solarfish Member

Only managing to get in one workout each week at the moment which is really not good. Last week was a 16km row at a steady pace between 2:10 and 2:20. Today was my longest row so far, 23km using intervals based on stroke rate, 500m at 22spm, 300m at 24spm, 200m at 26spm. I have to say this was relatively easy, I didn't…

Today I decided from the start I was going for a half marathon again. I didn't do intervals this time, just tried to keep at a constant rate for as long as possible. The first hour was almost continuous 2:08 split pace and stroke rate of about 24 to 25. After the hour I could tell my technique was not so good and the split…

I did the interval program again today but decided I would go for speed rather than distance as I did a long row already this week. I had all my 2:30 medium pace intervals under 2:00 split and went hard at about 37 minutes to get a personal best for 10km, 39m:51s. I'm still not finding the time to work out as regularly as…

I'm so weak I can hardly type, but I just completed my first half marathon! I started out doing an hour of intervals (2m:30s moderate pace then 30s easy pace). I went a little slower than last time, about 2:05 to 2:10 splits, to try to avoid cramps. I completed 5km in about 21m, 10km in 44m and 13.5km in an hour so quite a…

Unfortunately work commitments since my return to Canada have put a massive dent in my exercise program. The last two weeks I have not gone to the gym at all, so no weight training and I have only managed to do some rowing and one elliptical session. 25th July - 10km in 41:46, first time back on my WaterRower and the time…

Final row on a C2 completed yesterday, I'll be going back to Canada on Sunday. My back injury seems to be healed now and so I was feeling a bit stronger and completed 10km in 44:17, the damper setting was 5. Still not as smooth or as fast as on my WaterRower but I did experiment a bit with emphasising leg push and…

Two more 10km rows completed on a C2. Saturday I had to take it very slowly as I was recovering from a lower back injury. I took 49 minutes for the 10km but noticed the damper setting was at 10 and I didn't bother to change it. Today my back was feeling better and I have moved to a different gym that has plenty of C2s.…

July 8th - England, 10km today on a C2 at a gym close to my parent's house. Felt different to my usual WaterRower, I had the resistance setting at 5 but to be honest I'm not sure what that means. The row took longer than normal, 47 minutes compared with less than 42 last week, but my effort (measured through HRM) was the…

@cw106 @Bud_ thanks for the good wishes. I actually did a bonus 8km row today but will be travelling for the next two weeks so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get access to a rower. I am also doing weight training and some other cardio and core work so although I probably spend up to 8 or more hours a week exercising, only…

I lost 50 lbs in 5 months through diet and cardio, no weight training at all, that was 3 years ago. I don't believe I lost significant muscle but I guess it's hard to tell. Unfortunately I gained back about 20 lbs so I am now 3 months into a new fitness regime which includes weight training (5x5 three days a week) as well…

Looking at your diary I would say your carbs (non-fibre) are still a little high. You could probably make quite a difference by substituting water for the G2s. I would also be careful about believing the calorie burn on your exercise. I think the routine you describe is a good one, but in your exercise diary almost all…

Thought I'd say hi. I just started incorporating rowing back into my exercise regime, looking for a bit of variety in the cardio department to go along with weights, core and intervals. I have been on this latest exercise kick for about 3 months having previously lost 50 lbs during a 'get myself fit' effort in 2012. I'm 47…

Thanks Brian, I never knew that group existed, I have started a thread there and will stop with the updates here.

Last update in case anyone wants to join me. Two more 10km rows completed this week. Tuesday I went out really hard for first 5km then eased off for second half and managed to take a few more seconds off my 10km best, it is now 41m 12s. Today I decided to do an easy pace for the whole distance, I kept my stroke at about 25…

I started weight training for the first time, 47 years old, about 10 weeks ago. I'm doing stronglifts 5x5, not boring at all, very easy to understand but very challenging now the weights are getting heavier. I can certainly recommend it for beginners.

I would suggest doing some easier variant of the push up, for example from the knees or inclined.

For the past two months I have been averaging about 10 workouts per week. 3 x weight training (usually Monday, Wednesday, Friday), 3 x core, 2 x intervals, 2 x cardio. As of last week the 2 x cardio is now focused on training towards a rowing marathon (come join me!).

I always use chest strap HRM but sometimes I like to see what a machine thinks my heart rate is and in my experience the machines are reasonably close, however they can take a long time to focus in on the actual heart rate. For example I have been on a couple of ellipticals where the built in monitor would not show the…

47 years old and a fairly regular elliptical user. My resting heart rate is now down to about 48 (it was 75+ before I started getting fitter) and even when doing high intensity intervals on the elliptical I can't get my heart rate above 170. For reasonably sustained effort, for example a hill program, I am seeing an…

Much better suggestion, I didn't realise MFP had that category. It is missing from Endomondo which is surprising.

I'll give this a bump or two over the next week or so in case anyone is interested. Finished my second 10k today in a PB time, 41m 21s. Now I realise that I will certainly not be able to maintain that pace for a marathon, I was exhausted afterwards, but still pleased with the achievement. It's warm here (by our standards…

I do various core exercises including planks a couple of times a week along with push ups and some medicine ball work. I just log it all as Circuit Training because trying to find or create each individual exercise is way too complicated. I should point out though that whatever exercise I'm doing I use heart rate monitor…

It is all confusing and the more you read the more confusing it all gets. I have gone back to basics, I picked a number I thought was about right, made sure my macro ratios were reasonable and then stuck to that number for a couple of weeks. If my weight gain/loss was not what I wanted I just adjusted the calories…

Sounds like mumbo jumbo to me, but then I have always believed in the calories out vs calories in being the only thing that matters for weight loss. Macro balance etc is important for healthy eating but I don't see the evidence that a week of particular foods is going to affect metabolism or that a week of skipping those…

Most of my workouts are on an eliptical. When I started MFP was significantly lower than the HRM based data, now it is a bit higher. For cardio workout it is important to take into account how hard you are working and MFP has no way to determine that. For the brief period of time that I was average fitness for my weight…

This is what I do. I have a Polar that provides not only HR but also (using a VO2 Max calculation) provides Calories burnt. I take the HR measurement and enter it into Endomondo, it calculates calories based on exercise, weight, duration and average heart rate. I then put the exercise and time into MFP. The result is three…

I have just started using the Polar FT60 and noticed that it was giving a much lower value of calories burned than other sites were when I entered my average heart rate, weight,exercise time etc. I then calculated my VO2 Max (using the resting heart rate approach) and found that the default setting of 35 ml/kg/min in the…

Well after two months on MFP I finally bought a HRM (Polar FT60). I just completed a 30 minute row, 6.6km and the HRM and MFP both reported 398 Kcal. So apparently my weight and fitness are bang on what MFP is estimating right now, no doubt things will change in the coming weeks.

I created a Windows Gadget, see what you think, you can find it at the following link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9303770/MFP%20Ticker.gadget Once you have downloaded the file simply double click on it to install. Once installed it will display a default 10lb lost ticker. To display your own ticker you need to grab the URL of…

I'm just putting one together myself, not developed a gadget before but seems easy enough. I'll post it here when I'm done.