Exercising without a gym

[Triproton]

Thats a good point!

 

Running on your own cannot create the same atmosphere and excitement as a race. The adrenalin makes you run faster than what you expect. It is totally exhilirating I tell you....At our level, a race is a race against yourself; whether a PB can be achieved.

 

For me, preparing for a race helps me in my daily runs. Otherwise, it gets kind of boring.

 

Also, for a Full Marathon, one usually trains up to 32km. It is the adrenalin and excitement during a race that will carry you for the next 10km! I doubt many people can actually run 42km on their own without a race.

 

Maybe I am lucky, but my company pays for almost all the races I enter

Edited June 7, 2010 by Triproton

[Ender]

To add on, if there's no marathon race organised, don't think by myself, I would do 10km or 20km run monthly, gradually increasing towards 42km. There's a goal for me, and I'm training for it.

[Mazdaowner]

Nothing wrong with getting a few friends and having a run together.

To add on, if there's no marathon race organised, don't think by myself, I would do 10km or 20km run monthly, gradually increasing towards 42km. There's a goal for me, and I'm training for it.

 

[Kxbc]

Ask all of you here.

 

If you have not signed up for any races/competition, will you still religiously do your workouts week in week out?

 

I have had 2 person asked me what am I training for/what race I had signed up for as I was exerting myself as much as I can w/o conking out in the gym. I told them: Nothing. I did not sign up for anything. I only exercise because it keeps me more alert and generally better sense of well being.

[Mazdaowner]

I had the same thing asked to me as well. Personally I feel that is a stupid question to begin with,

do you REALLY need a race or some form of competition to train so hard for? So does it mean, that

if no race no competition, just nuah like that? You're training to stay fit, and that's the most important thing

then some race. I've been doing this, Kiat, for so many years, certain times I will be down on my training,

doing lesser, or taking a short break, then back again to high reps and heavy sets etc...

 

I see a lot of "warriors" come and go, before SC race wah, train until like crazy, after they get the shirt, come and show off,

then you don't even see them again, after 2-3 years once in a blue moon, stomach all showing, signs of prosperity, come in

do 4-5 reps, and spend most of the time posing in front of the mirror. Good laugh........

 

Don't let it bother you Kiat.

 

 

 

Ask all of you here.

 

If you have not signed up for any races/competition, will you still religiously do your workouts week in week out?

 

I have had 2 person asked me what am I training for/what race I had signed up for as I was exerting myself as much as I can w/o conking out in the gym. I told them: Nothing. I did not sign up for anything. I only exercise because it keeps me more alert and generally better sense of well being.

 

[Ender]

To be honest, I started running for health reason.. But never more than 4 km, and after a year or so, began to lose interest and ran less frequent.

 

Then friend jio me for 2009 stand chart (10km then), I reluctantly "on" them, and ever since I never stop running. Join a race almost every month then. Did my longest run Passion Run just last month, and I'm looking forward to in Malaysia too (Stnad Chart KL-Marathon and Penang bridge).

 

So you could say, signing up for a race does make me train religiously.

[Ender]

Hope this "warrior" of me can keep going longer than I hope for and not 'Nuah" too soon.

 

[Mazdaowner]

Statement wasn't aimed at you.

If you have embarked on a strict training routine,

it will be hard to stop, given myself, if I break training for one day,

my conscience will be at me, and I have to get back on track again,

rest days are rest days, and training breaks are different, it all boils down to one's

own discipline, and nothing more.

 

I NUAH myself, every Saturday and Sunday, but it turns out I have other work to do round the house,

and i end up hardly with any intended rest. Main importance is not only training, eating, but the all important

factor......SLEEP. You need to achieve DEEP sleep after your run/training.

 

I no longer run, retired from running already. Slow run once in a while, Chinese Garden.

 

Hope this "warrior" of me can keep going longer than I hope for and not 'Nuah" too soon.

 

[Kxbc]

Nah, I am not bothered. Just curious because I got asked the same thing twice so far.

 

Anyway, see improvement in own physical fitness also shiok what. Eg, if I could only do 2 pull ups then but after training for 1 month, I can do 4, then quite shiok feeling right? Then if can do up to 6 in another month, lagi shiok!

 

Of course, if train until can get money for IPPT, lagi lagi shiok.

[Mazdaowner]

Yeah, they stop paying me year ago!

Nah, I am not bothered. Just curious because I got asked the same thing twice so far.

 

Anyway, see improvement in own physical fitness also shiok what. Eg, if I could only do 2 pull ups then but after training for 1 month, I can do 4, then quite shiok feeling right? Then if can do up to 6 in another month, lagi shiok!

 

Of course, if train until can get money for IPPT, lagi lagi shiok.

 

[Kxbc]

I started my exercise regime late 06 when the wife signed on for yoga classes. Because I have to pick her up after the evening classes and because I don't want to look at the comp screen after work, I had some spare time and thus I ended up in the gym.

 

Been at it since then. I am still doing it religiously week in week out unless work commitment calls. Just that I give myself more recovery days as I age 3 years. Find that I am not sleeping and resting enough which is no good at all.

[Kxbc]

I should have at least one more time this Jul. If I don't MR by then, then another chance next year. Got to milk SAF as much as I can. The wife said she has already paid tax for it.

[Mazdaowner]

I told you last time I used to train 5-6 days a week, with a killer workout on Saturday

6hrs. wasn't working out for me, decided to do 3 times a week, with more time for other

things, like rest. a lot of difference now. Also with the MCF PS3 gang on my tail, I need more

time to rest and whack them online as well. kekekekeke.....all in the name of fun.

 

I started my exercise regime late 06 when the wife signed on for yoga classes. Because I have to pick her up after the evening classes and because I don't want to look at the comp screen after work, I had some spare time and thus I ended up in the gym.

 

Been at it since then. I am still doing it religiously week in week out unless work commitment calls. Just that I give myself more recovery days as I age 3 years. Find that I am not sleeping and resting enough which is no good at all.

 

[Mazdaowner]

Basket! Making me jealous! [laugh]

I should have at least one more time this Jul. If I don't MR by then, then another chance next year. Got to milk SAF as much as I can. The wife said she has already paid tax for it.

 

[Triproton]

To be honest, I started running for health reason.. But never more than 4 km, and after a year or so, began to lose interest and ran less frequent.

 

Then friend jio me for 2009 stand chart (10km then), I reluctantly "on" them, and ever since I never stop running. Join a race almost every month then. Did my longest run Passion Run just last month, and I'm looking forward to in Malaysia too (Stnad Chart KL-Marathon and Penang bridge).

 

So you could say, signing up for a race does make me train religiously.

 

 

Same here. I used to run in the gym. Did that for about 8 years, got really bored, before I ran in my first race: the JP Morgan 5.6km race in 2008. After that I was hooked. The adrenalin of a race atmosphere; the pushing of your heart to almost HR Max and running through the finishing line with a good time is intoxicating. After the 5.6km race, I decided to sign up for a full marathon in 2008, and went from 5.6km to 42km in about 6 months! Yes, joining a race provided with the motivation to train.

 

You running the KL marathon in June? the FM? I did that last year. One word of warning - it's much tougher in KL. The killer hills comes at 22km and after 37km; you need to train for the hills.

 

I am still running, but shorter distances. My interest to run a FM was waned quite a bit - mainly because of lack of time for training. My focus now is to improve my timing for medium distances up to 1/2 marathon. I prefer a more intense and quick race than a long drawn out FM.

 

Good luck with KL! You will enjoy it more than Singapore!

 

[Chickenbackside]

Trouble conceiving?

 

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/...necologist.html

 

 

Low-carb gynecologist

 

 

I met infertility specialist, Dr. Michael Fox, on Jimmy Moore's low-carb cruise just this past March.

 

Dr. Fox is quiet and unassuming, but had incredible things to say about his experience with carbohydrate restriction in female infertility and pregnancy. While readers of The Heart Scan Blog already know that I advocate a diet free of wheat, cornstarch, and sugar for heart health and correction of multiple lipoprotein abnormalities, it was fascinating to hear how a similar approach seems to yield extraordinary benefits in this entirely unrelated area of female health. Obviously, female infertility and pregnancy are unrelated to heart health, but the extraordinary benefits witnessed by Dr. Fox in this area suggest that some fundamental lessons in human physiology can be learned. The results are so incredible that we are all sure to hear more about this approach as experience grows.

 

So I tracked Dr. Fox down in his busy Jacksonville, Florida practice to fill us in on some details.

 

WD: Dr. Fox, could you tell us something about yourself and what led you to use carbohydrate restriction in your female patients?

 

MF: I have been in practice as a reproductive endocrinologist for 15 years. During that time, I have seen our specialty move from a broad based practice of reproductive endocrinology to a narrow IVF [in vitro fertility] focus, with patients being pushed through IVF in a cookie-cutter fashion without any emphasis on non-medical therapy.

 

Our focus has been to remain as a broad practice where we individualize care and attempt in every case to achieve pregnancy short of IVF. Five years ago, this continued quest for better care led us into the insulin resistance, low-carbohydrate metabolic world that has transformed our practice, although our practice offers all aspects of reproductive endocrinology including sub-specialized minimally invasive surgery, and all available infertility options.

 

 

WD: I have been intrigued by your comments about improved fertility with the low-carb diet. Could you elaborate on this?

 

MF: Yes, five years ago, as more information regarding Polycystic Ovarian Disease or Syndrome (PCOD/S) and its relationship to insulin resistance (high insulin levels) was emerging, we had a simple realization. As we've known for some time, insulin stimulates excess male hormone levels in the ovary, which disrupts ovulation and fertility. Then our job was to lower or virtually eliminate high insulin levels. Again, in simple fashion, we looked at physiology and realized that insulin is released only in response to dietary carbohydrates. Thus, elimination of carbohydrates should resolve the problem. This, in fact, is the effect that we have seen.

 

In our previous approaches to PCOD, we utilized oral ovulation medicines generating pregnancy rates in the 40% range overall. Now, with the nutritional approach, for those patients that follow our recommendations, our pregnancy rates are over 90%! This has dramatically reduced the need for in vitro fertilization in these patients.

 

To extend this idea further, we first started with relative low-carbohydrate diets, such as the South Beach diet, but quickly realized this didn't produce a metabolic effect. Over time, it has borne out that only the very low-carbohydrate diet (VLCD) approach produces significant metabolic change. Our impression then was that the current U.S. nutritional exposure probably increases insulin levels and that this has a detrimental effect on fertility.

 

To counter this effect, we now recommend the VLCD to all fertility patients and their spouses. The pregnancy rates do seem much better overall, as well as seeing a reduction in miscarriage rates. For the first time at our national meeting last year, there were three articles that showed improved pregnancy rates in patients without PCOD or insulin resistance in IVF when Glucophage was used. This drug decreases insulin. This supports the idea that our entire population is subjected to fertility-reducing high-carbohydrate diet.

 

WD: Do you see any other changes in these patients on the diet?

 

MF: Yes. All metabolic parameters, as well as many common complaints, improve. Cholesterol and triglyceride levels improve, while "good" HDL cholesterol levels increase. Weight drops at a pace of 12 lbs per month very steadily and we have many many patients who have experienced 50lb wt loss. Blood pressure decreases steadily in these patients and we are often able to get them off of cholesterol and blood pressure medicines. Common symptoms such as anxiety, sleep disturbances, decreased energy, migraine headaches and depression all dramatically improve. Again we can often get patients off depression and migraine suppression medications. So this approach helps in a multitude of areas.

 

WD: I was also interested in hearing more about your experience with morning sickness and the effects of a low-carb diet. Could you tell us more about this? Also, any thoughts on why this happens?

 

MF: As we continued to expand our thoughts about VLCD and fertility/pregnancy, we began to extend the nutritional approach into pregnancy. We know that pregnancy hormones dramatically worsen insulin resistance that is responsible for the condition, gestational diabetes. If insulin resistance is worsened, then reactive hypoglycemia is worsened. One of the biggest symptoms of hypoglycemia is nausea. So, in response to this, we have counseled our patients on the diet in pregnancy and have found a dramatic reduction in nausea. We recommend snacking every two hours in pregnancy.

 

The other "traditional" issue in pregnancy are cravings. These also likely stem from hypoglycemia. I have had many husbands tell us later that their wives, in contrast to friends etc, were calm and not moody or anxious during their pregnancies. Hypoglycemia probably is a serious issue for the fetus as well and may be the "signal" that turns on the insulin-resistant gene. Many theorists feel this might be an activated gene during the pregnancy.

 

 

WD: Do you use any unique approaches to the low-carbohydrate approach, e.g., inclusion of dairy, meal frequency, "induction" strategies (i.e., induction to the diet, not of labor!), etc.?

 

MF: Yes. As I'm sure everyone who works in the VLCD world does, we also have some tricks to make this work better. My biggest push, although hard to get patients to agree, is to see a counselor along with our follow-up in order to deal with "addictive behaviors" and "stress eating" that so many of our patients relate to us. Good stress management and cognitive behavioral therapy go a long way in helping this become a permanent change.

 

We also really push frequent calorie intake or "snacking." I think again that hypoglycemia produces an inborn drive to "cure" or "fix" starvation and leads to dramatic overeating. We have a short list of snacks that we recommend. The concept of hunger is offered as a failure of the program. We aim to eliminate hunger, as it represents hypoglycemia. The analogy I use is, if you drove your car until you ran out of gas before you ever sought to find gas, your life would be miserable. So it is the same with your metabolic engine: If you let it run out, the measures your system takes to fix it are very detrimental to life and certainly to nutritional health.

 

Our other big push is fat. People can wrap themselves around protein and vegetables, but they totally miss the high-fat (animal fat) part of the conversation. We have to really push that aspect. In regards to dairy, we allow for non-processed cheeses and minimal milk. An alternative is to mix about 4 oz whole milk with 4 oz of heavy whipping and 4 oz of water to create a "milk" with less sugar. Similarly, shakes and smoothies can be made with heavy whipping cream with pure whey protein powder added to create a liquid meal for those who "don't have time" to cook.

 

 

WD: Thanks, Dr. Fox. We look forward to hearing more about your approach in future.

 

Contact information:

 

Michael D. Fox, MD

Jacksonville Center

Reproductive Medicine

www.JCRM.org

Phone 904-493-2229

[Topgun]

...Good luck with KL! You will enjoy it more than Singapore!

 

Care to share why?

 

[Triproton]

Care to share why?

 

Unlike Singapore, at least in 2008 and 2009, the KL Marathon is a true city marathon. Runners actually run through the city; through major landmarks, office buildings, and even elevated highways! 50% of the Singapore Marathon is spent running up and down the East Coast Park, where most people have run countless times in their training

 

The KL Marathon is undulating, unlike Singapore which is pancake flat. Although it hurts while pounding up the hills at that time, I look back and remember, in a masochistic way, the effort and challenge. While I could run without stopping in Singapore, I was humbled by the hills in KL and had to walk the uphills. The worst is that the killer hills came after 32km and peaked at 37km.

 

There is a certain element of chaos in the KL Marathon that makes running it unforgettable, if not dangerously memorable. Up to now, I remember dashing across a busy road while waving my hand frantically to stop an incoming bus from running me over. I definitely won't forget the bus following me patiently from behind for about 1km along Jalan Raja Chulan , and who can't forget the experience of running on the elevated highway with cars zooming past, having only feeble little traffic cones separating the runners from certain oblivion.

 

Finally, the field for the KL Marahton is much smaller - only around 2000+ ran the FM; consequently, only the more serious runners participate. There are no walkers; no one to block your path. It is more of a runner's event whereas the Singapore Marathon is a mass participation event, where some runners, I mean walkers, walk from the start!! Straight away, the difference is obvious from the results. In the Singapore Marathon, I finished in the top 9%, but in KL, I could only manage 35%. See the huge difference!

 

However, the biggest drawback is that the organisers ran out of water for the runners! For those in the back of the field, water ran out at the 12km mark!! That was horrendous, and runners had to buy water from shops along the way. Those who brought money were the fortunate ones. Some didn't carry money and had to ask for money from bystanders!! The organisers, Octagon, F--ed up big time on this. That was the first Standard Chartered KL Marathon, so hopefully it will improve this year. They have changed the route quite a bit and have taken out one of the elevated highway - which was one of the killer stretches. But the hills are still there

 

While, it seems horrendous while you are running a FM, it is experiences like these that makes you remember a race. While the Singapore Marathon is excellent for a first time marathon, you must admit that the route is pretty uneventful and boring. Hopefully, it will change this year with the route change; although, I think at least 1/3 of the route is still in the ECP

Edited June 8, 2010 by Triproton