May’s 30 Day Fitness Experiment Recap and Analysis

Posted on June 3, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I’ve spent the past 9 months doing various 30-day lifestyle experiments which have targeted many different aspects of my life. However, I had yet to do one concerning fitness so I figured it was about time. The month of May was an attempt to do something active and different every day as a means to get out of my comfort zone to try new methods of exercise. As with every other experiment I’ve done so far, aspects of them have crept their way into my life and have become habit (compost bin, talking with strangers on the train, minimalism, eating less meat and more veggies, reading short stories, having sober weekends and not feeling weird about it, etc) and I’m sure that this fitness month will be no exception to that. As with any good experiment it is important to first ask the right kinds of questions. I wanted to find answers to questions like: “Is broomball a legitimate form of exercise?” or “Should I spend my time going to the gym or playing pickup soccer?” or “Do I get a better workout when I do them alone or with friends?” I definitely found some answers to those questions and I’ll recap some of them in this post.

I did a total of 27 different kinds of workouts this month, it was pretty tough logistically but with a little bit of organization and a whole lot of supportive friends I managed to do it. The only repeat workouts were running during Ragnar and hiking during my Hawaii trip. In sum, I ended up doing 31 total bouts of exercise, some more intense than others but at the end of the day I accomplished my goal of getting out of my comfort zone and trying out new exercises. For a full list of the workouts I did, scroll to the bottom of this post.

At the beginning of the month I bought a heart rate monitor because as an engineer, I had to find a way to measure my experiment. How do my new workouts compare to my habitual workouts and how do all of those relate to my overall fitness level? Here’s a chart for min/max/average heart rates for each exercise I did this month. I managed to either forget or mess up my heart rate data for only 3 of my workouts, so they’re omitted from this chart, showing 28 out of the 31 workouts I did this month:

Having the heart rates recorded is one thing, but what’s more important is to put these into context of your training zones which differ from person to person depending primarily on age and resting heart rate (54bpm for me): Fat Burning Zone (125-160bpm), Aerobic Zone (160-174), Anaerobic Threshold Zone (174-181), and Anaerobic Zone (181-195). I won’t go through how I calculated the zones because it’s pretty well-established and you can find the equations online anywhere. HERE are the equations I used. Here’s the chart with the zones overlaid on my heart rate data:

In terms of Average Heart Rate, I did not have any exercises that were in my Anaerobic Threshold Zone nor in my Anaerobic Zone. Most of my workouts landed me in the Fat Burning Zone:

Fat Burning Zone: Broomball, Harvard Stadium, Soccer, Lead Climbing, Plyometrics, Ragnar 1/2/3, Insanity, Boxing, Road Biking, Dragon Boat, Austere Fitness, Rollerblading, Spartan Race WOD, and Swimming.
Exercises that didn’t make the Fat Burning cut for Average Heart Rate: Bouldering, Rowing, P90X Shoulders/Arms, Apartment Moving, TRX Suspension Training, Outrigger Canoeing, Hiking 1/2/3, Yoga, Resistance Bands, Fitness Park.

The caveat here is that I only measured heart rate. I indeed burned fat while hiking 22 miles over 3 days in Hawaii, it’s just that my heart rate didn’t bring me into that zone. A proper measurement would include EMG for measuring muscle activity and VO2 for measuring oxygen consumption, but I’ll never have such advanced equipment so heart rate is all I have to work with. The moral of the story here for me is that for the exercises that didn’t make the fat burning cut, I likely wasn’t pushing myself hard enough (low intensity level) or consistently enough (too many breaks). The other lesson is that I was burning fat doing a variety of different things; from rollerblading to boxing to throwing rocks, I was helping make my body leaner and healthier, all without having to join a gym, spend any money, or use any weights/gym machines.

In terms of my Maximum Heart Rate, I had a few surprising findings:

Anaerobic Zone: Broomball was the only exercise that brought me to an anaerobic level of working out, who knew? I knew I was working really hard and super out of breath but I had no idea I was playing at such a high intensity level. Thank you Social Boston Sports for introducing me to Broomball (league champs 2 years in a row!)
Anaerobic Threshold Zone: Pickup Soccer and my 3rd Ragnar leg. Both of these workout were done with friends, were competitive with other people, and were among the most fun I had while exercising.
Aerobic Zone: Harvard Stadium Run, Plyometrics, Ragnar 1/2, Boxing, Spartan Race WOD, Austere Fitness, and Road Biking.
Fat Burning Zone: Rowing, Bouldering, Lead Climbing, P90X Shoulders/Arms, Apartment Moving, Insanity, Dragon Boat Racing, Outrigger Canoe Paddling, Hiking 1/2/3, Power Yoga, Rollerblading, Swimming, and the Fitness Park.

In all of my workouts this month, I at least reached the point somewhere in the workout where I was burning fat, it just might not have been burning fat the entire time as the average heart rate would indicate.

As for my initial questions starting this month, I found that Broomball is not only a legitimate form of exercise, it’s a fantastic form of exercise which could help push the limits of my anaerobic conditioning. I also found that I didn’t need to go to a gym or lift weights, I’m better of running around outside playing pickup soccer. Lasty, I did 15 of my workouts (roughly half) with friends, these were also the ones where I pushed myself the hardest (anaerobic threshold and anaerobic zones).

Would I do another 30day fitness experiment? Definitely. I had a blast, I feel great, and I have plenty of ideas for other types of exercise. There were about a dozen other exercises that I couldn’t quite do just because of logistics, time, and access to gear, some of them are: ultimate frisbee, mountain biking, break dancing, capoeira, various martial arts, kick boxing, spinning, kayaking, canoeing, and others.

Here’s the list of the exercises I did this month, feel free to check them out by clicking on the links:

Pickup Broomball in Somerville (thanks to Michelle for enlightening me to glory that is pickup broomball)
Harvard Stadium Run (thanks to Dan for always being willing to crush it)
Rowing in the Gym (thanks to no one because erging sucks)
Bouldering Pyramid Workout at Metrorock (boulder sesh with Tony)
Pickup Soccer at Tufts University (thanks Dan, Lauren, and Katie for inviting me)
Lead Rock Climbing at Farley Ledge (thanks to Tom)
P90X Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps
12 Minute Tabata Abdominal Intervals (thanks Julia for sending this my way, sorry we couldn’t get any spinning classes in)
P90X Plyometrics in my Living Room (sorry neighbors below me)
Moving Apartments as a Workout (you’re welcome Sarah :)
Ragnar Relay Race Cape Cod (thanks Katie for organizing it and thanks team for being awesome, 6th place out of over 300 teams!)
Active Recovery Day
Boxing at the Ring Boxing Club (thanks Dan and JLo for joining me)
TRX Suspension Training (thanks Shane for providing the gear and walking me through a workout)
Insanity – Core Cardio and Balance (thanks Karen for letting me borrow the DVDs)
Road Biking
Dragon Boat Racing (thanks Julia for sending this my way, thanks Dave the team’s coach for letting me try it out)
Outrigger Canoe Paddling on Oahu (thanks to Sarah and the Lanikai Canoe Club)
Hiking the Kalalau Trail in Kauai (thanks to Sarah and her expert logistics)
Power Yoga on Kalalau Beach in Kauai Featured as the Adventure Photo of the Day on LetsbeWild.com
Fitness in Austere Environments (Kauai) (thanks Trevor for being a berzerk viking and designing these workouts)
Rollerblading on the Charles River Bike Path
Swimming at Tufts University (thanks Ashley)
Resistance Bands (thanks Graham)
Elliptical – didn’t even write about it b/c it was so lame, recap: awkward/unnatural motion and couldn’t raise my heart rate higher than 140 no matter how high the resistance and how hard I pushed.
Spartan Race Workout of the Day (WOD) (thanks Andy and Joe from Peak and Spartan Races)
Fitness Park Workout (thanks Boston)

Three Days of Hiking the Kalalau Trail in Kauai, Hawaii

Posted on May 29, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Last week I spent one of my two precious weeks of annual vacation on one of the greatest adventures of my life: hiking the Kalalau Trail in Kauai, Hawaii. Sarah has wanted to do this trip her whole life and when she pitched it to me two years ago I was all in, it just took us two years to get our act together and finally plan it. This trail traverses the Napali Coast, an area of Kauai that is impassable by any vehicle that’s not a boat, kayak, or human feet The word Pali in Hawaiian means Cliff so when they call it the Napali Coast (the cliff coast) they really mean it. The 11 mile hike into Kalalau Beach is almost entirely on the side of a cliff, in other words, it was pretty epic. My challenge this week was to still find a way to do a different exercise every day. However, after our first day of hiking 10 miles I quickly decided that hiking and only hiking would take up three of the five days on Kauai. I had absolutely no energy for anything else on those days and it didn’t seem reasonable to expect myself to add an additional exercise just because it’s different, exercise is exercise and I certainly got a lot of it during my stay in Kauai. I’ll combine three days of hiking into one post because they’re really the same activity and in the same area. I’ll write about my beach yoga session and Trevor Smith’s Gymless Backyard Workout on separate posts.

Day 1:

We woke up at 3:30am on Oahu and had a friend drive us to the airport for a 5:00am flight to Kauai. From there we caught a taxi to a bus stop where we then caught a local bus that drove us one hour to a family friend who would drive us the rest of the way. The trail head to Kalalau is literally at the end of the road in Kauai, you simply can’t go any further in your car. So by 9:00am we hit the trail on foot.

Sarah and I bright eyed and bushy tailed at 9:00am after 5.5 hours of traveling.

Shortly into the hike we realized that it wouldn’t be so easy while carrying 5 days worth of food and booze. We didn’t weigh our packs beforehand because we were too scared but based on past experience the packs were close to 50lbs but probably not more than that. I’d say we were fairly minimal in the gear we brought. I had 2 tech shirts, 1 pair of running shorts, 1 pair of board shorts, and two pairs of socks. Then we had some shared gear like the tent, stove, water filter, med kit, food and wine. That was pretty much it, but having to carry around 5 days worth of food plus a few liters of water really does add up.

That pack was mostly food plus 3 liters of boxed wine, we made lots of friends along the way :)

Two miles into the hike we reached Hanakapi’ai Beach and the trail split, one direction would take us to our destination Kalalau Beach and the other would take us up to Hanakapi’ai Falls. We hadn’t planned on going to the falls because the out-and-back would add another 4 miles to our trip but we decided why the heck not? It came highly recommended by everyone we talked to and who knows when we’d be back in this area again so we dropped our packs 100 yards up the trail, hid them behind some trees and continued to the falls.

Hanakapi'ai Falls was one of those life experiences I'll remember forever, a totally unreal experience to swim under a waterfall that is over 300 feet high.

Rejuvenated from the swim at the Falls and the 4 mile hike without our packs we got back onto the Kalalau Trail and headed for the Beach. There was a campsite area at the 6 mile point on the Kalalau Trail called Hanakoa Valley. This made it a 10 mile trip for us to Hanakoa with another 5 miles to go before reaching our final destination. We made the executive decision to camp there for the night instead of continuing on. We chilled in the hammock, got eaten up by bugs, and passed out as the sun set. My min/max/average heart rate for the day of hiking was 64/139/103. I think the average was driven pretty low by the number of breaks we took and the fact that heavy load carriage is pretty slow going. My quads were certainly working harder than my lungs were, too bad I didn’t have an EMG setup (anyone want to spot me $20K to buy an intro EMG system?). On the way out I decided I would stop my watch during breaks to try and get a more accurate measure of my heart rate.

Our humble abode in Hanakoa Valley along the Kalalau Trail.

Day 2:

The next day, with 40+ bug bites on my exposed legs and arms, we headed off for Kalalau Beach 5 miles away, our home for the next four days. We arrived by 9:30am ready for a day on the beach but not before some stellar views and sketchy, eroding cliffs:

On the trek from Hanakoa Valley to Kalalau Valley.

This picture is mostly in shadow but it definitely gets across the cliffs we were walking across. If you look closely on the left you can see Sarah traversing a particularly gnarly section.

Finally at Kalalau Valley. I have to admit that I half-expected to see a pterodactyl soaring over the cliffs or a pack of brontosaurus walking through the valley, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park.

Each view was a million-dollar postcard view. These are only but a few of the particularly breathtaking ones. We avoided taking pictures on some of the more dangerous sections. Falling off the trail would be pretty unlikely but had you fallen you most certainly would have died, with nothing between you and rocks/water hundreds of feet below you. It definitely added an element of danger and adventure to the trip while still keeping it relatively “safe”.

My heart rate on this leg of the trip was fairly consistent with Day 1, my min/max/average was 65/150/105. Again I didn’t stop the heart rate monitor during breaks for over the 2.5 hours of hiking there were several periods where my heart rate dropped to below 90 while resting. I think overall though, trekking with a heavy backpack and having to pace yourself for hours on end, your heart rate generally has to stay pretty low, I’m not sure I could sustain a 150bpm heart rate for very long while carrying 50lbs of gear through a series of mountain cliffs.

Day 3 (of hiking, day 5 of the trip):

On the way out, with backpacks close to half their initial weight (minimal food left, zero wine left), I kept a closer watch on my heart rate, however it stayed around the same levels as the trip in. From Kalalau Beach to Hanakoa Valley my heart rate was 66/139/105 for 2.5 hours. From Hanakoa Valley to Hanakapi’ai Beach my heart rate was 66/141/103 for another 2.5 hours. Lastly from Hanakapi’ai Beach to Ke’e Beach (trail head) my heart rate was 65/146/113 for just under 1 hour. We crushed the last two miles but I definitely felt like I was working harder on the trip in, not just because of the heavier packs but also because it was dry and we were moving faster. The trip out on the 5th day was pretty wet and slow going because it sprinkled rain almost the entire time. This made the sketchier sections of the trail much sketchier so we took our time. There are several stream crossings in the dozen or so valleys we crossed through that are prone to flash-flooding when it rains so we were also concerned about that. However, it hadn’t rained in several days and this rain was more of a mist than anything else, so we weren’t too worried. We were more concerned with the immediate threat of slipping and falling off the cliff to our deaths.

The Kalalau Trail was pretty muddy on the way out, it made for slow going on the trail, especially the sketchier parts.

This trip was definitely one of the most amazing adventures I’ve ever had. Because this blog post is about fitness I’ll avoid going into many of the other awesome aspects of this trip like the naked hippies who welcomed us, partied with us and fed us with their Kalalau Pizza Deserts. As I’m writing this blog post I’m most certainly in reverse culture-shock but all in all it was a great fitness experiment combining travel on lack of sleep, carrying heavy loads for hours on end, wandering through dozens of valleys and cliff sides, lot’s of logistics, and finally ending up on one of the most beautiful, remote, and untouched beaches in the world. It was a totally unreal trip and I’m sure it’ll take a while to come to terms with being back in Boston.

Harvard Stadium Workout

Posted on May 2, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Running the Harvard Stadium steps is definitely one of my favorite alternative/free ways to work out. I went with my buddy Dan who coincidentally was the last person I did this workout with way back in August. It certainly crushes your calves and quads, but in a good way…

A view of the Harvard University Stadium from the first of 37 bleacher sections.

Just as I was about to leave for Harvard, I realized that I had left my running shoes at work so my best bet was to take my hiking boots. If you can manage to see in the picture above, there are two different ways to do these stairs. There are short stairs which are technically the isles that are good for “running” and then there are the bleachers which are twice as high and twice as deep as the isles that are good for “hiking”. We decided to hike the bigger sections which I’ve done a few times before in training for various events (Presidential Traverse, Spartan Beast Race, etc). Running the short isle stairs in my hiking boots just didn’t seem like a reasonable thing to do. When we arrived we saw a group of three who were just finishing up the 37th bleacher section while wearing large hiking backpacks. The Harvard Mountaineering Club must be getting ready to crush something this summer, cool.

A picture of me just over halfway through the workout. All we were missing was the song The Eye of the Tiger blasting from a boombox.

Sometimes in fitness training nothing compares to just going upward; getting your body to the top of a set of stairs, ski slope, or mountain is hugely gratifying and very hard to replicate in a gym. In a workout like this there’s no gear, clothing, or equipment that will help give you an advantage; it’s just you, your will power, and a set of stairs. You can run all day long and have great cardio but if you don’t “go upward” in your training then hiking mountains or running races like the Spartan Beast and the Tough Mudder (both on ski mountains) will murder your quads. About halfway through my legs started shaking but after doing a few more, the shaking went away. We did 37 stair sets in about 45 minutes and I had an average heart rate of 150, a minimum at 84, and a maximum at 170. Loved it.

Pamola Has a Smoke by Leroy Dudley – A Short Story Review

Posted on April 9, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

This is my first review on Shelfari.com, looking forward to exploring its functionality/usability versus GoodReads and LibraryThing.

Today I read one of Leroy Dudley’s stories from “Chimney Pond Tales” called “Pamola Has a Smoke”. Chimney Pond is located in the basin of Mt. Katahdin, an absolutely amazing and even majestic place. I’ve been there over a dozen times myself and each time is better than the last. If you’ve never been there, it’s definitely worth the drive from Boston (or even a flight to Bangor and a drive from there). I included a few pictures in this post from previous visits to Katahdin.

Pamola Peak on Mt Katahdin. Photo Courtesy of Chris Severino who has a great blog full of insightful shenanigans, check it out http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/

In this story, Dudley had climbed up to Pamola’s Peak to smoke some tobacco out of his pipe, one of his favorite activities while spending the summer at Chimney Pond. By this time, Dudley had already made friends with Pamola, the giant winged moose who protected the mountain. According to the local Penobscot Indian tribe, Pamola was the god of thunder. Pamola saw how much Dudley enjoyed smoking his pipe so he asked Dudley to go into town and make him a pipe. Dudley did just that and brought him a 50 gallon tar barrel with an attached pipe three inches in diameter and ten feet long (also Pamola was huge, see the cover of the book for reference). When he brought the pipe back to Pamola, he filled it with balsam boughs, birch bark, and tarred paper and lit it on fire. Pamola was ecstatic until he accidentally lit his majestic beard on fire. Immediately he flew from his perch on Pamola’s Peak and dive bombed into Chimney Pond, making the pond boil with the heat. Distraught that his beard was burned off he moped around the mountain for a few days in a depressed state. He even refused to help the moon crest over the Knife’s Edge (the ridge between Pamola Peak and Baxter Peak) and the moon was stuck there for several days. After giving the issue some thought, Dudley rubbed Pamola’s beard with fertilizer and it instantly grew 12 feet long. Dudley had to chop most of it off with his axe, which he had to resharpen due to the strength of Pamolas beard. He then told Pamola to go wash the fertilizer off or else his beard would continue to grow forever. Pamola was incredibly grateful and added this to the list of reasons he liked Leroy Dudley.

Chimney Pond in the basin of Mt. Katahdin. Photo Courtesy of Chris Severino.

Photo of Mt. Katahdin from Hamlin Peak. Baxter Peak is to the far right and Pamola Peak is to the far left. Photo Courtesy of Jed Palmer.

About the Author Leroy Dudley:

During the first half of this century, Leroy Dudley, Guide and spinner of tales at Chimney Pond on maine’s Mount Katahdin, enchanted countless outdoor enthusiasts with his yarns about Pamola, the Penobscot Indian God of thunder who protected the mountain. (Courtesy of Chimney Pond Tales assembled by Clayton Hall and Jane Thomas with Elizabeth Hall Harmon).

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog