So the Sky said to the Leaves, "It's time for you to die," and thus it's been raining and blustering and shaking the leaves to the ground. Nicki will never turn his nose up at a chance to romp, but even he was just as content to get back to warm home and full bowl.
But not before chow provider did his elliptical soak routine, apropos which..., yes i had to give up earth running; the joint jarring was too much. Nails in the knees is your body telling you something. So it was back to the boring elliptical machine.
The machine is boring because i absolutely refuse to watch the overhead teevee, or to read a kindle, or to tune into 75 gigs of my All Time Classical Rancheras, or to twit to the Pope and other famous celebrities. No... since i was 21, the rule has been, when you run, you run. Punto y final.
Apart from boredom, there are two ways to run on the elliptical machine: gasping and hanging on the side-bars or grunting and not hanging on the side-bars. Needless to say, not leaning on the bars is harder because you have to bear your full weight as well as use lateral muscles to balance yourself and not break your neck. I decided to go the leaning route.
About a month into leaning and gasping, this young guy (30?) was using the machine next to me, hands free.
Jerk.
Why are 30 year olds always showing off? But, of course, i couldn't resist humiliating myself. I looked over and asked "About how fast are you going per lap?" (The lap being the little LED progress bar on the screen that blinks ever so slowly.) "I donno," he said, "I just try to go faster each time."
Oh... one of those "the sky's the limit" jerks.
But then he added, "It took me about a year to get up to my current speed." I looked down at his legs, and they weren't going that fast.
If it took this 30 year old one year to get up to his present speed, then there was hope for me!!
I had tried hands free, but it just seemed too impossible. "Learn your limits, old man," I said to myself.
Limits Schlimitz.
So... i started adding 1, then 2, then 3 hands-free laps after i had finished my 8 hanging laps. Now I am doing 8 hands free laps, "trying to go a little faster each time"
:))))) So long as you keep at it, there's hope.
Now the thing is that holding laps are faster and give your lungs a breathing work out. The focus is on gasping and intensity. The hands free laps are more for strength and balance. So both kinds of ellipting are good. And the routine i've worked out is
1) 2mi holding + 1mi hands free
2) 1mi hands free + 1mi holding + 1mi hands free
3) 2mi hands free + 1mi holding
For each, i go through two shirts and 4 lbs of body fluids.
Now, in case anyone is wondering how fast i am "actually" going, the best i can say is maybe eight minute earth miles.
The read outs on these running machines are basically useless. They vary from machine to machine and have nothing to do with real life capacities. The only thing they are good for is to give you a relative comparison of your progress as measured on one particular machine.
However, when i was driving nails into my knees i did time my laps and on each of the occasions, it worked out to two minutes a 440. I was actually rather surprised. But that was a single 440 and that is not the same as four 440's without stopping... much less 12. On the other hand, one does improve over time.
After running those real miles, i compared my time on the machine and noticed that it was about double the real time; i.e. one machine LED lap was 4 to 3.75 minutes. So who knows for sure. I'd be happy with even 10 minute earth miles. We shall see next spring once i've pumped myself full of....
Now about the time i was driving nails into my knees one of the attendants at the gym popped his knee sliding into third base. He limped around forever, and finally had knee surgery. When he came back to the gym, I asked how he was doing, and he mentioned that his knee was fixed and that he was taking hyaluronic acid for it.
Wazzat?
Hyaluronic acid is a major component of synovial fluid and cartilage, which is why the kid's doctor and prescribed it. It's cheap and i started popping a tablet a day along with 1 tab of glucosamine.
You know that creaky feeling that makes you wonder if you can make it down those rocks or up those stairs? Gone. Gone, Gone, Gone. For how long, I don't know, but this leaf isn't falling to ground yet.
(At least if it doesn't croak on the damn machine.)
I had tried hands free, but it just seemed too impossible. "Learn your limits, old man," I said to myself.
Limits Schlimitz.
So... i started adding 1, then 2, then 3 hands-free laps after i had finished my 8 hanging laps. Now I am doing 8 hands free laps, "trying to go a little faster each time"
:))))) So long as you keep at it, there's hope.
Now the thing is that holding laps are faster and give your lungs a breathing work out. The focus is on gasping and intensity. The hands free laps are more for strength and balance. So both kinds of ellipting are good. And the routine i've worked out is
1) 2mi holding + 1mi hands free
2) 1mi hands free + 1mi holding + 1mi hands free
3) 2mi hands free + 1mi holding
For each, i go through two shirts and 4 lbs of body fluids.
Now, in case anyone is wondering how fast i am "actually" going, the best i can say is maybe eight minute earth miles.
The read outs on these running machines are basically useless. They vary from machine to machine and have nothing to do with real life capacities. The only thing they are good for is to give you a relative comparison of your progress as measured on one particular machine.
However, when i was driving nails into my knees i did time my laps and on each of the occasions, it worked out to two minutes a 440. I was actually rather surprised. But that was a single 440 and that is not the same as four 440's without stopping... much less 12. On the other hand, one does improve over time.
After running those real miles, i compared my time on the machine and noticed that it was about double the real time; i.e. one machine LED lap was 4 to 3.75 minutes. So who knows for sure. I'd be happy with even 10 minute earth miles. We shall see next spring once i've pumped myself full of....
HYALURONIC ACID
Now about the time i was driving nails into my knees one of the attendants at the gym popped his knee sliding into third base. He limped around forever, and finally had knee surgery. When he came back to the gym, I asked how he was doing, and he mentioned that his knee was fixed and that he was taking hyaluronic acid for it.
Wazzat?
Hyaluronic acid is a major component of synovial fluid and cartilage, which is why the kid's doctor and prescribed it. It's cheap and i started popping a tablet a day along with 1 tab of glucosamine.
You know that creaky feeling that makes you wonder if you can make it down those rocks or up those stairs? Gone. Gone, Gone, Gone. For how long, I don't know, but this leaf isn't falling to ground yet.
(At least if it doesn't croak on the damn machine.)
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