06.318-06:00

Ok, this post is a cheap shot. Its only real purpose is to alleviate my conscience. It does that by offering me the comfort of knowing that the month of November did not really go by without me posting a single entry here. Is that lame, or what? Oh well. We're taking a break from fitness at the moment--10 days worth. Cycling now is pretty much limited to short sessions on the stationary bikes.

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-48282660342092852932011-10-06T11:30:00.001-05:002011-10-06T11:31:25.734-05:00

We got back from our short, independent (independent insofar as we did not join any group, but planned and rode the whole thing by ourselves) fall tour. We hit some really brutal hills in certain spots, which provided as much of a workout as an old body like this can handle: those were some serious intervals. Averaged about 50-55 miles a day. So we got in some good exercise and probably our last

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-40285676267972214232011-09-20T17:28:00.011-05:002011-09-21T17:40:43.186-05:00

CrossFit, a fairly popular fitness regimen, came up in a discussion with a relative the other day and I thought it would provide a good opportunity for a blog entry. The relative mentioned that he did not approve of CrossFit as a fitness regimen, which got me thinking about why I have not used it. I should point out to begin with that I call this assessment "uninformed" because I have never

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-54234708713539315612011-09-12T16:49:00.004-05:002011-09-21T09:08:23.731-05:00

In an attempt to rein in procrastination, I need to get this entry out of the way. It's been way too long since I posted anything here, yet things keep coming up that I want to write about and I keep not writing. So, here's to overcoming writer's block and procrastination. The tour ended some time ago and it was a joy for us. Well, if you subtract getting rained on then cold afterward, two flat

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-8448225470713937052011-07-17T18:36:00.003-05:002011-09-21T09:10:26.867-05:00

That's the headline for at least the last month. We've been training for our upcoming tour, which starts toward the end of the month. We put in just short of 200 miles a couple of weekends ago. That was the culmination of our training. We're now tapering off to get ourselves rested up prior to the start. So we've put in lots of miles these weeks. We've been riding in the heat so as to try and

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-59153891356014739492011-06-22T10:05:00.002-05:002011-06-23T16:50:23.366-05:00

Ok, there's a bit of hyperbole in the title of today's entry. You see, nothing particularly eventful happened today. Or yesterday. Or the day before. Or, probably, tomorrow or the next day. So, what's to celebrate about? Well, it occurred to me the other day as I was thinking about what I'm doing fitness-wise and how long it would last. Won't I get bored with it at some point, won't it become

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-70642538434372014472011-06-08T13:29:00.005-05:002011-06-08T16:40:06.567-05:00

I ran across an article on yahoo yesterday entitled "The 5 Biggest Exercise Myths" that gave me some further ideas about workout variation. I just want to make a sort of mental note about the substance of the article here. But before doing that, a bit of review on the need for variation in workouts as well as an update on how my current experiment with variation is going. Oh, and, incidentally,

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-35613045824578300832011-05-29T18:27:00.006-05:002011-05-31T08:48:36.443-05:00

I haven't posted much of anything here about my diet thus far. The details of my eating habits are not, I think, crucial to understanding my own health or even the more general topic of this blog, i.e., health and fitness at age 50 and beyond. Still, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel I should offer a few comments about my diet. Thus, the following. I have been what might be most

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-68286782205812010892011-05-18T15:31:00.000-05:002011-05-21T16:21:20.710-05:00

This is sort of another ho-hum contribution. But I want to write about it anyway in case it may benefit anyone else. It will also help me to remember the stages of progression in our fitness pursuits.Lists. Yes, I've been hoping for some time now to get away from the DVD's we're using for our strength-training sessions and simply to work from a list of exercises. Why?Part of the reason for this

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-25733434302923186562011-05-13T19:26:00.004-05:002011-05-16T15:29:54.019-05:00

The title probably sounds a bit self-contradictory. But it's accurate--at least in my experience so far. What do I mean? Well, this entry is a follow-up to my last entry, where I discussed a new experiment I'm trying--one in which I'll be doing most upper-body strength training sessions within a given phase at a low intensity, while doing just a few sessions at the end of the phase at full

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-26155215817383684642011-05-08T12:05:00.059-05:002011-05-16T15:44:23.953-05:00

It's an enigmatic title, I admit. But I don't think it'll take you long to figure out what I had in mind in formulating it. So please, read on. I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that my existence has been a series of moments of intellectual density interspersed with occasional flashes of brilliance. That's a change from, say, 30 years ago, when I might have thought the reverse--viz., a

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-30407059875144400772011-04-28T15:26:00.004-05:002011-05-08T11:40:32.085-05:00

So, I've been seriously neglecting my blog lately. My sincere apologies. Not too much to report. We took one of our scheduled weeks off last week but are back at it this week. We've managed to finally get out and do some riding on the road. Longest day so far is only 24 miles, but we should have plenty more opportunity to increase on that. Upper body strength training is going fine With this

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-294748312459014382011-03-28T15:37:00.000-05:002011-05-21T14:16:54.306-05:00

In this entry I just want to reflect a bit further on the spin class we took, hoping that it would provide us with some variation in our off-season stationary bike riding. It turned out to be a bit of a bust for us, so part of this entry will be a rehearsal of reasons we will not be doing further spin classes. But it will also describe some of the features of the workout and so could be helpful

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-3462632209382544012011-03-17T12:12:00.005-05:002011-03-17T14:02:07.287-05:00

Not much to report. We're remaining injury-free, and keeping at our fitness pursuits. We just finished one of our week-long breaks, but got back to stationary bike riding a couple of days ago. And we've once again started the arm toner phase of our upper-body strength training regimen. I suppose I could report that we tried a spin class at a local athletic club just to see if it might provide us

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-89413886046732701202011-02-18T17:45:00.172-06:002011-03-17T14:08:18.511-05:00

Here's the review of the Supreme 90 day (S90 hereafter) regime I recently found. We've now done a few of the routines and so have a decent idea about its pro's and cons. I'll begin with some caveats. My first caveat is that this is only a partial review of the regime. Like P90X, S90 offers a variety of work-outs and apparently even some kind of diet plan. As was the case with my partial review

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-37490070293097836302011-01-29T00:00:00.019-06:002011-02-04T16:51:05.520-06:00

Ok. I quite by chance happened to glimpse a TV advertisement for yet another 90-day fitness regimen--by chance because I really watch very little TV and, even more importantly, because I view almost no commercials (thanks to MythTV DVR/PVR!). In fact, it was really only because I recently migrated my MythTV DVR/PVR to a newer machine and was thus doing some experimentation with it, that I saw

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-49464027151031749592010-12-22T17:26:00.005-06:002010-12-22T17:50:23.369-06:00

In this entry I'll offer a review of a site I stumbled across when looking up fitness information about a year or two ago. The URL for that site is www.scoobysworkshop.com. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this site--mainly because the author of the site and I share similar fitness philosophies. The author of that site goes by the nickname "scooby," by the way, thus the title of this

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-73948209965310457932010-12-02T18:46:00.004-06:002010-12-11T23:31:48.263-06:00

I need to offer an update on my blood pressure issue--high blood pressure readings having been a major factor in the development of my current exercise regime and in the institution of this blog. But before getting to that matter, I'll need to address another health issue that I've suspected might be related to the increased blood pressure--insomnia--as well as a new medication I've been taking

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-48079032326630622802010-11-22T12:00:00.005-06:002010-11-22T12:32:13.211-06:00

Our cycling mileage has definitely gone way down now. We're hoping we might get in 10-12 miles today--still waiting to see if the weather holds out. Ok, so if we might get in 10-12 miles today, why am I crowing (in this entry's title) about having done 13-14 miles over the whole weekend? Well, here's why: because we didn't do that on the bike. We walked 13-14 miles--about 6.5 on Sat. and about

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-69161681149357349882010-11-12T10:28:00.003-06:002010-11-22T12:01:12.026-06:00

We'll be ending our alternate modified P90X phase soon. We started it back in May, I think, as a new experiment in changing up our routine over the course of the year. It was intended to allow us to focus more on cycling, and a little less on the upper-body strength training we do to augment that. Alt-Mod-P90X was to last for as long as we could put in decent mileage on the bike outdoors, and

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-48864800880980361932010-10-19T17:46:00.000-05:002010-10-19T17:46:50.583-05:00

We managed to get in a 50-mile day, about which I was pleased. We even managed to get in a 60-mile day, about which I'm even more pleased. So I think I can truthfully say that we're pretty much where we were at, fitness-wise, prior to going on vacation at the end of the summer. The signs are all there. The lactic acid build-up that occurs when riding really hard up hills and that makes you

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-82046323867380655422010-10-01T19:41:00.001-05:002010-11-22T12:03:33.107-06:00

This is a follow-up to my post about resuming exercise after vacation, having not done much intense exercise for about 3 weeks. As a means for providing you with what I hope may be helpful information, what were the effects of the 3-week break? And how long has it taken/is it taking to get back to my previous level of fitness? First, a couple of caveats. Our most intense exercise season is

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-13016855396352637782010-09-16T22:03:00.001-05:002010-09-20T17:39:02.617-05:00

Three weeks away from our exercise routine. It's not like we just laid on our butts all that time, though. We at least put in many miles walking. But getting back to our alternate modified P90X has gone slowly. That first session was a killer that had my arm muscles trembling all evening afterward. And I took it pretty easy during the workout since jet lag has not yet worn off and I was feeling

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-6377824638415224872010-08-16T16:30:00.001-05:002010-10-19T17:55:35.876-05:00

Sadly, we had to cut way down on mileage on the bike recently owing to a writing deadline I was trying to meet. But we've kept at it, getting in 5 - 10 miles on biking days or, worst case scenario, a half hour on the stationary bike. We also had to cut in half our alternate modified P90X sessions a couple of times since we got started too late. But only twice. Last week we did the full session

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-85155812612839050802010-07-19T23:55:00.000-05:002010-07-19T23:55:54.000-05:00

Well, my weight has come down, as I expected it would. That could be due in some measure to some unusually bad stomach issues I've had lately, though. In any case, I'm down to about 200 lbs. now. We've continued riding and doing strength training pretty regularly--just a couple days off recently. We rode almost 50 miles just a couple of days ago. I was so sick the next day, though (unrelated to

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-65439806279742282202010-07-05T01:12:00.000-05:002010-07-05T01:12:27.921-05:00

Another long-delayed entry. We did almost 70 miles the other day, so cycling condition is nearing its peak now. I really hope to be able to put in a 100-mile day this year, though that may be unrealistic. We'll see. Also, DVD 9 (chest, shoulders, and triceps) from our alternate modified P90X is rough. My triceps are still a little stiff from our workout last week. In this entry, I'd like to

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-55294798970524631342010-06-21T15:54:00.001-05:002010-10-19T17:57:26.157-05:00

Gotta get over some blogging inertia, so here goes . . . There're actually a number of things I could have been blogging about. We put in a little over 50 miles in one day a couple of weeks ago, so that's worth writing about. It was a tough ride, made tougher by the fact that rain finally hit about 3/4's of the way through. And as fate would have it, the hardest rain, where we got almost

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-65259481318670899702010-06-03T13:55:00.001-05:002011-09-16T08:41:23.119-05:00

It must seem like I sort of dropped off the fitness radar map. Wow, over 2 weeks without posting! And in a sense, I did drop off the fitness radar map--or maybe I just flew under the radar for a time. Here's the deal. I had to make a trip out east on short notice and, almost immediately on arriving back home, we were slated to take a short vacation out of town. I knew we'd have to take a bit of

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-89854718315198826522010-05-15T23:39:00.001-05:002010-10-19T17:47:51.652-05:00

Did another 30 miles or so today. I just want to comment on what a great feeling it is, having gone up a hard hill, or done some acceleration to catch another cyclist--legs burning with lactic acid build-up and breathing going at a good clip--to feel there's still more gas in the tank. In other words, you're putting out hard and it hurts, but at the same time you feel like you can sustain it and

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-33015518578386573642010-05-14T16:19:00.002-05:002010-05-14T17:52:57.535-05:00

So we did our second round of our alternate modified P90X yesterday. This is DVD 3 from the P90X series. It was a lot easier than DVD 1 and, though I feel sore today, it's nothing like the soreness I felt after we did DVD 1 last week. Why is that? One reason is undoubtedly the fact that exercises on this particular DVD are much closer to those we've been doing over the last year than are those

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-54239175764717170612010-05-10T23:17:00.001-05:002010-10-19T17:49:16.522-05:00

Went for about a 13 mile ride today. I'm finally starting to feel--after a total of probably a couple hundred miles on the road so far this year--like I'm getting my cycling-season conditioning back. By that I mean that I'm recovering much more quickly from short bursts of intense energy output (e.g., on hills) and the burning sensation in the legs that results from lactic acid build-up when I do

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-71185339524133868102010-05-06T19:30:00.003-05:002010-05-14T16:06:04.094-05:00

We did the first in a series of alternate modified P90X sessions today--DVD 1, chest and back, to be precise. A pretty grueling workout. I can understand now why I found the Power 90 and Arm Toner routines we were doing to be a lot more aerobic than the modified P90X routines we were doing earlier: it's because I can actually pretty much keep up with the performers on those videos. With the

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-12872052634813679292010-05-03T17:05:00.002-05:002010-05-03T17:32:06.666-05:00

I've been pretty lax about making blog entries lately, but give me a chance to reform my ways. It all started with a last-minute trip I needed to make out east to get the new bike: obviously, it's difficult more difficult to blog--at least for me--when I'm away from home. Then, I needed to reassmeble to new bike. Plus, I got sidetracked by some other matters. But I am still here and am still

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-84742117391793021472010-04-26T19:47:00.000-05:002010-04-26T19:47:33.332-05:00

A picture's worth a thousand words, as they say, so below is (in part) my explanation for not having blogged for a couple of weeks: To make a short story long, I had to make an out-of-state run to get this thing. Then there was assembly, test riding, and tweaking--the latter of which is still in process. I'll give a fuller report on the new acquisition later, but will just say for now that I'm

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-18828803528631492222010-04-11T16:09:00.000-05:002010-04-11T16:09:28.391-05:00

It was nice yesterday and we had the time, so we put in about 35 miles. There was a strong wind, which made riding in a certain direction tough. And I wasn't exactly taking it easy. I had the heart monitor on. During most of the ride my heart rate was between 150 and 160. I saw 173 at one point after we'd gone up a tough hill. As a 51 year old, my maximum heart rate, according to some charts,

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-87341737965139592182010-04-05T22:39:00.018-05:002010-05-03T17:31:12.375-05:00

I've wanted to try rowing since I was in my twenties, but never had an opportunity. Now that I'm looking into various ways of strengthening and toning the upper body, I've begun thinking about that again. Wouldn't it be great to have a form of upper-body strengthening/toning that didn't require standing inside in a room and performing strenuous activity, but that allowed you to be out in nature

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-91180891544602211952010-04-04T23:17:00.004-05:002010-05-03T17:33:04.114-05:00

Just a short note to announce that our week off from fitness ended today and we got back to it with a 16.5 mile ride on the road. We had time and I had intended to put in more miles than that but there was a really vicious wind blowing: the kind that, when you come to a good clearing where a side-wind can hit you, you have to lean into the wind to stay a straight course--that is, after briefly

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-67891353279419413122010-03-30T20:38:00.001-05:002010-03-31T15:19:58.427-05:00

Just a quick post to sort of wonder aloud whether this year will be like last year in terms of weight loss. Last summer, when we were doing a lot of biking, my weight actually went down to a bit below 200 lbs.; maybe to as low as 197? I suspect that's because of the intense and lengthy energy expenditure I get when we cycle outdoors on the road. At my last weigh-in (this past Saturday), I was at

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-16799806145837192592010-03-29T09:55:00.007-05:002010-03-30T00:29:24.831-05:00

Yes, I'm still here. And yes, we're still exercising. We managed to put in an 8.25 mile day outside on the tandem a little over week ago, then we got in a ca. 15 mile day a few days later so, with the nicer weather, we're getting fired up to do some serious outdoor riding. Hoping to get in at least one 100 mile day this year, but that's quite a ways off (mid-summer, maybe?). And we're still

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-57267023609748139912010-03-24T14:44:00.001-05:002010-03-24T14:52:40.799-05:00

Looks like fitbomb noticed my poll and is sending over some voting traffic. Waiting to see how many more votes come in. Meantime, some further observations about the poll along with a preliminary consideration of the results so far. I'd like to begin by offering a big thank you to everyone who's participated in the poll. Thanks for visiting my blog and for showing your support for fitness and

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-64532410668531294342010-03-23T17:00:00.014-05:002010-03-24T08:25:48.172-05:00

A recent study (appropriated from here) underlines something we've discovered to be true over the last few years: that women's exercise requirements actually increase with age. Or their dietary intake needs to decrease. Or a combination of the two. In our experience, exercise and a popular diet (South Beach) were not enough to bring my 50-year-old-plus wife's weight down. She followed that diet

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-25703170818124896942010-03-16T10:33:00.002-05:002010-03-23T16:16:58.186-05:00

Today I have a good example to share of how insomnia can hinder physical fitness. It might seem counter intuitive that a lack of sleep or troubled sleep could affect one's fitness life. But it can. I suppose the most evident way insomnia could hinder fitness would be in the feeling of exhaustion that can accomnpany insomnia, and the hindrance that could cause in exertion: if you're already

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-8966359673342579702010-03-14T23:49:00.004-05:002010-03-23T19:46:16.536-05:00

Just wanted to do another short entry on super shakes and how they've really made a big difference on strength-training days (for my purposes, strength training mean upper-body strengthening exercises). I posted earlier about retching problems I'd had when we do our strength training, and about how I hoped drinking a super shake on workout day might address that problem. Drinking the shake on

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-71159219242862503192010-03-13T23:47:00.004-06:002010-03-23T19:35:04.605-05:00

We officially opened the 2010 cycling season today by hitting the road for the first time this year. Was it ideal weather for it? No, far from it. It was pretty cool (a little over 40) and the roads were still a bit damp from the rain/drizzle we've been getting all week. No, I'd like to cast this as a valiant attempt to inaugurate the season, but the realist in me won't let me get away with that

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-13495348872029944542010-03-12T00:01:00.005-06:002010-03-12T12:39:23.066-06:00

Did some more walking today, though probably only about 3 miles or so. So when we got home we did a few minutes of intervals on the stationary bikes as well (half of our usualy 20-minute session). Itching to get out on the road now that the snow is melting apace. I haven't written about my shoulder problems for a few months now. That's actually a good sign: it means it's not been bothering me

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-67390025346882670362010-03-07T23:38:00.061-06:002010-03-24T08:36:12.811-05:00

I added a poll to my blog yesterday. It's set to last for about 2 months--yeah, so this is a low-traffic blog and I need to add extra time in hopes of attracting more participants. So, what's the poll about? Well, it relates to a fitness blog I check on with some regularity, located here. This guy does an insane amount of fitness activity. Reading about his regime and thinking about my own

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-28850603095786039202010-03-06T22:15:00.006-06:002010-03-23T19:36:56.073-05:00

Today was one of the days when we decided to replace our cycling with walking. It was such a nice spring day out and we had some errands to run. So we decided to get our exercise and do errands at the same time. We could have actually made this about an 8-mile walk. But that seemed to me a little too large an increase in mileage. We currently walk in the range of 1-3 miles on some days and

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-5028917168672219662010-03-05T23:39:00.002-06:002010-03-12T00:32:41.914-06:00

I kind of got out of my rythm of breathing exercises a couple of weeks ago when I made a trip out of town. I've had a hard time getting back to that rythm (twice a day, morning and evening is what I'd been aiming for). Today I had a higher reading than I've seen in a while (150/87): is it related to laxness in performing my breathing exercises? Other factors could be at play. I had kind of a

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-18729456844942353282010-03-03T23:43:00.004-06:002010-03-03T23:58:48.909-06:00

Somehow I only recently began to wonder to myself "is it really necessary to do intervals on every day we do our stationary bike riding?" Simple question and a simple answer occurred to me promptly: "no, it's not necessary." According to my by-gosh by-golly technical reckoning, we should get benefits from intervals even if we do them on only 2 of our four cycling days. We're not training for the

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-13658778954162720552010-03-01T23:29:00.012-06:002010-03-02T01:34:38.153-06:00

Was out of town for a few days so I missed a couple of cycling sessions last week. But I made up for that to some extent by doing some fairly vigorous snow shoveling. We're still here and still exercising--just tonight we did our usual strength training. And tomorrow intervals. Once I get fully settled in again I'll be posting some more substantial entries.

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-49427271251306162922010-02-22T13:01:00.002-06:002010-03-02T01:50:26.506-06:00

Wow. The legs are feeling sore after getting back to our interval training over the weekend. We had to trim down a little our 20-minute session on Saturday but did the full thing yesterday. Anyway, it feels good to get back at it. There was a little intertia to overcome but it was easy owing to the fact that we put such a limited amount of time into it at this time of year. The wife wanted to

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-1393314132182491392010-02-19T09:45:00.001-06:002010-02-19T13:50:33.823-06:00

Just a short note to maintain some semblance of activity here. We continue with our week off, which actually ends tomorrow. We'll be back to cycling (stationary bikes) over the weekend. It's good to take a break and to get a renewed yearning for exercise. I've also pretty much stopped doing my stretching during this week, which is probably not so good. Also have not been doing breathing

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-84140613880905697262010-02-14T23:38:00.005-06:002010-02-19T13:51:16.313-06:00

Our week off from fitness has arrived. We actually started it a little earlier: I had planned on starting the week off on Monday. But we missed our stationary bike training this past Thursday, then again yesterday. And I decided to add today as part of our time off as well. So we'll be back to exercising again only next weekend. Physical health is important. But spiritual health is important,

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-79950431102876226642010-02-11T22:37:00.001-06:002010-02-11T22:43:59.214-06:00

Had some errands to run this evening so we took the day off from our usual fitness routine (ab/core exercises and ca. 20 minutes of cycling intervals). I feel a bit guilty, as usual. In fact, let me wallow in my guilt a bit to try and get it off my chest. We are, after all, taking the whole week off next week, so why an extra day now, right before the week off? Furthermore, you're only

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-61479540466185729922010-02-09T22:45:00.005-06:002010-02-10T11:10:01.933-06:00

In this entry I want to extol the virtues of the J-660B-UB exercise regime. As you may be guessing, the guy who came up with that title name didn't exactly have a flair for merchandising gimmicks. And I can personally vouch for that fact, given that I know him very well: in fact, that guy is me. Ok, so this entry is going to be a bit facetious. But it will be, after all, in the interest of

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-8362514148726551742010-02-08T23:03:00.005-06:002010-02-10T23:40:27.891-06:00

As I've been mentioning, we've now commenced a new phase in our fitness regime--the arm toner phase. I had actually intended to begin this phase a couple of weeks from now, but we decided to start a little early. As I mentioned in a previous post, we found a new Tony Horton routine that we want to work into our regimen, a routine called "arm toner." We just did it for the first time tonight.

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-72682854308768115112010-02-04T22:30:00.003-06:002010-02-10T11:23:00.143-06:00

Below is an interesting article found in a New York Times blog today. It describes a study that indicates that fitness pursuits can have effects at the genetic level, essentially keeping DNA younger. Who'd a thunk it? It's an encouraging message for those of us who exercise as we approach middle age. And for those in this age range who don't exercise, perhaps an impetus to start. Phys Ed: How

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-81748038713686881912010-02-03T23:28:00.003-06:002010-02-05T10:58:48.363-06:00

Just a few words about biofeedback in this entry. Many of these words will consist in my own speculations, so look on these parts as a sort of thinking aloud session. I'm concerned with biofeedback for a couple of reasons--one being that the breathing exercises I've adopted as a means of (hopefully) counteracting high blood pressure are a form of biofeedback. At least they qualify in the opinion

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-83020918033463153922010-02-01T23:29:00.001-06:002010-02-02T09:19:29.173-06:00

Here's an interesting article on sleep and aging that I came across today (found here). Of course it was of interest to me because I am being plagued by insomnia. It offers scant encouragement to someone who's overall health seems to suffer from insomnia, but it's at least relevant and the findings discussed need to be considered. Study suggests that healthy adults may need less sleep as they age

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-4359396938621012082010-01-31T20:05:00.000-06:002010-01-31T20:05:26.489-06:00

I think I've found a pretty good remedy for the retch factor that had been interfering with my strength-training workouts. The super shake lunch/afternoon snack really does seem to make quite a difference with respect to the problem I've been experiencing. So I'll be continuing to have a super shake for lunch/afternoon snack on strength-training days: it really seems to be about the best

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-22735072276930649092010-01-30T18:01:00.081-06:002010-02-01T00:12:44.557-06:00

So Madonna's been in the press in the not-too-distant past because of what's considered her extreme fitness undertakings. People are ogling at her biceps. Marveling at her endurance. They're spellbound by her dedication. Etc. Well, guess what? Madonna's my age--less than 6 months my senior. She's doing fitness--the subject of my blog--so she's on-topic here, right? I really can't tell you much

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-76807453069281667362010-01-29T12:23:00.015-06:002010-01-31T00:07:56.254-06:00

Ok, so the title of this entry is a bit cliche--but only for those of us old enough to remember when the cliche was current!1 For those who are not old enough, the following explanation. This was the title of a suspense movie about car theft. The title intends to indicate how easy it was in that era (early 70's) to steal a car: it took only one minute for these thieves to make off with your car.

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-46871717800263376052010-01-27T17:24:00.009-06:002010-01-29T00:01:29.522-06:00

"And now," as they used to say on Monty Python, "for something completely different . . ." Redneck Seafood dinner Ok, so it's got nothing to do with fitness after 50 and is only marginally related to (unhealthy) diet. But it was just too funny to pass up. Hot dogs, Kraft instant macaroni and canned green beans--yum! Don't you think those squid dogs would look a lot cuter if they'd carved little

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-34397785352091890552010-01-26T23:00:00.005-06:002010-01-27T14:57:50.606-06:00

In this entry I'll present material from a recently-published study1 that offers compelling evidence that resistance training can improve mental function as we age. I'd be a bit young to qualify for a study like this--plus I'm the wrong gender (it was an all-woman test group)--but the results are nonetheless heartening to those of us drawing closer to the ages of the participants (65-75). Here

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-52278513358147994322010-01-25T23:02:00.014-06:002010-01-27T06:52:36.079-06:00

In addition to the reading and research I do as I maintain and enhance this blog, I've taken to consulting a few fitness blogs lately. I've bumped into a fair amount of discussion of diets on these blogs, and generally I find this discussion a little frustrating. I'll explain why in this entry. To me it's frustrating because, while I'm interested in maintaining a healthy diet and reading about

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-75426767456893000172010-01-24T23:54:00.002-06:002010-01-25T13:35:44.468-06:00

Intervals continue to go well. The time seems to go by so much more quickly when you're keeping track of time in 3.5-minute increments. We're averaging about 20-25 minutes per interval session. We do about 6 intervals in total, which amounts to about 3.5 minutes of intense exercise interspersed with about 20 minutes of light-duty aerobics. I've gone ahead an ordered an interval timer to aid us

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-10747022252943979172010-01-23T23:04:00.001-06:002010-01-25T13:33:33.893-06:00

Ok, now that I've done a handful of strength-training workouts after starting creatine I have some more data to report. Also, I started having a super shake for lunch/afternoon snack on strength-training days as a means of possibly counteracting what I called the "retch factor," so I have information to report on how that's gone as well. Would've posted this last night, but this Saturday was a

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-75727102885028569212010-01-21T23:50:00.009-06:002010-01-25T13:34:18.668-06:00

I've blogged previously about the insomnia I've experienced over the last decade or so and about the fact that I suspect it may play a role in my heightened blood pressure. And thus may also be related to my current fitness endeavors, which were undertaken, in part, in reaction to high blood pressure readings. I've also blogged about how a medication I was prescribed--zolpidem (Ambien)--though it

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-24949784980929838722010-01-20T23:52:00.029-06:002010-01-26T12:59:57.980-06:00

I've got some post-preliminary reports (since I've already given a preliminary report) on creatine and super shakes, but I'll hold off on giving those until after this coming Friday's strength-training workout--so as to compile a bit more data. Meantime, I'll fill in with the current entry. The title pretty much says it all: have I told you everything we do in the way of fitness? No, not

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-8054375901441922202010-01-19T23:26:00.001-06:002010-01-19T23:42:34.438-06:00

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm still pretty bummed about my blood pressure results at the doctor's office yesterday. 150/100 was about the best reading I could manage (others were 160+ over 90+). And the readings were pretty much the same in both arms. This pretty much confirms that the fairly normal reading I got at the doctor's office last Friday was either a mistake, an anomaly, or I misunderstood

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-7714348863769652892010-01-17T23:00:00.016-06:002010-01-22T14:03:00.229-06:00

As you may have noted, I've been writing about blood pressure a lot lately. This is owing, of course, to the fact that high blood pressure was one of the main motivating factors for the fitness regime I've adopted and that I discuss in this blog. Describing to someone the other day the course of my blood pressure problems, I recalled just how serious things had gotten. I decided after that

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-5667324983837666462010-01-16T23:48:00.000-06:002010-01-16T23:48:58.319-06:00

Just a short entry today to comment on how I continue to be pleased with the interval training we're doing on the stationary bikes. I really like it--more interesting than simply riding at a steady pace for the same amount of time. (This setup is something like what I'm riding except I've replaced my front wheel with an upright 2x4) Tonight we managed to get in only about 5 intervals due to

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-30277623906770694252010-01-15T11:51:00.016-06:002010-01-15T17:14:46.144-06:00

Well, well. I don't know whether to be pleased or disappointed this morning. I've been off the blood pressure meds for a little over a week now so that I could complete the "loading phase" of creatine supplementation (read more about that here). A blood pressure reading gotten from a self-service blood pressure reading machine earlier this week--152/94 (left arm)--had me a little concerned. Today

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-53909192547510450822010-01-14T00:20:00.031-06:002010-01-22T13:32:05.489-06:00

Here's an entry about a long-standing problem I've had in my athletic pursuits. It relates to my current exercise endeavors in that, for me, exercise means, by definition, strain and heightened effort. Did you ever get the feeling during your workout that you were on the verge of vomiting? I sure have. It happens to me all the time and my efforts at preventing myself from dumping lunch regularly

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-43965937433247209842010-01-13T00:32:00.010-06:002010-02-04T17:23:52.913-06:00

I'm not very happy with my blood pressure reading today--152/94 is pretty high. I think if I were to go back on hydrochlorothiazide (HZ hereafter) it would decrease to something closer to the normal range. But I want to try and stick it out without the meds at least until my "loading phase" with creatine is finished (in two days). As far as my blood pressure going up in the cycling off-season, I

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-17103876780694601812010-01-12T00:00:00.040-06:002012-01-31T15:45:24.905-06:00

I'm on kind of a table craze lately. My latest idea is to post a table that will offer a concise overview of our past and current fitness endeavors by weekday. As you can see, cycling/stationary bike riding is the mainstay of our fitness program.1 Thus, the following table that lists our fitness pursuits by typical week2 since April of 2008: Sunday3 Monday Tuesday3 Wednesday Thursday Friday

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-62433800761675440972010-01-11T14:23:00.090-06:002010-03-29T11:19:50.259-05:00

I've decided to keep track of my breathing exercises in this blog, at least for a time--thus the table below. This table will provide me (and perhaps you) with some important data about whether/how well these breathing exercises can help to lower or control blood pressure. The table should be pretty self-explanatory. I'll be maintaining this table for as long as I'm off the blood pressure meds (

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-59508144166291369392010-01-10T19:38:00.025-06:002010-01-15T16:03:01.222-06:00

Here's a fitness update so I can keep up the posting momentum on this blog. I decided I really had nothing to lose by trying out creatine, so I started on that this past week--fuller report below on the effects so far. As a result of trying out creatine, I've gotten more serious and regular about my breathing exercises and once again stopped taking the blood pressure meds: more on that below as

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-70995994394096302282010-01-06T22:46:00.023-06:002010-01-14T16:31:48.957-06:00

I generally do not like the idea of dietary supplements, preferring to do things the natural way. But since I've noticed the term creatine bandied about a lot in fitness circles, I decided to look into it a little to see just what this is and what it does.Well, the more I read about it, the more I began to think that this is something I should work into my dietary intake. It's used by many for

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-16756846259131570292010-01-02T17:57:00.027-06:002010-01-28T17:19:35.021-06:00

The article doesn't really belong here. As you'll note, it was published in the New York Times something like two weeks after the date you'll see in the heading of this blog entry. Thanks to the magic of technology though, I can overcome barriers of time . . . sort of. Actually, I placed the article here because I'll want to refer to it later, but I didn't want it to interfere with the flow of my

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-31498518556017071122009-12-28T23:55:00.013-06:002009-12-29T12:52:11.638-06:00

I recently decided I'd had enough restless nights in a row that I should break down and take a zolpidem (the generic name for the drug sold under the title Ambien--actually, I take a half tablet)--especially after the torture session that took place Saturday night. What a relief to be able finally to lay down and fall asleep within a half hour, and especially to not wake up until after 6 A.M.!It

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-80756032527123009412009-12-21T21:13:00.009-06:002009-12-26T10:12:29.953-06:00

I've decided that one of the things I need to do on this blog is to offer more detail on our strength-training workouts. I've already mentioned that we do a modified P90X routine and listed the titles of the DVD's we use out of that set. I recently revised that posting, adding a table that lists all exercises on each of the DVD's. I added some informational links there too, where reviewers of

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-2757088649407524242009-12-17T23:42:00.021-06:002010-01-22T12:59:06.558-06:00

Just a short entry today, mainly about ongoing blood-pressure issues. I hadn't been feeling too well lately and had some indications it might be owing to elevated blood pressure: some borderline headaches and another tell-tale sign I've become familiar with--extreme redness in the face when I'm doing certain strenuous exercise (e.g., incline push-ups)--were the main indicators. I finally decided

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-17789881553798833472009-12-11T13:41:00.004-06:002009-12-11T13:36:46.086-06:00

I'll dedicate this entry to Mathew, who seems to have some unrealistic notions about fitness and aging.Maybe I should have entitled this entry "Where we've been, where we're at, and whither we're going?" After all, it's relevant to all of us--despite the fact that even those around 30 years of age might still entertain hopes of immortality. Another alternate title might be something like "The

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-16602974496443824592009-12-07T11:26:00.035-06:002009-12-11T13:26:18.716-06:00

I want to provide a list of exercises that comprise each of the exercise videos we've incorporated into our fitness regimen. I've already begun this task by editing an older blog entry I made that described the portions of the P90X regime we were doing last winter: I added a table there that lists all the exercises contained on of the four DVD's we were using. So this entry is a continuation of

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-77541717186660485892009-11-29T23:09:00.047-06:002009-12-07T16:29:12.242-06:00

I should acknowledge up front that the discovery I'll announce in this entry is likely to be earth-shattering mainly only to yours truly. It is something I had been searching for for quite some time, but had begun to suspect did not exist, so it's a relief to me that I finally found it. But since it suits a need that is peculiar to my own fitness ideas and program, what I've finally found is

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-70197068145919412172009-11-18T11:33:00.028-06:002010-01-11T17:29:43.059-06:00

This post will be about something I just discovered by researching an ad I saw today. I saw an ad for what seemed like a really overpriced device that was claimed to be a non-medicinal way to lower blood pressure. The claims made, as is typical with such products, were dramatic. But in this case it did seem like they had some legitimate medical studies to back up some of their claims about the

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-50424837673485135832009-11-11T17:06:00.004-06:002009-11-11T21:30:29.245-06:00

In this entry, want to explore the necessity of fitness charting, i.e., of keeping various charts, devising graphs, or even writing a fitness diary. I will play devil's advocate here since I do not myself do such charting and feel I have good reasons for it. But you are not me and you may have good reasons for charting your fitness pursuits. I will later spell out some scenarios where I think

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-70733098893806324692009-10-25T10:56:00.003-05:002009-11-10T12:45:36.146-06:00

Here's information from an interesting study on muscle growth and aging--some food for thought for those of us over a certain age. The upshot of the article seems to be that, past a certain age, muscle tissue does not grow and/or repair itself. Of course the study indicates that they're working on ways to overcome that limitation.As you'll see, the older subjects in the study are quite a bit

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-88323147066102552322009-10-02T11:21:00.013-05:002010-01-25T11:34:03.447-06:00

I'm usually on the look-out for ways to vary our fitness routine. Why? So that keeping fit won't become something boring, some kind of trudgery. The latest on that front is an article I actually read some time ago (at least 6 months back I'd say). The original article I read had kind of a gaudy title--something like "stay fit exercising six minutes a week." Despite the snake-oil-salesman sound

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-48203151342874943862009-09-28T22:36:00.007-05:002009-11-18T17:20:55.117-06:00

Wow, long time no post! We were on vacation for a month and, since I didn't get around to posting in August before we left, here I am posting only at the end of September.In the way of things related to fitness that I have to report, the following on my ongoing shoulder saga. I took my latex bands with me on vacation thinking that, if I didn't have an opportunity to do any other exercising, I

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-28576902624818638962009-07-13T16:48:00.017-05:002009-11-18T17:49:28.663-06:00

I decided to finally break down and get a heart rate monitor. My reasoning was, partly, so as to have some concrete figures to connect with my fitness endeavors when I speak with my physician. As I think I've mentioned, I've had trouble so far getting helpful input from my physician on my fitness program.Why? Most doctors seem set up to dispense very generic fitness advice: if your health is

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-43830318039313146552009-07-06T14:44:00.013-05:002009-12-07T16:32:01.539-06:00

Well, we've now managed to break the 55 mile mark we set in late May--but not by much. We did 60 miles this past weekend, and I was surprised at how much it took out of me. Recalling, however, that although I took it pretty easy for the first 15 miles or so, we got into kind of a rush about 25 miles in and I really pushed it after that--especially between about miles 35 and 45. And even after

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-61560250213563488582009-06-29T13:49:00.016-05:002010-01-11T15:04:05.870-06:00

I will offer here just a short entry that conveys an important point that came up in one of my physical therapy sessions. It's actually a very commonsensical point that, on later reflection, leaves me wondering why I hadn't thought of it earlier. On undergoing some physical therapy for a back problem that recently cropped up (I havent blogged yet about this problem or the therapy I got for it,

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-69810483580523960372009-06-22T13:06:00.018-05:002010-01-11T15:10:24.356-06:00

As I've been mentioning for some time now, we've been planning a move away from the modified P90X routine we started doing earlier this spring. As I hinted in my last blog entry, that change was slated to come very soon. Well, it didn't come as soon as I thought it might: I decided to give my back a little extra healing time, so we actually took about 11 days off from our upper-body workouts

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-89658892715442549262009-06-10T15:17:00.006-05:002009-07-06T14:31:38.387-05:00

I just want to blog a bit today about the costs of fitness--hidden costs, if you will. The cost/benefit ratio of fitness needs to be taken into account, and the way things change with age need to be addressed. Let me begin by describing what prompts this blog entry.As will be evident from posts I've made about a shoulder problem that cropped up some months ago and possible connections between

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-27734575910933786332009-05-31T19:22:00.005-05:002009-07-06T14:33:24.386-05:00

Just a quick announcement. I've already blogged about how we're much better conditioned this cycling season than last, owing to a fairly minimal indoor training regime (stationary bikes) over the winter. I also blogged about how it seemed almost easy to ride our first 35 mile day this year. On that note, it turns out the distance is closer to 32 miles--we got a new odometer that indicates that,

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-47585365123521939962009-04-13T16:54:00.008-05:002009-12-02T17:48:35.521-06:00

I said some time ago that I would offer an entry in this blog that would explain and demonstrate the exercises my physical therapist gave me, exercises that I said at that time had resolved my shoulder problem. Well, as may be evident, that entry has not yet been composed.There are a few reasons. Probably the main reason is plain old procrastination. But the procrastination is abetted by some

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7628806137725322051.post-14380830127970342762009-03-31T14:44:00.007-05:002009-07-06T14:37:12.683-05:00

This past year I vowed that we would not lapse into inactivity over the winter months. Though our favored form of fitness activity - cycling - would be ruled out due to cold and bad road conditions, we could nonetheless maintain at least some level of - even if only a minimal one - conditioning by using exercise bikes indoors. I have to say I'm a bit shocked at what I've learned from this

J. A. Millernoreply@blogger.com0