Slow and Steady Wins the Race?

Yes it does--as long as you sprint a bit, too.

I'll tell you what that means.

Here's my progress. I'm staying at 140 pounds. Which is fine. I think I weighed 135 pounds in college--about fifteen years ago!

For several weeks, I was jogging or using the elliptical machine at the gym--short and sweet.

That is: high intensity, short duration. For me, this means getting my heart to 150 beats per minute (bpm) for 25 to 30 minutes.

That feels quite good: good sweat, good elevated mood and energy.

Now I've been slowing the pace and lengthening the time--to good effect.

On April 20th I ran for 45 minutes raising my heart rate to 140-145 bpm.

On April 23rd, I did the elliptical for 45 minutes getting my heart to 145 bpm. (It's easy to maintain a steady rate on the machine, where you can control the incline and resistance.)

On April 24th, I jogged for an hour, starting at 135-140 bpm for the first half, then cutting back to 130-135 for the second half.

Finally, on April 26th, I ran for one and a quarter hours at 135 bpm, then did another 45 minutes at 125-130 bpm. That's two hours.

"Running" here means: running until you get your heart to the top of your target, then walking until you start to fall below the bottom of your target.

The last, longest, slowest run was the most effective.

I went from 14.6% body fat to 13.4% body fat--in two days. If my scale is telling me the truth.

That's a pound and a half of fat burned.

The first hour and a quarter of that run was fun. After that, it was harder. I was really jogging just a tiny bit, to keep my heart rate elevated.

If I had it to do again, I might try slower--heart rate of 130. That might mean I could do the whole 2 hours at the same rate. That might prevent the last part from being so exhausting.

And I'm also trying to be semi-scientific here. I'm experimenting on myself, finding the heart rate that I can exercise at for an hour or two. Some claim that after an hour or so, you're burning mostly fat.

Mind you, you probably need the conditioning of the shorter, harder workouts in order to get some endurance for the longer slower ones.

And the middle-range runs didn't budge my percentage body fat. It even wandered around slightly higher.

But two short, intense bouts of exercise during the week, followed by one or two that's very long but otherwise easy. This could be a good formula.

From 20% body fat to nearly 13% is in less than four months is pretty darn good.

Eat right and exercise. I know: what a shock.

Which is, of course, the point.

--E. R. O'Neill

140.2 Pounds.

Nice!

My 'percentage body fat'--as measured by the magic of electronic circuitry--seems to vary.

It's like the old joke: my weight is perfect for my height, which varies.

After a week of higher intensity and smaller duration, this week I'm running longer and slower.

After a spurt of the intense exercise, you're suddenly less fat, but then you bounce back.

I wonder what would happen if I did it two days in a row!

But I need to recover.

I'm keeping an eye on my morning heart rate--while still lying in bed.

It was up to 66.

Now it's down to 61.

That's recovery.

You don't want the higher rate!

So no two days in a row nonsense.

I'm also adding some resistance. You know, weight lifting.

Nothing intense.

But just enough to make me sore.

Wish me luck.

--E. R. O'Neill