Did my 3-mile run in 31:50 today, which is a new PR. 32:30 was the old.
I now have a cheststrap heart rate monitor - which is going to keep me from going to fast the first mile. I set it to give me an alarm if I went below 80% or above 90%. So for the first two miles, I was running at a pretty good clip, with a heart rate at about 88-90%. The last mile, however, I had a hard time keeping it below 90% without slowing down to a really easy jog. Every time I looked, it said 93-94%, even though I was running slower than the first two miles. I finally gave up trying to stay below 90% and pushed through to the finish. For about the last 200 meters, I said "screw it" and ran hard - got the heart rate up to 99% at the very end.
When I break 30 minutes, I am going to have some sort of gluttunous celebration.
Jun 30, 2005
My experience on the NYMEX
So yesterday I was down in the city to meet a friend who works on the floor of the NY Mercantile Exchange. Now for those of you who don't know what it is, the NYMEX is the worldwide center of commidities trading - when you hear on the news that crude oil is up above $60, it's because someone sold a barrel of oil for $60 - and that barrel is usually sold at the NYMEX.
Still don't recognize it? Ok, think back to Trading Places. Yeah, Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd. Remember at the climax they were writing tons of tickets, putting the Dukes out of business in the frozen concentrated orange juice pit? That was at the NYMEX. And it still runs pretty much the same way as it did in 1983 when the movie was realeased - a bunch of grown men in a pit yelling at each other.
And that's where I was yesterday. My friend got Alex and I down onto the floor of the exchange and he gave us the nickel tour on how things worked down there. He has worked there for 27 years and could actually have been an extra in Trading Places had he not already had plans that weekend. They filmed that scene on-location and used real exchange employees as extras.
A couple of things to note:
1. Yes, believe it or not, there really is a pit for frozen concentrated orange juice.
2. Yes, being a broker on that exchange is a brutal, high-stress, high-intensity job.
Now my friend works in natural gas - which is the pit right next to crude oil. Now this is just an educated guess, but I'd say that of all the commodities on the exchange: cotton, corn, sugar, coffee, grain, etc., crude oil is probably the one that gets the most press, followed by natural gas. This is especially true the day before I got there, as it sold for the first time at $60 a barrel. When I got there, oil was selling for about $57, and my friend said it had quieted down significantly since yesterday. I walked over to the crude oil pit, took a footprint the size of a small house, and saw what looked to me like utter pandemonium. It would be neat to see it when it was busy.
Still don't recognize it? Ok, think back to Trading Places. Yeah, Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd. Remember at the climax they were writing tons of tickets, putting the Dukes out of business in the frozen concentrated orange juice pit? That was at the NYMEX. And it still runs pretty much the same way as it did in 1983 when the movie was realeased - a bunch of grown men in a pit yelling at each other.
And that's where I was yesterday. My friend got Alex and I down onto the floor of the exchange and he gave us the nickel tour on how things worked down there. He has worked there for 27 years and could actually have been an extra in Trading Places had he not already had plans that weekend. They filmed that scene on-location and used real exchange employees as extras.
A couple of things to note:
1. Yes, believe it or not, there really is a pit for frozen concentrated orange juice.
2. Yes, being a broker on that exchange is a brutal, high-stress, high-intensity job.
Now my friend works in natural gas - which is the pit right next to crude oil. Now this is just an educated guess, but I'd say that of all the commodities on the exchange: cotton, corn, sugar, coffee, grain, etc., crude oil is probably the one that gets the most press, followed by natural gas. This is especially true the day before I got there, as it sold for the first time at $60 a barrel. When I got there, oil was selling for about $57, and my friend said it had quieted down significantly since yesterday. I walked over to the crude oil pit, took a footprint the size of a small house, and saw what looked to me like utter pandemonium. It would be neat to see it when it was busy.
Jun 25, 2005
Running
My running is going well. The improvements I have made in my endurance and speed are very good considering my size.
Whereas when I started I couldn't even run the 3-mile lap around Rockland lake, I am now pretty close to breaking the 30-minute mark. When I first got to the point where I could actually make it all the way around the lake without walking, I was doing it in about 40-45.
I am getting my wind back really quickly now. Before I would have to rest for 10-15 minutes before my breathing (and heart rate) got back to normal after the run. Now, I can do an active recovery (light jogging) and have the heart breathing come back to normal in only a couple of minutes. At first I was concerned about this because I thought I wasn't running hard enough, even though the run itself *was* hard. But after asking some friends, I found that this was actually a good sign of improved fitness.
Today, for the first time, I did not go to Rockland Lake to run the 3-mile lap. Instead, I went to the local high school track in Mahwah, NJ. It was 6PM, and about 85ยบ outside. I walked one lap, then ran a couple of laps to get nice and warm - and then I started working what will become the most effective exercise I can do to lose fat: Intervals.
Here's how I did it: I would sprint the straightaways, and jog the curves. The idea is to jog the curves slow enough that you get your wind back before the the next straightaway, but not too slow so it's not a reasonable effort. 10x120yards - the straightaways were 120 yards long (fresh stripes were painted on the football field) And I did it ten times. On the tenth one I sprinted really hard too - to get a good ooomph out of the last interval. This is GREAT exercise. It's so intense that, according to my books on running, your body won't let you do it more than twice a week. As I get better and better at it I'll add laps and do the sprints even faster.
My running program is going to become more structured now. Whereas I have been running three miles a few times a week, it was accomplishing results for me only because I'm so fat that *any* activity would produce great results. People who have been running for years know that while just doing the same run a few times a week is better than nothing, they could really make huge deposits by adding some structure to the running. There are all sorts of fancy or whimsical names for the types of runs they do: speedwork, VO2 max training, lactate threshold training, fartleks, hill training, race training - But it can be simplified to long runs, normal runs, and intervals. Well, what I did today would be considered speedwork. Not only does it produce amazing gains in my fitness, but it also makes me a faster runner. I'm also going to add a weekly long run, which is an endurance builder - it gets me used to being on my feet for a long time. Every thing else would be normal running - and I'll use the 3-mile Rockland Lake course as a litmus test.
When I break 30 minutes on that Rockland Lake course, I'm going to have some sort of gluttonous celebration.
Whereas when I started I couldn't even run the 3-mile lap around Rockland lake, I am now pretty close to breaking the 30-minute mark. When I first got to the point where I could actually make it all the way around the lake without walking, I was doing it in about 40-45.
I am getting my wind back really quickly now. Before I would have to rest for 10-15 minutes before my breathing (and heart rate) got back to normal after the run. Now, I can do an active recovery (light jogging) and have the heart breathing come back to normal in only a couple of minutes. At first I was concerned about this because I thought I wasn't running hard enough, even though the run itself *was* hard. But after asking some friends, I found that this was actually a good sign of improved fitness.
Today, for the first time, I did not go to Rockland Lake to run the 3-mile lap. Instead, I went to the local high school track in Mahwah, NJ. It was 6PM, and about 85ยบ outside. I walked one lap, then ran a couple of laps to get nice and warm - and then I started working what will become the most effective exercise I can do to lose fat: Intervals.
Here's how I did it: I would sprint the straightaways, and jog the curves. The idea is to jog the curves slow enough that you get your wind back before the the next straightaway, but not too slow so it's not a reasonable effort. 10x120yards - the straightaways were 120 yards long (fresh stripes were painted on the football field) And I did it ten times. On the tenth one I sprinted really hard too - to get a good ooomph out of the last interval. This is GREAT exercise. It's so intense that, according to my books on running, your body won't let you do it more than twice a week. As I get better and better at it I'll add laps and do the sprints even faster.
My running program is going to become more structured now. Whereas I have been running three miles a few times a week, it was accomplishing results for me only because I'm so fat that *any* activity would produce great results. People who have been running for years know that while just doing the same run a few times a week is better than nothing, they could really make huge deposits by adding some structure to the running. There are all sorts of fancy or whimsical names for the types of runs they do: speedwork, VO2 max training, lactate threshold training, fartleks, hill training, race training - But it can be simplified to long runs, normal runs, and intervals. Well, what I did today would be considered speedwork. Not only does it produce amazing gains in my fitness, but it also makes me a faster runner. I'm also going to add a weekly long run, which is an endurance builder - it gets me used to being on my feet for a long time. Every thing else would be normal running - and I'll use the 3-mile Rockland Lake course as a litmus test.
When I break 30 minutes on that Rockland Lake course, I'm going to have some sort of gluttonous celebration.
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