Workouts Archives - Renaissance Granddad

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A Workout to Books – Jimmy Vaughan to Michael Hayden!

My morning yesterday went from a cardio workout to books at Barnes & Noble. From Jimmy Vaughan’s “Boom Bapa Boom” to Michael Hayden’s Playing the Edge. Initially I was going to start my day with a run. However, I forgot that my wife wanted to go to Home Goods. So rather than running, I began my morning with a 40-minute plus Cardio exercise routine. The routine’s soundtrack was created on Spotify. My Morning Cardio Workout Soundtrack The soundtrack consists of seven main songs and is 35 minutes in length. Typically, I extend the routine to slightly more than 45 minutes by just using the songs that Spotify randomly adds to the playlist. Heres’s the playlist and the accompanying cardio. “Boom Bapa Boom” Jimmy Vaughan – 4 sets of jumping jacks 25 each set- 100 total “Flip Flop and Fly” Ellis Hall – 5 lb weights curls, standing press, lunges, etc “Feel So Good” – Faces – step ups with step stool and squats with resistance band ”Feelin’ Allright” Traffic – various movements with Kettle Bell ”Bad n’ Ruin” Face – twist and bends with arms at shoulder height. ”Congo Square” – Sonny Landreth – various movements with double resistance band “Stay with Me” – Faces – four sets of 25 arm twists and snatches. Then movements with light weights. The soundtrack officially ends at “Stay with Me”. However most times, I keep going with a cool down that typically last another ten minutes. Here’s the soundtrack…… Yesterday, the workout was 42…

Age-Graded Running Makes a Good Run Better!

Ok, so I thought I’d lead off with some of the nerdy details from this morning’s run. The reason is because for the first time in a long time my overall pace for the run was under 11 minutes/per mile! Yes, lower temperatures and cloudy skies do make a big difference. While the overall pace was great the splits were even better…. Mile 1 1:08 min/mile Mile 2. 11:04 min/mile Mile 3 11:01 min/mile and the old man sprint over the last 0.16 of a mile – 9:25 min/mile! Additionally, my average heart rate during the run was 133 beats per minute (bpm).My peak heart rate was 149 bpm. So overall it was a great run. Not fantastic but compared to the last few runs which were struggles it was wonderful. EK Turns to an Age-Graded Running Calculator After those struggling summer runs, which most of them were, I needed to turn to an age-graded running calculator feel better about the run. An age-graded calendar uses an age-grading percentage to provide a method of measuring and comparing the quality of a running performances. So the calculator takes into consideration, that while I don’t think I am , I am old! Here’s how it does it! Calculating Your Age-Graded Running Percentage From Runbundle.com To determine an age-grading percentage… A calculation is carried out that takes into account the age and the sex of the runner and produces a single percentage value. This value can then be used to compare performances between…

A Running Reboot With A New Mindset

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A Running Reboot With A New Mindset Ok so I’ve started many posts over the last two months and all of them have just laid around as drafts! I guess it’s because for some reason the activities of a 69 year old white man in Riverside NJ don’t seem very important right now. It seems that a raging pandemic, an out of control wanna big dictator and an uprising to end systemic racism in our country may be just a little more important than what books I’ve read or music that I’ve listened to over that period of time. But I guess, just like I’ve started to venture out to stores again, I’ll try to get back in to writing this blog! Some Humor About Running And I’ll start with running …. now if you want to know about cross country and running you can watch this…. In the weeks leading up to the stay at home orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic I was just starting to run on a regular basis. Then for the next two months I basically ran once a week, And while I was still doing Cardio Workouts I wasn’t getting anywhere near as many steps in as I have been I’ve over the last several years. So I started adding walls onto my workout schedule. That increased my steps but still didn’t get me to where I wanted to be. A Running Reboot with a New Mindset Last Monday I started my week, like…

A Music-less Return to Running Yikes!

So yesterday was a fairly nice day and since my legs were feeling pretty good, I thought it would be a good day to start running again. Since it was going to be a little warmer in the afternoon I decided that’s when I would run. In the morning I went to Trader Joe’s. I made a playlist with some Blues harp players who i didn’t know (see post from yesterday). So…. Poor Run Poor Planning Leaves Me Music-less When it came time to run, I decided to listen to Twist the Knife from The 44’s. The one thing I forgot was that my phone’s battery runs down fairly quickly and by the time I was ready to run it was at 20% and falling fast. I charged it a little and was able to get it up to about 45%. However, I knew that was not going to get me through the run with both my Fitbit app and Spotify going at the same time. When that happens I can watch the charge drain from the battery. I was right. By the time reached the first mile, I knew there was no way the battery would last through the whole run. So I turned off Spotify. I did make it through the run with 1% left when I finished. While the run wasn’t a struggle, it wasn’t a piece of cake either. I was able to maintain about an 11 minute per mile pace through the first two miles….

Is A Great Day a Harbinger of A Great Anti-aging Fall?

For whatever reason yesterday was one of those days that was pretty damn good anti-aging day. It may be because it started off well when I noted upon waking, that for the first time since I had pneumonia back in July, my resting heartbeat during the night, hit 38 beats per minute. That made me feel good and quitem well may have set the tone for the whole day. My Morning Workout Anyway today was a non-running. Typically on Wednesday I try to do a pretty hard workout using just about all of the exercise equipment I have at home. And during today’s 46 minute workout I did just that….. here’s the equipment I used… All of my workouts are accompanies by a musical playlist. A different piece of equipment is used for each song. For example I use Peaches & Herb’s “Reunited”for the kettle bell, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Down on the Corner” accompanies my attempts to use the jump rope. While the light weights are used during Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense and Peppermint”. The results of the workout look like this…. The Nerdy Details Total Time 47:12. Calories Burned 462. Avg HR 122 bpm Time in Heart Rate Zones – Peak 6 min, Cardio 32 min , fat burn 8 min Overall it was a great workout. Next cane breakfast and today I made a smoothie with the works: a bananna, an apple, strawberries, pineapple, cherries, yogurt, and almond milk. After a trip to Walmart to buy some mums…

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…

60s Music for Cardio Workout, New Age for Yoga!

The Doors a Soundtrack for Cardio Workout – New Age Nancy Shoop-Wu for Yoga So last night the soundtrack for my evening workout came from two sources. The first part of my workout was a 15 minute plus dance-cardio workout. The soundtrack was a portion of a playlist of music from The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and The Who. The workout only lasted through the first three songs. All three were from The Doors. The first two “Who Do You Love?” and “Break on Through” were from their album Absolutely Live. Several years ago I wrote a post ranking my favorite live albums. You can read that post here The second half of my workout was a yoga routine It was actually just a shortened version of the routine that I usually do. The soundtrack of that portion of my workout was Rainbow Road from Nancy Shoop-Wu. Back when I first listened to and enjoyed Rainbow Road I wrote a post about Nancy Shoop-Wu and the album. Rainbow Road – Nancy Shoop – Wu Rainbow Road the second release from violinist Nancy Shoop-Wu has been one of the various albums that I have used as the soundtrack for my morning workouts and meditations over the last few months. And it has been one of my favorites! About Nancy Shoop-Wu Nancy Shoop-Wu’s music is a wonderful blend ofi New Age , Hawaiian and classical music. Shoop-Wu started her musical journey at the age of nine in her home state of Connecticut. She came…

A Hand-Me Up Fitbit Blaze Reignites My Workouts!

Ok so I have said before that a Fitbit in and of itself will not make you fit. However, it does show you the fruits of your exercising and helps to motivate you. EKK starts the Year Sans Fitbit… This year, I didn’t have a Fitbit at the beginning of the year. I had two Charge Hrs, however, both had fallen apart to the point that they couldn’t be recharged. And one had frozen during a firmware update. For a while I was able to charge and use the unfrozen one. But then it also froze during a firmware update also. The end result was, I found it hard to get motivated to do some of my more energetic workouts. So I was exercising, but not very hard. ….Then Gets a Fitbit Blaze! Well, two weeks ago my daughter went to a convention for school psychologists in Chicago and on the morning she was leaving she passed up her Fitbit Blaze to me! Of course this was several days after I had purchased a cheap Letscom exercise tracker, which by the way wasn’t working badly at all, but is nowhere near the Blaze. …. Which Recharges My Workouts Anyway, this past week was a very good workout week, as I try to get back in shape. I exercised fairly vigorously on three days. On two days, I exercised for close to 50 minutes and burned more than 400 calories. While this mornings workout lasted 36 minutes burning 329 calories. …. Hopefully Positive…