Sometimes you can’t get a full workout in, here is a quick workout you can do at the sports field.
Bike Tour of San Francisco
Elizabeth and I had an amazing time doing a bike tour of San Francisco. We started at the Bay Bridge, worked our way along the bay, went under the Golden Gate Bridge, and stopped for lunch at Baker Beach.
Most of this can be accomplished on bike path and it all feels pretty safe. The Presidio Tunnel Top Park is a major highlight, it’s so well done.
Here is the link to my Strava map https://strava.app.link/hFi1GfOjULb
This is a great ride, give it a try.
Explore Nashville Run With Elizabeth
Nashville, what a great city. This morning’s run was about seeing various areas of the city and ending up at a local coffee place for beverages and a little food. Part two of the adventure was walking back to the hotel.
I researched a few coffee places and I saw Vanderbilt University was in the area so that gave me my two points of interest I was looking for.
Vanderbilt did not disappoint. The school is 150 years old and very pretty. We had a great time running through exploring and ended up using more milage than expected in the campus.
From there we set off to find Honest Coffee Roasters on Lea Ave. The City is fairly easy to navigate so it wasn’t hard to find. A coffee, a juice, and an avocado toast hit the spot. The people were great there.
We took a different street back on the walk back to the hotel and saw a whole bunch of other cool stuff.
I’m going to call this Nashville exploration mission a success.
Here are our Strava maps
#explore @nashville
Turn Any Ordinary Run Into an Adventure Run
Sometimes I like to spice up a run with some strength elements. I have been refining this combination of exercises for a while and I now think its’ ready to share. Here is the idea – find a large park, or running path if you can, and incorporate strength stations within the run. You can obviously also do this with a walk as well if you like. I have a park 2.5 miles away that I ran to this morning. At this park there is a path that is 1.2 miles around. I have seven stops in the loop and I do the loop two times and then run home. Today the total milage was 7.8 miles.
Here are the stations below
- Push-up’s, do 20 and run to the next station
- Step-ups on a rock, 20 per leg
- Walking Lunge, 20 per leg
- Leg Lifts, 20
- Squat Jumps, 20
- Pull-up’s on the playground, 10
- Dips, 20
Here is the link to the YouTube video where I demonstrated the whole loop.
There is no magic to the order, it’s just the way it laid out on the loop I ran. Be creative and swap in other things you like for stuff you don’t. I obviously left out burpees because I really don’t like them. This is a great workout if you are training for a Tough Mudder, Spartan, or DEKA event this coming season. Get out there, challenge yourself and have some fun.
I am not sure if this will link to Strava but I am giving it a shot. https://www.strava.com/activities/11142600624
Above is my new cover art for my Fitness Anywhere, YouTube series. Let me know what you think.
The Key to Fitness Success – Consistency
There is only one way to stay fit for a long period of time, and that is you have to be day in and day out consistent. It gets even more important as you get older because any gap in workout time, the body is much less forgiving than when you were younger and it’s even harder to get back on track. One of the ways I have been able to maintain a level of consistency is to create what I think are fun challenges to shake things up.
Last Saturday it was on-and-off rainy and I was scheduled to ride 50 miles on my bike. The rain is not a problem because I have a very nice Stage studio cycle at home but the thought of riding 2 hours, 20 minutes on a stationary bike, in the garage was a bit daunting. So instead of compromising the time or distance down, I thought about how I could make it a fun new challenge. It had to be something I had not done before.
As I am brainstorming with myself on what what I could do, I remembered I am training for the Murph Challenge this Memorial Day weekend. Then boom, it all came together. Combine the long ride with Murph Challenge Training and now I have my workout. Hit the link and you can read all about the Murph Challenge, an awesome Memorial Day tradition.
For this workout I am going to do five sets of 10 Pull-ups, 20 Push-ups, and 30 Squats. I’ll do one set to start the workout and one to end, and three about every 40 minutes give or take depending on the bike interval pattern. I did a little video about halfway through the workout, you can see it here.
All total I did 50 Pull-ups, 100 Push-ups, 150 Squats and rode 51 miles and I had a blast doing it. I used those numbers for strength because that’s half of a Murph. Getting off the bike for those few minutes to do the strength set was a great break in the rhythm. It felt great balancing the bike with some super functional body weight strength training. The whole thing took 2 hours 55 minutes and MyZone says I burned 1,954 calories which is really close to what the bike said as well.
The point is, if you are going to have a fitness program that lasts a lifetime, you have to find the tricks that will help you stay consistent. It all starts with creating a weekly routine that is easily repeatable. For a lot of people it’s having a buddy or a group really helps, and for others it’s setting weekly and monthly goals. Find what works for you and stay with it. I am happy to help anyone who may want some help setting up a weekly routine that is easily repeatable. My email is Ralph@ralphrajs.com.
2,500 of Anything is A Lot
On this blog, in the past I have wrote about the motivational virtues of the Apple Watch health rings and all the badges and awards that go along with it. Well, this weekend I hit, what I think, is a pretty big milestone. Hit 2,500 times I closed my move ring on my watch. That’s about 6 years, 8 months worth of daily closures. It takes 500 calories of movement to close that ring. I figure I logged about 2.86 million calories expended in total. Follow my math…
My watch tells me that almost two years worth, 623 times, I hit 400% of my move goal and 1,718 times I double my move goal. So even if my math is off a little, it’s a lot of calories.
So what’s the point? The point is we all need those little things to either shoot for, give us a reason to stay on track, or a little brag point once we hit it. In the Apple watch rings there are several things to help you with all of the above. The features are easy to access and requires absolutely no additional work from you aside from the actual moving around standpoint.
I am proud of this milestone because what it says about my consistency. As we move through our forties and into our fifties working to stay healthy and vibrant, consistency is the key to success. Now that I am in my sixties I feel like I am cashing in on all the work from the previous couple decades. The Apple watch rings didn’t necessarily change my behavior but they did create a paper trail that can can celebrated.
If you have an Apple watch take a look at the “Go For It” section in the rings app. There you will see what’s coming up for you to celebrate. Don’t forget about the monthly challenges also in the app. They are a great little mini motivator that changes every month. Read more about closing your rings here
Plan an Event
Today I completed my second half marathon of the year and I had a great time. Last month I did the race with Elizabeth and our daughter Hannah and today with our son Davis.
What I find very interesting is all the positive things that happen just for signing up for an event. First, it keeps you accountable to a time based goal. More important, it gives you an opportunity to invite others to either do the event with you or come along for support. When we did the Huntington Beach Half I invited our family members to participate, and six people signed up for and did the 5K. For all six this was their very first event. We had such a great time and had I not invited them it would have never happened.
This week I did something fun and I signed upfor a 50 mile gravel race in Arkansas. I’ve never done one and I don’t even have a gravel bike but I have plenty of time and I ride about 450 miles per month.
There is something very energizing about trying something new. That is my thought for you, consider signing up for an event this year. There are so many great things to do, especially in the spring and fall. Invite a buddy to do it with you- the world is out there waiting.
Using Strava Segments for Fun and Motivation
One of the things I love about Strava is the “Segments” feature. Segments a time trials of various lengths built into the places we run, ride and recreate every day. They have their own leaderboards which makes it very fun to track your progress against your rivals. The is a way I like to use segments that has nothing to do with other people. I love using it to gage my current bike/run fitness level against my former self. This is a story about Current Ralph versus History Ralph.
Let me give you an example I am actually quite proud of. There is a segment here in Pleasanton California called the Marilyn Kane trail. It is a 1.5 mile, L shaped paved path that is pretty flat. I have been running this trail for many years and I have now done it 99 times. My personal fastest time on this segment was set back in 2011, I was 48 years old. As my fitness has improved this year and I could see my mile splits getting faster, it was looking like if I really busted my butt I had a realistic chance of beating my former self.
Last week I decided to go after it. The trail start is about 3 miles from the house so I used that as my warm up to get my heart rate up a few times before I hit the start. Here we go 1.5 miles of pain, lets see if I can do it.
Yes! I did it, I was able to beat a PR on a segment I ran 13 years ago. I think we assume, that as we age, we are just automatically going to be slower and that is just not the case. If I didn’t have this history and all the data that goes with it I would have not had any idea this was possible. I find it very empowering and motivating to have this information. This has nothing to do with anyone else, this is just Today Ralph versus History Ralph. My goal is to stay as close to History Ralph as long as I possibly can.
Remember, everyday you workout you are laying down new history for future you and giving yourself a better chance at a powerful and strong life. So, Strava Segments are not just about being competitive with other people, they can be so much more.
Here is my advice – Find a few segments in your general area that you can use as your fitness tester. I have several for running and cycling. Some are hilly and others flat. Make those your fitness gage and use all the great tools provided in Strava to measure and track your fitness level. Thank you Strava for creating such great tools. I am not compensated to pump up Strava, I actually gladly pay for an annual membership because I think it is so good. You can follow me on Strava @RalphRajs
Post Segment Video – I was pretty psyched.
Planning Your Weekly Workout Schedule
Probably the biggest key to my workout consistency is having a weekly routine that I don’t have to think about from day to day. I have had this routine for at least the last 15 years. Depending on race preparation, I have made some adjustments but the main structure has worked through it all.
My point isn’t for you to adopt this particular plan. My point is when you thoughtfully layout your week, knowing where the challenges are, you are much more likely to stay on plan. Here is my thinking for my schedule and the reasoning behind it. I have found with this schedule I don’t get bored because every day is something new and I have managed to avoid injury logging 1,200 miles running and 5,000 biking annually the last 15 years.
Saturday and Sunday I have the most time available to workout. Saturday I do my long bike ride and Sunday I do my long run. Three hours on the bike, that’s 50 miles (give or take 2-3) and 9-12 miles running on Sunday depending what I am training for. The weekend workouts covers about 45% of my weekly volume.
Monday and Friday are active recovery and strength days. I lift weights on those two days emphasizing upper body with a little bit of lower body mixed in. I ride my city bike for an hour around town just having fun being on the bike. I keep my heart rate fairly low and focus on spinning and recovery.
Tuesday and Thursday are intermediate run days of 7 miles. I will mix in interval days, hill days, or just keep it chill depending how I am feeling.
Wednesday is intermediate bike day, typically about 30 miles. It’s a great way to break up the run days.
You can scale this how ever works for you and for the sports you enjoy. The point is to have a plan that you don’t have to recreate every week. It will make being consistent so much easier. I did a TikTok and Instagram video on this if you want to check it out.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Today is one of the special award days that Apple does from time to time. Celebrating Valentine’s Day and heart month, if you close your green exercise ring today you will get this fun badge.
And After…
It’s today, Feb 14, only so don’t miss out.