Blues Archives - Renaissance Granddad

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A Strong Workout Plus the Altered Five Blues Band’s “Mint Condition”

Charmed & Dangerous - Altered Five Blues Band

A Strong Workout Plus the Altered Five Blues Band’s “Mint Condition” So last week was nice. Morning temperatures were in the mid-60s and relative humidity was also fairly low. Yesterday and today overall temperatures were up. This morning it was 76 degrees at 8 o’clock with 95% relative humidity and the sun shining brightly! Not conditions that I like to run in! This 68 year-old body can take just so much! Anyway I decided to do an indoor workout. Since it was supposed to be a running day, I wanted to make it a mostly cardio workout. One of the things that I decided to include in the workout was a set of exercises, some of which are from Kundalini yoga, I do to Snatam Kaur’a Song of the Mul Mantra. Anyway, I used probably the first Cardio playlist that I created which contains a lot of songs from the Sixites and added a few different songs. I kept it mostly just dance cardio but did use light weights, a resistance band and a 5 lb medicine ball during the workout. Here are the results! The Nerdy Results Total Time: 60 min Calories Burned : 541 Avg HR 117 bpm Max HR 168 bpm Time in HR Zones Peak: 7 min Cardio: 35 min Fat Burn: 10 min The results show that I burned as more calories today than I did on my 3.1 mile run on Tuesday. (All be it in more time).I also achieved my goal of having the workout…

Today’s Run 4 Miles with a Hill! Music Murder Creek by Wicked Grin

The Run – Four Miles with a Hill! So after two very cold days the temperatures today rose into the high 40s. As such, it became the first running day of the week. Since I do t like to run on back to back days and Friday is a Target work day, it’s looked like today would be the only run until the weekend. I therefore decided I would make it a tougher run than my normal 5K run. I decided the run would be four miles and would include a run up the highest hill in the area. The run ended up being another amazing run. I ran the first mile in 9:28. And while the hill, on the second mile, was a struggle my overall pace coming down the other side of the bill was still under 10 min/ mile. I held a steady pace over the last two miles and finished the run with a fairly strong kick. My overall pace for the run was 9:56! Go me!! Here are the results. The Results Total Distance: 4.01 miles. Total Time: 39:51 min Pace: 9:56 Avg HR: 142 bpm Max HR: 155 Cals Burned : 521 The Soundtrack – Murder Creek – Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin I had never heard of Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin until I saw their latest release Murder Creek sitting at number 38 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart this week. But a brief the album told me it…

A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!

What’s Been Happening…. Ok so no long recap of why I haven’t posted here for a long time. I’ll just say I had some health issues that appear to have been resolved favorably! The biggest being a high PSA level which is a test used for detection of prostate problems. But after a retest and a normal exam by a urologist, it appears I am good to go. One of the positives that has happened between the initial PSA test and the retest is switching my aerobic exercise from my heavy dance-Kundalini- cardio workout to running. Another is that I have added a 25-30 minute before bed yoga routine. Many of the asanas in the nightly routine are ones that are good for my prostate. Additionally, I have made some dietary changes, adding foods like avocado to my diet! On the downside, but good side, I also tried to eliminate sugary cakey snacks and potato chips!! Anyway, I think all of the above helped to reduce my PSA level. I still think that the main reason that my PSA level was high in the first place was excessive exercise over the weekend leading up to the test. But that’s neither here nor there, the bottom line is hopefully things are good. And the changes that I made to my exercise routines and diet are positive! A Return to Running So let’s get to some new stuff and then I’ll try to catch up on some older stuff as we move…

My Yoga and Walking Challenges Lead to a Month of Runs…

A few weeks after I started my 21-day Yoga Challenge I realize that wanted to add some more to my exercise regime. I thought back and remembered how I started to gain weight, when I stopped babysitting Oliver two plus years ago. While I was babysitting I would take him for two or three 30 minute walks during the day. Once those walks stopped on came the weight! Anyway I thought even though you won’t be pushing a stroller you can walk twice a day numb nuts! So I created the 30-day Oliver Walking Challenge. The aim of the challenge was to use walking to help me get back into shape with the idea that I would then be able to start and run again. Well the Walking Challenge worked so well that within two weeks or so, I was running again. .The Run: 3.1 Miles…. Yesterday I ran for the third time this week. It’s the fourth week in a row that I have done such! The first week I ran 3.1 miles on Sunday and then did the same on Tuesday and Thursday. On the following three Sundays, including this past Sunday, I ran four miles and 3.1 miles on the following Tuesday and Thursday. The end result is that I ran 11 days in May and have run 3 days so far in June. Yesterday’s run was my fourteenth since May 1st and one of my fastest. I completed the 3.1 mile course in 33:53 about…