So that’s what sedentary means!

Finally got a new battery for my pedometer last weekend and wore it each working day this week, as I was interested to see roughly how much walking I did throughout my normal work week. The magic number of steps widely circulated as ideal to keep fit are 10,000 per day — about 5 miles (8km), or 2,000 steps per mile — so that was what I considered my daily target.

My normal weekday at the moment consisting of: wake, get ready, drive to work, drive a desk for 7½ hours plus one hour for lunch (nearly always at my desk), drive home, do one or more of my usual evening activities (reading, studying, watching TV, playing computer games, writing, blogging, stargazing in the back garden, etc), and go to bed. The most notable thing there is that there is no gym, running, or even much going out and doing interesting things. In all, things are in a bit of a fug at the moment.

With “10,000 a day” in mind I noted my daily and overall number of steps. Imagine my surprise to discover I didn’t even make the recommended daily amount over an entire working week. That is, I didn’t manage 10,000 steps in 5 days, let alone one day. Needless to say, it’s opened my eyes a little with regards to how I make use of my weekday free time — particularly my lunch breaks — and I’m going to look into ways of improving my physical activity before work and after work, regardless of the fact that Summer 2009 isn’t. The idea is to create something active that I do every day as naturally as waking up, not something that depends upon whether it’s a weekday or weekend, hot or raining, or subject to other planning or circumstances.

After the shock of the sub-2,000 steps per day result, I did some additional research into recommended and average steps to keep healthy. It seems that the 10,000 steps a day value is just a Big Round Number promoted by pedometer manufacturers, rather than having any basis in science. Presumably the idea was that by providing a sufficiently large target value, people would buy a pedometer to make sure they do it.

Having said that, a Harvard University study shows that as little as 6,000 steps per day are sufficient to lower the death rate:

A landmark study of 17,000 Harvard alumni suggests that men who burn an extra 700 or so calories a week by walking, playing sports, or doing some other form of dynamic exercise live longer than those who aren’t active. The health benefits continue to increase up to about 2,000 or so calories a week, then seem to level off from there. Information from a long-term study of female nurses shows similar trends for women.

The steps-to-calorie conversion is based upon the person’s weight, with a 120lb (54kg) person burning 85 calories per mile and increasing 10 calories per 20lbs (9kg) of bodyweight; a 119kg person burns about 155 calories per mile. So according to the study’s minimum, for a 119kg person (that would be me) to burn 700 extra calories per week they need to walk just 4½ miles per week, or 0.6 miles (1km) per day.

Excluding physical disability or illness, anyone can achieve that. The average walking pace is at least 3mph (5kmh), so walking just over half a mile should take no more than 12 minutes. That’s walking away from wherever you are for 6 minutes, turning around and walking back again (called an out-and-back), or a loop around the block (providing it’s a 0.6 mile-sized block). Nobody is so busy that they can’t actually set aside 10 minutes every day — after all, we all find the time to take a shower, make multiple cups of tea or coffee, chat by the watercooler, or hit the snooze button once or twice in the morning. It doesn’t have to be at the same time every day — it can be squeezed in before you head to work, before you start the working day, after you’ve scoffed your lunch, before you head home, once you get home, or any time in the evening. But probably best not done within an hour of going to bed, unless insomnia is something you want to try on for size.

So why don’t people do it? We’re lazy. We don’t realise how much such a little change will make. And for most of us, the “dying” part of our life seems so far away as to be something we can deal with later. Much later. But it seems that by spending 10-15 minutes a day in just walking, that day will be even further away.

, and that 8000 to 10000 step per day promotes weight loss

Hey… I’m running!

I’ve recently bought myself a copy of The Official British Army Fitness Guide (UK|US) written, as its title says, by the British Army. Well, the Army Physical Training Corps.

I read it on the weekend, and I’m rather impressed. Unlike the majority of fitness books and resources I’ve seen, this one is notable by its conspicuous absence of gadgets and special dietary shenanigans.

I’d written almost a whole review of this book before I remember that the Amazon (UK) website already has a number of perfectly acceptable reviews. Get your review fix there, or trust me when I say this book is excellent in its simplicity, range of coverage (aerobic fitness, strength, stretching and flexibility, warmups and cooldowns, safety, cross-training, nutrition, hydration, injury prevention, equipment), and wide-ranging fitness programmes that cover everyone from those who can jog for 1 minute in 4 right up those who can run at 60-70% effort for 40 mins. I use running as an example because it factors heavily in the aerobics component (though they show how walking or cycling can be used instead).

The running part…

It’s hard to believe that it was April 2008 — and while visiting another country — when I last went for a run outside the gym. How depressing!

This morning I awoke newly-enthused, got dressed, strapped on the Forerunner, waited an age for the GPS signal to lock, and began Week 1 Day 1 of the book’s basic aerobic programme. After 4 reps of 1 minute run and 3 minutes walk I was winded, mildly sweaty and happy. Hey… I ran!

I wasn’t paying attention to my pace, though SportTracks tells me that I ran under 10:00/mile each rep (and ~20:00/mile for the walk), averaging 15:23/mile. The average pace was nothing special, but I’m pleased that I managed sub-10:00 on each run part, as it’s so much faster than my previous regular running pace. Obviously I won’t be able to keep that pace up on a continuous run, but it would be nice to improve on my previous 14:30/mile average.

So after a year or so of being part of the wider Internet running community without actually running, I’m no longer a fraud! Well, you know what I mean.

Walk around the block

It’s not supposed to be noteworthy, but I went for a walk when I got home from work this evening, determined to start being active again after such a long period of almost total inactivity, and partly inspired by Nik and Dan of the excellent 4 Feet Running podcast in their 2008 wrap-up episode.

The plan was to use the Nike+ to time a 30 minute walk and wear the Garmin Forerunner, as I haven’t used it in so long, and simply walk out along the valley floor for 15 minutes (or as long as my back could stand) and walk back again. In my now-ingrained habit of sabotaging myself — thought of course I see it as pushing myself a little harder, as I feel like a big jessie all the time — and instead turned up the road that would lead to the ~1.7 mile loop with hills (long medium incline, short steep incline, another medium incline, and ends with a long steep decline).

Halfway up the first incline I realised that my calves were going to give me trouble. By the time I reached the steep incline I was paying quite a bit of attention to my walking to attempt to minimise calf muscle effort, flapping feet and general pain. It didn’t get much worse as I took it slowly from there.

The downhill part of the walk was fine as it gave the affected part of the calves a rest, though my back began to ache mildly. It wasn’t particularly bad, though I thought it interesting. It worked out to 1.8 miles in 36 minutes (a 19:41 pace).

An hour later both the calves and back are mostly back to normal, so I’ve not stressed or strained anything. Not sure I’ll be doing the hill route anytime soon, instead I’ll stick to the flat route as originally planned, but it’s still encouraging to see I can get out and walk again.

So you see what I mean by a walk that shouldn’t be noteworthy, but was for me. Oh, the joy…

Short walk & Weight To Go

I went for a half mile walk this lunchtime, as it was time for a haircut and it was as good an excuse as any to see how my back was progressing, and was pleasantly surprised to be able to do it without too many negative effects. If I kept my stride length short and kept relaxed, there were very few spasms in my lower back (it feels just like it’s the coccyx that’s been damaged). While it shows I’m not back to normal yet, it’s encouraging that I’m getting noticeably better, and am going to use today’s small success as a catalyst to range further daily (subject to weather) over the next week or so. It’s tough knowing when to rein yourself in: either you go all out and end up back at square one, or you get over-cautious and stay indoors for the next 6 months.

While at a night school class last night that I’ve just started, I heard one of the ladies talking about a weight loss programme she’s been on since September/October on the recommendation of her doctor, and she says she’s lost 3 stones (19kg) in just over 3 months. Apparently she achieved this success while doing Weight To Go, a programme that has been trialled and is now partnered and recommended by the UK’s National Health Service, with some Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) offering it as either subsidised or free to patients. The main NHS website isn’t much help (not the best search engine) and, as the NHS is quite distributed, a Google search returns quite a few hits.

The Weight To Go website seems a little high on testimonial and anecdotal content for my skeptical mind, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ineffective or has a catch. The programme is a total food replacement system that provides all the food you’ll need (except for drinks, fresh fruit and vegetables). By providing almost all the food that you put into your mouth, it’s a nutritionally-balanced calorie-controlled diet; as opposed to most dieting systems that reduce your calories while taking no consideration of nutritional balance.

I tried out a similar commercial programme in Australia shortly before I moved to the UK (while I was at my heaviest of 126kg) — though that was all individually package-per-meal fresh food kept in a foam coolbox until it reached your door — and it was working, but I moved to the UK (which had no similar programmes) before I could see major benefits. It’s this past experience, my classmate’s personal experience and the link with NHS recommendation that have me very interested in this new programme. This morning I rang my local GP’s office to ask whether they know about or recommend the programme, and I’m awaiting a callback. At £55 per 7-day package, it’s worth asking the question.

The only remaining factor is what to do once one has achieved an acceptable weight, which is where 99% of dieting systems let you down. My plan is to have integrated regular sport and physical activity into my life to naturally consume what should, by then, become a natural, normal pattern of eating: food content and portion size, both of which let me down, along with regular activity. Everyone knows that if the calories used (out) exceed the calories consumed (in) you will lose weight — it’s achieving this consistently, on a daily basis, that is the challenge.

New Year and all that…

It’s with the usual sense of shock that I realise I haven’t updated this blog in some time. It’s not entirely surprising as since my last post I’ve only made it to the gym 2-3 times, walked 3-4 times, and have done no running or cycling. Some of this has been due to a new business venture I’m putting together, which has been consuming all my recreational time, including my exercise time, but essentially it’s poor time management and some misplaced priorities. What’s worse is that I’ve put even more weight on: I’m back over 120kg. In all, it’s abysmal.

Conversely, Tarkwin has been making great strides in his physical health plan. He’s almost down to my minimum from last year and is looking worlds better for it. People may seem — or say they are — happy when fat and overweight, but the physical, emotional and hormonal benefits of slimming down are undeniable. You don’t have to be the ridiculous “ideal weight” than the BMI fantasy encourages, but somewhere in the broader Overweight category is worlds better than Obese (or higher).

With my return to work this week, after a lovely break over Christmas and the New Year (happy new year, all!), I plan to resume my exercising. As might be expected, already there has been a speedbump in that plan as yesterday I managed to hurt my lower back whilst carrying stuff downstairs into the garage and slipping on the icy steps. Not ideal, but I know it’s just a speedbump. I’ll be careful with it and start out easy.

My shoulder is still not completely healed, as evidenced whenever I happen to sneeze. It’s making me think that I may never be able to resume recurve or traditional archery. I might be able to do compound archery (referred to as The Dark Side because it’s as far from conventional archery as it’s possible to be), but even that’s not certain right now. Besides, I feel that I need to regain my core strength and basic core fitness before I consider it.

Fortunately (for me) it’s the middle of winter, so nobody in their right mind is riding a motorcycle with any regularity. While this means my riding skills are going rusty (I find that even a week without driving a car makes my driving feel uncoordinated for a short time), it does mean I’m not tempted to try out a ride on the bike. The sore back also puts paid to this for now. I suspect I’ll need to think about a more upright bike soon enough, especially if the shoulder continues as it has. The original plan was for a touring bike anyway, so now maybe it’ll become a necessity. Still, we’ll see once the sun rediscovers the northern hemisphere.

I’ve also made the decision to completely give up fullbore target rifle. It’s not just because of the bad experience I had with my previous club, but also because the government and the MOD (as owners of the ranges most people shoot on) keeps adding more and more hurdles and requirements to clubs and members. As it’s not something I’m prepared to invest time in to become a competitive shooter, I may as well accept that it’s more effort than it’s worth and be shot of the increasingly wearisome responsibility of having a sniper rifle in my house. Increasing bureaucracy seems to be a sure-fire way of discouraging me from anything…

So there we have it. I’ve let myself go and am feeling physically and mentally bad for it (this is different from the “how could I have let this happen?” guilt/disgust, which also exists) and I’m full of good intentions and a plan to rectify it. Time to strap up my rustbucket of a body and rediscover my motivation.

Wish me luck!

Lunchtime walk

Braving the blustery weather, I headed out of the office just after 12:30 with the intention to walk towards Bourne End for 10-15 minutes and then back again, giving a nice 20-30 minute lunchtime walk. The A4094 (Wycombe Lane) might be a village/town road, but it’s quite a hairy road to walk along with all the lorries and white vans thundering along it as a shortcut to the M40.

Still, I walked as far as Wooburn Manor Park – about 500 yards from where the exterior of the brilliant Fawlty Towers BBC comedy was filmed in the 1970s – and then back again, stopping briefly to pick up a chicken tortilla wrap for lunch, and was back in the office 35 minutes after starting out. And managed to dodge the rain – success!

GL book & walking for my supper

In a recent edition of the excellent Diggnation vodcast, Kevin Rose briefly mentioned a book he’d been reading that had helped him shed 10lb in 2 weeks without trying, and says he finds it easy to maintain the regime. Most people know that losing weight that quickly is usually down to dehydration, as popular diets tend to rely on 1-2 weeks of water loss masquerading as weight loss to boost morale and gain interest, but Kevin’s case it struck me as notable – and at the very least worth investigating – particularly as he’s a young, fit and active chap for whom such weight loss would be harder than it would be for someone like me. Kind of a law of diminishing returns: he has less to lose, so they’re harder to lose.So I though it worth checking out the book, The Gylcemic Load Diet by Rob Thompson, MD. After all, you can get it via Amazon UK for £9 plus delivery (Amazon US here) – even if it’s rubbish, it hasn’t cost you much.

So last week I read it cover to cover, which isn’t hard to do as it’s only 256 pages and a chunk of that are example recipes at the back, and now understand the core theory and method behind it. Although I’m yet to check his references, everything he said seemed to make sense. So much so that I believe it is achievable and I’m going to give it a go.

The reason I mention all this is that it strongly advocates just 20-30 mins of walking every second day (or every day if you have a sedentary job – like mine, where I drive a computer all day – and lifestyle). Part of the book’s core information is that low-fat foods are pointless when taken alongside the other information provided, so things like bacon and eggs aren’t taboo in moderation. I’m leaving out a lot of the reasoning as I think that if you’re interested in it, you really should read the book.

Armed with that, I’ve decided to walk more – and this includes Sunday mornings. In my family, bacon and eggs are a traditional Sunday breakfast, and it’s something I’ve occasionally indulged in by having bacon and HP Sauce sandwiches, as my Twitter followers would be able to attest. As the GL diet points out numerous problems with bread, I figured plain old bacon, eggs and tomatoes could be a solution – no need for bread! There is The Gorge Cafe, very popular and not far from where I go to the gym, and a fraction under 1.5 miles walking distance from home, who specialise in fry-ups – hence their popularity. So for brunch today I decided to walk for my supper: walked the 1.5 miles to The Gorge and very much enjoyed their Gorge Special (bacon, eggs, toast, and tomatoes or beans), leaving the toast untouched.

After a delicious fry-up, I decided to do a bit of exploring on the way home. I’ve lived in my house for 4 years now and my knowledge of the area is very limited as I haven’t walked off the main roads, so don’t know all the shortcuts, alleys and tracks that, say, your average foot-bound kid would know as a matter of course. Recently I noticed a park on a map of my area which was on the way home and reached by going into a doctor’s surgery carpark and out the back (the joys of England’s Rights of Way laws) and checked it out. After walking up a very steep, grassy hill I turned around to a magnificent hilltop view of central Reading towards the south and east. To my surprise there was a carefully mantained park and pathways running parallel to the road that I’ve spent much timing running along in the past. Definitely a more interesting route.

After that pleasant stroll, it was over Rotherfield Way and up Grove Hill (talk about steep hills!) to see what was up there. Having the choice to turn east through an estate of flats or north-west into the woods, I chose the latter. The area was riddled with tracks and it became apparent very soon that there was a school nearby – the school-age litter seemed to grow the closer I got to the school. I tried to avoid heading towards the school, but I made a wrong turn or two and found myself at the back fence of the school – surrounded by an appalling carpet (and I do mean carpet) of litter on both sides of the fence, so bad it was hard to see ground or grass underneath. Managed to find a way around the perimeter and found myself on the road leading to my street, a couple of hundred yards from home.

With the out-and-back walk plus all the meanderings, switch-backs and exploration, today’s walk was about 4 miles. Not bad in all, but substantially more than recommend in Dr Thompson’s book. Oh well, it was fun – there’s something about investigating and exploring that never gets old.

Synchronised the Sunnyvale runs

For those who are interested, I’ve now synchronised the Forerunner, so the two runs I did in Sunnyvale are now visible on MotionBased here:

• Sunday run
• Tuesday run

Unfortunately MotionBased isn’t as flexible with its measurement settings as Garmin Trainer or SportTracks, so those links are all metric. (For the record: I’m a big metric fan, but it’s impractical when measuring like-for-like in the UK or US).

Tuesday run in Sunnyvale

There’s a lot to be said for mild jet-lag when trying to maintain a fitness regime, as I have no problems getting up for an early run – though constantly waking at 04:30 is wearing a little thin. I was on the corner outside the hotel at 06:50, and had planned to add some intervals to improve my overall pace. The idea was to run 12:00 or better for 3/4 mile, walk 1/4 mile, rinse and repeat.

It went pretty well until I missed my turning onto Old San Francisco Rd. Once I realised what had happened, I turned right onto Evelyn Rd, the next major road up, which would add about a mile to the overall distance. Because of this, I walked much more than I had intended – using the Forerunner’s Lap button to mark running and walking segments. Once I was back at the corner of Old San Francisco and Wolfe, I went back to the original plan, then ran the last half mile at an easy pace.

My calves had started playing up around the time I missed the turning, which is probably why it happened. Thinking that walking would ease it off, I slowed down to a 19:00-20:00/mile stroll, but it made it worse. It’s only when I had to pick up my walking pace to cross a busy intersection that I realised that slow movement makes the compartment syndrome worse. A brisk pace eases it off, and starting to jog again makes it go away completely. Very strange, but it’s definitely true for me.

The overall result was 2.96 miles in 44:46 (15:08/mile). It certainly wasn’t what I’d hoped for, but it was still 3 miles of activity on a day I could have easily stayed in bed. So I’ll not beat myself up too much about it.

No run today

I had planned on going for a run first thing this morning, but my body wasn’t quite ready for it. DOMS started yesterday morning in my quads, deltoids and pecs and, though the upper-body soreness disappeared during the day, the quads soreness didn’t. So I went to bed last reasoning that if I woke up this morning without soreness, then I’d run; otherwise I would have another day of rest.

The reasons for this are simple: muscle soreness comes about when you work your muscles harder than they are used to, and conventional wisdom states that you do as much good resting the day after activity than by doing the activity itself.

When I awoke to the alarm this morning, my thighs were still acheing – another day of rest. It’s annoying, but I’d much rather lose a day of exercise than pull a muscle and have to recover from injury. It took me so long to jump back on the horse; I’d rather not risk demotivating myself.