The Bells: lifting kettlebells and dumbbells

This is what I do when I'm not doing HillFit. I use the same principles and try to follow the same physiological logic in order to be true to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) approach. The advantage is that you can lift lower weights to better exercise   effect by going slower. Obviously my form could do with some overhaul, but then practice rules, even for non jocks like me, right?

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Exercise Musack: 100 seconds exertion followed by 10 second rests x 9 times

      This is a rough edit of some delightful Javanese gamelan music . The music rules the timing. If you want some music to format your exercise exertions here it is in roughly 100 second grabs.  (I tried for a set interlude of  90 seconds to fit with my HillFit routine but the music would not bend).

The musical interlude  is repeated  nine times.

All up your session (x 9 segments) will last 18 minutes. You also get ten second rests between the hard yakka stuff.

If you want the mp3 file for your audio player  you can download it here:    

Or play it online and right click to download it here:

or listen below:

Until yesterday my music had eight intervals but I added another segment because I  needed another 100 seconds to do all my preferred exercises with the kettlebells and dumbbells.  This is because I have two legs and two arms (rather than simply one of both). 

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My exercising: notes on HillFit

The HillFit Pullup

How much weight do you lift when performing HillFit?

I reckon the weight issue is subjective in context as you have a few variables you can play around with: (1) the angle of your movements (2) the pace you do the movements and (3) then you can consider what weight to add if any. For the pelvic lift I lay a dumbbell on each thigh and rest my upper back on a bench — a fantastic experience esp if done really really slowly.

The same knapsack (mine currently weighs in with a 13 kgm sandbag) is used for both squat and pull up. The push up plank offers so many tweaks I dont need the extra weight. But even with all that the slower I go the harder all the exercises get.

How slow is 'slow'? 

Since I used to do and teach Tai Chi you get a handle on ‘slow’ and while I started off counting I now rely on the slow controlled breaths. With the dumbbells it is easy to cross over with the same principles in mind. 

I recommend as a guide the very practical Matt Brzycki and Fred Fornicola Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness. Many options offered in its pages. It also discusses weight increments.

Nonetheless, since I have been lifting kettlebells for years the HillFit perspective undermines the practice of KB swinging but I now do no-swing routines ever so slowly like clean and jerks, bow ties, etc. You can do things with the bells you can’t do so well with dumbbells — and weight is formatted by other variables because KB cause you to adapt your body while the bells are lifted through space. A great example of a slow KB lift -- at least for the very adventurous -- is the Turkish Getup.

The Toolbox

So that’s a set of dumbbells, 3 single kettlebells at different weights (but two would do), a strong towel (which I reinforced with rope) an old knapsack…and a bag of sand.

An exercise bench is also real handy.

Music and Time

And the best thing is that I know HillFit will take me under 5 minutes to complete, and my weights routine – divided into 8 sections, each of approx 90 seconds followed by 10 sec rests — will take 16 minutes. And when I’m doing it all I have to do is listen to the music — my current fav is Javanese Gamelan — sequenced into 90 sec plus 10 secs x 8. ( I edited a song to my needs using a audio edit program like Audacity).

Mp3 players are essentials I reckon. A great discovery. As essential as a dumbbell.

I mention these details because I have done so many routines over the years, had a personal trainer for two years and followed many mixes in the past — but I love this blend. At two day intervals with alternating routines it doesn’t get boring. And the set time sequences stop me from trying to be macho enough to injure myself or foster ill health upon my good person...

I’d like to box more but I am tardy. I do other stuff mainly because I like this other stuff…but the low tech supplement I think I get the most from — and which I treat as part of serious exercise — is stair running.

Show  me a stair case and I’m up it like a rat up a drainpipe.

[Oh for a local sandhill! But stairs at railway stations will have to do.]

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I'm a poster boy for self help.

At the river mouth

As my strength and endurance improves I'm getting to love this running biziness. After years walking the dogs in various guises I'm now running with the pack -- well, at least,  our rather minimalist micro pack.

When you consider that I started walking the dogs with walking/trekking poles back then and used to walk about town with a cane (back then)... you get some idea how far the old bod has marched in the space of a few years.

Years? Five or six years of land based focused exercise after several more of pool work.

Now I'm running 5 kilometres three to four  times per week: no sweat ... as well as doing intense interval training strength sessions (HIIT) every other day and kickbiking 14 km as impulse takes me. 

Not a bad regimen after years of experimentation.

On top of that everyday (when mobile) I do at least 45-60 minutes of Soul (line)  Dancing because I love it ... and now share the choreographies.

I'm a poster boy for self help.

But for now, the option to everyday touch the sea and be nautical is such that I'm sure I'll be trying to run every day ASAP. I may walk the dogs when I don't run them but running the shoreline and tidal flats, chasing the low tide around the clock, mixing it with the wind and weather, ploughing through tidal pools and shell beds, side stepping soldier crabs and watching the weather patterns over Moreton Island 30 km away, accompanied by Sea Eagles overhead ... is magic.

If you'd asked me 6 months back if I'd be running today I would have been self-depreciating.

I'd have said," not possible."

But there you have it: by dint of logic and circumstance after putting one newly shod foot in front of the other I'm running.

So kickbiker turns runner but stays kickbiker and runs as he kickbikes.

So kettlebell lifter turns Intense Interval exerciser but still lifts dem bells.

Serendipity.

  A later post will consider other physiological changes that are upon me. As a point of information, I began  this blog in July 2007 with this comment.

Daily Step Log: July 2007

The very low figures are days I could hardly walk

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Run. Run. Run.

It may be just under 4 kilometres in length but I'm beginning to love  my sand runs.

With the tide in, I'm sentenced to a land adventure so instead of running on the flats with its much longer route option, and fording the occasional tidal pool up to 500 metres 'from shore', I run the shoreline and weave between the mangroves and dead tree trunks.

At my feet, soft dry sand,  now-and-then shell beds that go crunch  and a slant seaward.

It's  a 'trail run' with vegetation and a lot of surprises  that has to end at the tributary that feeds and drains the swamp from the Caboolture River.

Running on sand , soft sand, means you have to really work your ankles to drive yourself  forward and so, soon enough, sand demands good form.

In fact, running on sand and up sandhills must be a superb training aide -- as Percy Cerutty so often insisted. On the flat, it is hard for the feet to secure an anchorage in soft sand so your traction is weak and the soles of your feet slip back as you work from your ankles to push yourself forward. So your upper body is pitched forward. With the same physics impacting on running up the sand on sandhills, the effect is further enhanced by the fact you have to lean into the climb against gravity. Running in water, on the other hand, really works the thighs as you have to lift your legs through the water and drive them forward through the knees. So running against resistance is the main game -- and makes for excitement and challenge...and better form. And sand while resisting is also very forgiving. A comfort sets in despite the maneuvering you have to do along the beach because your toes will sink into the surface.

And the dogs prefer to be land based because there is more sniffs to the metre.

(And I gotta think of the dogs). 

Eagle

Fish

En route were the charms of a dead  fish -- with a mean set of choppers (species unknown?) and the joy of being shadowed by  the  Sea Eagle that patrols the area. 

I now run with a bag to carry my supplies --such as a camera and the dog lead  -- so I'm self sufficient for my outing.

If only this route was longer....but I can;t go into the swamp and if the tide is in, there is no great sand flat to be had 'out to sea'. 

Nonetheless, there is much excitement to  be had from running this route I have so often walked. Since my norm is to combine it with an 'out to sea' sand bank option I can still do the distances I'm after.  But the charms of  having all that stuff around you -- trees, grasses, dead wood -- is very different from the undulating patterns in the sand and cool pools away from the shoreline.

Destination


Click on images for slideshow and enlarged view.

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Dancing,Kickbiking, Running: oh the chi of it.

Twenty years ago I was a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner -- Yang style.

Yang family-style (Chinese: 楊氏; pinyin: yángshì) t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan)

This wasn't my first foray into Tai Chi but at the time I  mastered the form and even help teach it.

There is a lot  to be said for tai chi-ing the decrepit bod. It racks up good consequence and I miss the ready centre-ing that being tai chi aware gives you.

Contrary to its supposed health benefits I was disappointed in its impact and over time got tardy and ceased to practice the form.

I guess I was too demanding (says he, 20 years later). My pain and stiffness staid very painful and very stiff.

Nonetheless, at the time I was studying various movement awareness regimes and was using and teaching some simple Feldenkrais exercises as well as doing Tai Chi.

I had also trained as a massage therapist and was earning a sort of at-home income from my interventions.

My front gate had a sign: Dave Riley , Massage Therapist.

Aside from the occasional request for 'hand relief' the professional excursion was instructive of what bodies can get up to.

So the years roll on by...and of late  I have moved back to an interest in movement studies.

Dancing did that.

Ironically, I have harnessed greater benefit from the dancing than  these other investigations.

My ruling is clear: dancing and learning choreography to music is more beneficial for me than doing Tai Chi.  

But dance too is 'movement awareness'. Being conscious of what you are doing when you are moving it/doing it can be achieved  via many different routes and while I greatly respect Tai Chi I think it is overrated and obscurantised by all its chi-energy mysticism.

You have to put up with a lot of yin and yang malarky when you do Tai Chi. 

If you want to believe in 'chi' energy go for it, but spare me the lecture. I used to study body sciences with chiropractors  and I know physiological spin when it is being spun.

Nonetheless, regardless of 'theory' what works is gonna keep on working despite the handicap of its  explanation.

In this regard I have been reading Danny Dreyer's book, ChiRunning -- and it is an useful movement awareness manual.

It's a brand of course but after delivering oodles of workshops and training so many runners, Dreyer has honed his method into a very useful DIY that transcends its Tai Chi Chuan origins. It is a quick way to get to the Tai Chi good oil without having to spend years learning the form.

I have referred here before to similar methods offered by Esther Gokhale: glidewalking.

Many roads can lead to Rome I guess....but what interests me is that the quest to develop a  method  for the way you move is very useful for controlling pain and stiffness ; and ameliorating muscle fatigue.

It's about being aware -- conscious of what you are doing when you are doing it.

Previously I had discussed how I thought kickbiking contributed to the way I walked or ran. In light of this 'chi' study I came back to those considerations and think there is indeed a point to them. A very similar approach to Dreyer is offered by Nate Fagan with his Tai Chi Running franchise. To me, the Fagan approach makes a bit more sense...

...More sense, that is, from the POV of a kickbiker (such as moi).

• kickbikers lean into the kick
• kickbikers crouch to kick
• kickbikers kick from the gut/abdominals
• kickbikers stamp light on the earth
• kickbikers stamp the souls of their feet  flat on the earth
• kickbikers kick square with their feet shoulder length apart
• kickbikers kick with a regular cadence and speed up by extending the length/reach of their kick

That's my ruling, anyway. All I have to do now is transpose what I know about kicking to running. So I have to be more aware while kickbiking and think how I can adapt what I do on two wheels to what I do on two feet alone.

There's also another relevance, one that affirms the Tai Chi perspective.

The exercising I do now is very slow. There's no explosion, no grunt. The lift and return of either my body or a weight is synchronous with the pace of a Tai Chi move.It may take me up to 10 seconds to slowly and consciously lift a weight (kettlebell or dumbbell) and a similar period to bring it back down again. But unlike Tai Chi I'm trying to reach muscle fatigue so I am seeking burn at some stage during the repetitions and the slowness of the exertion serves to hasten the onset of burn and fatigue. 

Tai Chi is performed without weights -- in fact weighted Tai Chi would upset the 'balance' of the form. Nonetheless, using weights and lifting them slowly has been proven to be much more effective exercise that  lifts a la the explosive clean and jerk.

Aside from these considerations, doing it slow and with utmost movement awareness isn't the nub of the business. At stake is harnessing core driven  impetus, core control. 

While we may think of dancing as so many arms and legs moving in time with music  I find myself addressing the irony that my dancing challenge isn't so much where I put my feet but where the music  begins inside of me. 

This is something of a revelation. At a time when I am stepping into more intricate footwork I find myself obsessed with the Southern Two Step -- a basic  step that can be counted as One and Two - Three and  Four. In Zydeco it can be as simple as a slide two steps one way and two steps return.

Easy right? Anyone can do that. But then this is where Soul meets Tai Chi Chuan. Taking two steps to the right or four steps to the right is going to be a move with many possibilities. If you think it is simple about keeping up with the beat you'd sentence yourself to  facile dancing.

Like Chi running, like kickbiking or Tai Chi Chuan your Two Stepping should start in your gut: its inner to outer. In Opelousas, Lousiaina, the local Creole community  passes on the Zydeco culture by drilling the youth in Two Step-ology: two steps to the right/two steps to the left/two steps to the right/two steps to the left/two steps to the right/two steps to the left/...it is an obsession insisted upon until the youngsters get so fed up with it they improvise how they get from a to b within the space offered by two steps.

Something so simple can be so crucial to  the whole caboodle. I watch videos of this two stepping business and am amazed how significant a simple  One and Two - Three and  Four can be. That may underline how creative the simple Rhythm and Blues form can be, but at its heart -- its  soul -- is the very same principles that animate the chi-ness in the running, exercising or kickbiking I've been describing.

So in a sense there aren't x number of studies  to pursue but the one focus.

Addendum: In my later life -- after Tai Chi -- I still used elements of the form and always taught a few simple exercises as preliminary to other stuff I offered. For instance I taught kids Theatre Improv for a time and would begin each workshop by utilizing the basic set-up moves for Tai Chi -- the initial descent and shift  of the pelvis and the formation of the ball in the arms followed by a left and right turn -- with concentration on the breathing cadence. It got  the children settled and quiet while encouraging them to focus on what was to follow. I've got half a mind to introduce the same introduction to my dance classes....

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HillFittery

Hillfit by Chris Highcock is the very simple to follow program that occupies the core of my exercising. Four routines done one after the other as slowly as I can manage while progressively increasing the difficulty and weight. Get the book and study the method. Highcock also offers a excellent essay summarizing the conditioning science behind his approach : www.hillfit.com

     The RatbagMedia Channel

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HIIT,HillFit, Hardware: the exercise 3 H's rule

I suspect that I have made a turning along the three meals-a-day yellow brick road of life.

A turning such that I have quickened my pace.

But I need to add, my turning isn't a shortcut nor  detour, nor a high or low road...

Henceforth, to celebrate,  I shall refer to myself as  'Dorothy' and wear  red shoes when in the company of Munchkins. 

 Becoming Dorothy

Auntie Em: Help us out today and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble!

Dorothy: A place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain...

[begins to sing "Over the Rainbow"] 

HIIT

After years of deploying many exercise regimes, experimenting with a range of approaches, I have now settled upon a creative mix that seems to have more impact upon my person than of yore.

The key element is to defer to the principles of High Intensity Interval Training 

HIIT exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is an effective form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 9–20 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.

For me the baseline was/is the Tabata Method

20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles)

That set off bells in my head. Gave me a comprehension of what I was missing (and missing out of in way of pain!).

I doubt that  my Tabata-ing reaches 170% of VO2max but it's the thought that counts.

HillFit

I guess the  h's rule!

HillFit is a little ebook put together of Chris Highcock.

It's a simple set of only four (that's right, only four) exercises packaged in a thoughtful essay on exercise.

HillFitting anchored me and more so than related literature gave me a comprehension of the why and the how. I mean my routine was no longer routine. It had meaning. 

HillFit also bought me back to the importance of technique: it is not about repetition or 'grunt'. Easy does it, slow as you go. 

It's Tai Chi without Mr Yin and Ms Yang. High Intensity Interval-ing for the sake of an exercise Zen.

HillFit and related inputs also changed my attitude toward frequency and duration.

This was a Wow! moment.

Instead of forcing myself to keep to an unrelenting routine of obligations I simply  'exercised' every second day. 

And these every-second-day sessions are no longer than 5-10 minutes.

Hardware

Another 'h': hardware. 

I've been a long term kettlebell user. And I love my kickbiking. I also box and own gloves and a heavy bag. In the present mix I make use of these resources. I've recovered an old cheap rusty set of dumbbells and put a sandbag in a torn old back pack. I got myself some cheap sandals I can run the tidal flats in...

So I put all this stuff to work.

1. Every Second Day: I keep to a every second day schedule of focused exercise. One day I do HillFit. Two days later I do Kettlebells. And two days after that I do a dumbbell session. We're talking 9-12 minutes each time...with Tabata finishers (either Tabata boxing or squats: all of 4 minutes). If I'm a bit challenged that day -- ie: ill -- I skip a day or only do Tabata boxing if only for the pump up 'high'.
2. Other times: Kickbike + Running.  Elsewhere in my week I take off on the kickbike as has been my long term norm and instead of simply going for a walk when I reach my destination, I run -- I run the tidal flats. Strictly speaking this isn't supposed to be exercise . It's supposed to be 'fun'. At least it will be once my running improves. I don't have a schedule for this, I simply do what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it.
3. Spontaneity: Running Stairs. Since I live on flat terrain and can only yearn about the elevations in the far off distance, I've taken up the impulse to run up things -- usually stair cases -- when the opportunity presents itself. I'm working on a few stair running routes to tackle when I'm in the vicinity. But every train journey is going to offer me a chance to run stairs at most railway stations. I am also much taken with Jacobs Ladder here in Brisbane town. If I have an ambition -- a goal -- then 'running stairs' or sandhills or mountains is it. 

So far so good. My body is now ordering weight reduction  after plateauing for 12 months. I expect my bood sugar will also roll back a bit. I've done some dietary tweaking which I'll explore in a later post. I feel the best I've felt in a long time -- despite my ready penchant to be relapsing hither and yon. (Can't do much about that unfortunately esp in the current weather conditions: wet and humid). I also do urban soul line dancing but that is fun and more a mental challenge.

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Stair Climb from Anzac Square to the top of Jacobs Ladder: the only way is up.

One of the many banes of my life is the relentless fact that when I have tried to go somewhere I get so far and no further. It is the most frustrating thing that while I may still be able to drag one foot in front of the other while  ill, when I reach an incline -- like a steep hill or ramp -- I'm unable to climb the thing in front of me. Often I have no option but to return home:defeated. For years the 35 degree ramp that led to the local railway station sent me back home so often that its power and towering arrogance has dogged  me. Believe me: when you stand at the base of these slopes while in this condition -- slopes that only yesterday you paid no mind to -- they can present as tall and as daunting as Mount Everest. So  stair climbing/stair running has this inordinate attraction for me as a magnificent challenge. To be able to run up stairs when I am so often defeated by steep inclines is exciting for one such as I. Stair running is another affirmation (like running) of how far I've come and where I could remain if I wasn't burdened by Fibromyalgia.

View from atop Jacobs Ladder in the Olden Days. Arrows mark extent of the climb
(but not actual route)

I've been trying to get a contour profile on this 'event' as it is up hill all the way.

Starting in Anzac Square Brisbane you enter the tunnel that leads to the escalator for Central Railway Station. But you don't take the easy route. No way! You veer right and start running up the stairs.

These stairs will take you first to the Anne Street footpath and then by turning right again into the stairwell-- to the Central Railway Station Concourse. No stopping allowed.

Keep heading across the opening in front of you and scoot up a couple of stairs and cross Turbott Street to King Edward Park.

Now the fun really begins: clamber up Jacobs Ladder with all those snazzy red steps underneath your feet.

At the top look back way way down into the valley at the Adelaide Street /Anzac Square level where you came from.

Don't wait too long taking in the view -- either go around the IBM building in front of you via Upper Edward Street; or return down the steps you just climbed;or take the winding path among the sculptural pieces back down through King Edward Park...and race up Jacob's ladder again.. and again...and...

Stair Climb/Jacobs Ladder Brisbane CBD

0.1 miles / 0.1609344 km

Created 03.21.12 by ratbagradio

A hefty climb from Anzac Square up to the top of Jacobs Ladder

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Once upon a time runner...

Foreshore: Port Philip Bay
Sandringham

I took up running when I was 15 years of age. My school always held an annual cross country along the shoreline of Port Philip Bay and I took to that, loved it and kept on running.

We had an amateur athletics club and would compete variously at the local athletics track or tour to run at other venues.

I was sentenced to the 880 yards and one mile events.

Once I was forced to do the walk and hated it. I kept being disqualified.

Unfortunately while we may have had a team there was no organised training. That was supposedly something you worked out for yourself. The advantage with that was that I ran as an option.

Just ran.

Methinks I'm channeling Forrest Gump but my momma never said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." She said nothing like that ever....

I'd take off and run the foreshore of Port Philip Bay. I could run the sandy beaches where they existed or take to the path through the  tea tree scrub where that clung to the ridges. For variety I'd sprint up and down the steep paths that ran down to the beach.

Note:Click on images for enlarged view.

That was my version of sand hill running.

I ran these shores

Often I'd run with my dog.

I was enamored enough to get into running lore and read all of Percy Cerutty and Herb Elliot's  memoir, The Golden Mile. At the time it was during Australia's distance running ascendancy  with Ron Clarke setting the bar. My habits and studies formatted a certain Spartan idealism that kept me on two running legs for several years.

Arthurs Seat

But when I left school the running ceased and I wasn't to take it up again until 1978 -- 10 years later.

This was in the throws of the jogging boom and I ran for most of the next seven years. I'd run all over Melbourne, especially Royal Park skirting the zoo,  and later across the Mornington Peninsula -- up Arthur's Seat and to Cape Schanck and  back. I'd also run to and from my shifts at work or to football fields where I was serving as a team trainer, patching up the jocks when they got too macho and hurt themselves out on the field.

Arthurs Seat and Cape Schanck : Mornington Peninsula.
(Click on image to enlarge view)

I never competed. Never had a desire to.

During this time I was doing a lot of bush walking -- trekking -- and took up canoeing --  especially in the Victorian Alps.

Favorite mountain: Mt Howitt

My last burst of run run running was in early 1985 in Sydney where I'd take off every day in the Middle West suburbs and run to Balmain or into the CBD.

I then fell ill that year with Fibromyalgia and my world changed... It, as they say, took a turn for the worst. 

So there. The circle turns. And I never though it would: I'm back running: 27 years down the track. Twenty kilograms heavier. Crippled. Aged and grey haired. And running on sandals.

But I'm running the beaches, again.

I'm not so fit that I'm running 'for fun' ... not yet anyway. But after today's decent 5 kms I am confident that I can make a go of this, again. 


Wow. I am mightily impressed with the possibility. I never thought I'd be doing this especially when you consider that seven  years ago I was walking with a cane and I still spend a good too many days in bed.

Running, more than anything else, registers how far I have come, despite ... despite everything that is wrong with me.

I must be doing somethings right.

That I have taken up running on impulse without any thought to the engineering required is strange given my penchant to plan my , what we used to call, activities of daily living -- ADL. The clincher was a simple convergence: a $19.99 pair of plastic sandals (remainders) which enabled my feet on sand and in sea water. 

No blisters. No lacerations. No stubbed toes.

Only wet feet.

After two years of footwear experiments and forays into this and that , seeking a shoe I could comfortably walk the tidal flats in,  I finally get shod to suit.

Makes me want to embrace a new hobby: shoe fetishism.

There's a sweet irony in the fact that the next dance I'm  teaching 'my' Urban Soul Line Dance Class will be Cupid's Do it With Your Boots On. In typical Zydeco fashion you gotta run with risque, double meaning, lyrics. and 'do it' -- dance that is. Maybe run....

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Running the flats

The footwear.

I pulled up rather stiff after my initial tide chasing beach run. Different muscles had been asked to go harder where they had not gone before. But today with my eye on the tide chart I sneeked in another run on the mud/sand flats.

I surprized myself. I had to take pain killers before I went out  which should not have been a good omen, right? Getting out of bed was hard enough.

My 'style' was terrible and it was much harder to put one foot in front of the other. But despite that I ran farther in my intervals than I had done previously. At this rate I should be able to reach the river mouth and get back without having to stop for breath....sooner rather than later.

The running cohort

That's the great thing about running: it is so easy to measure 'progress' as distance never lies.

En route back I ran the sandy beach rather than the tidal flats. Dry sand in classic gold. Narrow pathway (such as it is) among uprooted mangroves and Sheoaks. Between seagrass mounds. Zig Zagging between tree roots and stumps. Fording the stream that drains one end of the swamp lagoon.

I suspect I may be onto something -- something at once thrilling, ambient, at one with the bigness of it all, and challenging. 

I can henceforth talk about the sand at my feet as an ongoing metaphor. 

But then, I needed the tootsie hardware to enable me: my sandals -- my $19 (from Anaconda) sandals . Of which I bought another three pairs yesterday. My feets are covered. They can now get wet and sand encrusted without crippling the wearer. These sandals seem to have a slim flexible aluminium plate embedded in the sole which keeps the sharp shells at bay.

And the are light with toggle tighteners /no laces.

Maybe it's going to take a few months to get up to speed... and groove to it. On the tidal flats there are no paths; the terrain keeps changing with the level of the tide, impact of the currents and the shift of sand. Yesterday's wade may be deep water today. A few minutes here and there day to day can make a surface difference as the tide shifts There are no above ground markers to chart by -- no lamp posts or street corners.

For variation the undulations in the damp sand will change according to wave pattern...

Once I've mastered my stretch to the river mouth and back (2-3 km) I can begin to head north and go as far on the tidal flats as the seagrass beds at Godwin Beach. That's about a 15 + km round trip. I'd be doing the kickbike thing but on sand and on foot -- 'out to sea' as it were, rather than on land/on asphalt.

It also struck me that if I can sustain myself running like this I could get a local gathering together of folk keen to run the tidal flats on a weekly basis: the Tidal Flat Runners -- social meet up at low tide on Sundays.

And maybe an annual 'fun run'? Who else runs the flats?

In Pomona they run the mountain, we'd be flat earth.

 Thrilling, ambient, at one with the bigness of it all, and challenging. 

Complaint: I have one dog, the smaller of the two, who prefers the land to the sea and sneaks off at every opportunity if I don't remind him to stay with the pack. He prefers the sniffs and urinations on offer among grasses and bushes; and protests at being sentenced to the flat salty terrain of the sand flats and water crossings. He is a saboteur and is being dealt with  as humanely as possible. The other dog is a certified limpet and runs at my heels.

---

Chasing the tide.

Where  I live, outdoor life is ruled by the tide and when the tide goes out -- as is its daily want -- it goes out a long way.

Only when the tide falls do we get our beach back.

This extra landscape is a wonderful resource. I walk the dogs upon it almost every day, but today was the first time I ran upon it.

I'm not into running as I'm a kickbiker by preference -- but of late the prospect of maybe getting into trail running has sparked my interest in setting the pace. 

I had thought that I'm still carrying too much weight to pound the pavement -- but running on sand -- wet sand -- is really something else altogether.

Coincidentally I got myself a new pair of sandals which -- wonders of wonders -- stay on my feet no matter how much suction there is from water and sand . So I can run with footwear upon my footsies. I could run barefoot but the shells here are brutally sharp and will gather in hollows in midden numbers.  Its' like negotiating razor blades. Even today I could feel their sharp edges through my sole.... such that running barefoot would be lacerating.

That and the stingrays in the shallows....!

So now with my new shoes I can leg it and the dogs have to keep up.

I ran in intervals for maybe 3 kilometres. Each burst of speed I ran until I fatigued. I'd then walk to recover and then would jog off again. 

Strangely no one else does it. Of all my time out and about here the only runners I see pound the pavement. Low tide running is not de rigueur. 

But then I'm a low tide aficionado -- the dogs and I. We chase the ebb tide around the clock. High tide means no beach and King Tide means the Pacific Ocean comes ashore. Low tide moves the shoreline boundary another half a kilometre eastward -- towards Latin America.

Kickbike running

Since low tidal sand flats are such a great surface to run upon it is easy to monitor your technique. 

I wrote earlier about kickbike walking. Since that meditation I've been considering the ways and means I deploy to move myself forward. And it is remarkable how much better I walk when in 'kickbike mode' than if I let myself default to bad habits. 

I'm straighter. My head and shoulders are several inches back. My eyes are cast upwards more.  My chin is horizontal. My footprints in the sand tell a tale of efficiency and ... grace. The weight of my tread doesn't fall on the heel.

And when I run I get the same properties working for me. It's as though I'm barefoot because the sands don't lie. 

Running on sand -- wet sand which is a firmer surface than dry --  with the sea to one side and mangroves to the other -- is my  version of running a trail. Of course there are no pathways. I navigate my route by choosing which shallow pools  I am going to run through and which exposed shoals I am going to mount.

For now I'm thinking: stingrays -- so I need to make sure that the water depth is too shallow  for them as the water here can be turbid -- and there is nothing so exciting as having a big Estuary Stingray a metre across rise  up in a whirl of sand and silt at your feet.

Always, always: let them know you're coming.

---

Glycogen and 'the wall'

I had a moment of thought the other day during my morning kickbike scoot. After pushing outward bound, coming back was hard. But not hard as in strenuous. It was hard as in weak. 

You think, "maybe I should get off and walk?"

There's no pain or seeming strain just the absence of strength.

Am I talking about a phenomenon unique to myself or is this a norm?

It wasn't until I had raised this question that the obvious hit me.

The depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy -- hitting "The Wall".

In my case I suspect that because I have reduced -- further -- my carbohydrate intake recently,  I'm promoting this response. On the morning in question I had scooted off without having breakfast. (So I was asking for it, right?)

That's why the symptom stands out for me as being novel. I don't make it a habit of running out of fuel.

The advantage is that supplying the body with fewer carbohydrates during exercise teaches it to burn fat instead. This is the first principle of ketogenic diets. So while I may be entering a ketosis I am suggesting to my body that it should look elsewhere for fuel.

There is going to be a period of transition, maybe a rough ride for a while.

To make sure I'm not losing muscle for fuel I need to eat plenty of protein.

So either I'm doing myself damage by being ketotic on exertion (and this is a symptom) or I'm remaking my metabolism to better effect...

For this reason it is usually recommended to long distance runners and cyclists that they up their carb intake in order to generate easily accessible fuel in the form of glycogen.

But in one study aerobic endurance exercise by well-trained cyclists was not compromised by four weeks of ketosis. This was accomplished by a dramatic physiologic adaptation that conserved limited carbohydrate stores (both glucose and muscle glycogen) and made fat the predominant muscle substrate at this submaximal power level.

But the research work is ongoing.... I just didn't expect that my own body would be so much a lab rat. So what I have to watch is how much further (and with whatever intensity) I can go before hitting the wall.

If I faint during a scoot -- and make it back -- I'll let you know. If I faint and don't return, my absence from this forum should be word enough.

Adventures in climbing stairs

Who woulda thought that you can do the tourist thing by fossicking for stairways. 

But then, that's me: I can't help myself as I have become a stair case aficionado.

I live on such flat land that an incline anywhere in my hood has to be human made and structural and since there is little cause to go higher, there's little cause to step up.

So any time I'm out and about I seek out stair cases. 

 For the moment this is an obsession, not because I'm into architecture and creative ways and means to get from point A to point B above ground, but because I'm taken to stair running -- that's climbing stairs at speed.

Put a staircase in front of me and I'll run up it like a rat up a drain pipe.

There is no better way to exercise on the fly.

'Tis amazing what you can find to run up.

My local railway station has a 50 step steep climb to its pedestrian bridge that leads from the day car park. Fifty steps! This is one of the highest staircases in the urban train network. Run up that and you can come back for seconds, and thirds, and fourths...while waiting for your train to  arrive. 

Jacob's Ladder

After taking the train you can get off at the city Central station, walk 300 metres uphill and tackle the steepest, meanest climb in the Brisbane CBD -- Jacob's Ladder.

I took on the Jacob's Ladder challenge last week. It is ten tiers of steps with the option of a steep zig zag path that climbs through the King Edward Park. It took me 40 seconds to climb the steps: then I'd take the path back down and did it a few more times.

While I was doing this, one guy was obviously exercising in like mode. He climbed the steps and at the top, he'd walk back down by going around the IBM building with its gradual descent. He then  climbed the steps again.

Stairs at Kangaroo Point by ~rhennau

I could only manage four ascents jogging upwards. So I have a baseline.

So anytime I'm in the CBD -- I can go visit Jacob.

Once I'm mastered Jabob's Ladder I can cross the river and tackle the mother of all Brisbane stair climbs, the Kangaroo Point Cliffs.  

The stair case zig zags up the rock face which is a rather uniquely located  site for real-rock climbing that overlooks the city.

The point about all this is that climbing stairs can offer a great  high intense interval session. If you want to arrive somewhere quickly gasping for air with aching, exhausted pins, what better way to do that than by struggling upwards? And if you can't get that way with one climb, do it again, and again, and....until fatigue sets in big time.

Every time you get up there enjoy the view as you probably deserve it.

Stairs will do so much for you and so efficiently that they are readymade gymnasiums...in the open air.
If you are thinking, "no way!" Consider that an option to running up stairs is to pursue the Percy Cerutty preference  and do your running up sandhills. Although Cerutty wasn't a supporter of 'Interval Training' he did get his athletes -- his 'Spartans ' -- to run up Portsea sandhills.

Cerutty leading Herb Elliott up a sandhill

"Man is an animal. Naturalistically he fluctuates from day to day---his feelings,strength,abilities,desires. Capacities vary from day to day,hour to hour. His strength ebbs and flows. Civilization,the daily routine of school and work,disciplines him, conditions him, and mostly reduces him to an automation,a robot. How futile to add to such a regime to his athleticism. How much better to use his training,conditioning and racing as a means,as it should be, to at least temporarily to remove him from this artificial,and harmful, civilizing mediums that result from normal school and work. In his ordinary life he has little chance to escape from the humdrum,the routine. Why,then, as I say,add his exercise,his athleticism,to the list of compulsions. Athletics should be, and with me is, the prime means to escape from these imprisoning conditions, to exult in our liberty,free movement,capacity to choose. Our training should be a thing of joy, of hard,battling exhaustion and enthusiasm,not a daily grind upon a grinding track,artificially hard and carried out under full circumstances and unaesthetic enviroments as a rule. How much better to run with joy,shear beauty and strength,to race down some declivity,to battle manfully to the top of another. At Portsea we train along paths that are found along the cliff tops,descending at times to beach level,in the midst of of some of the finest scenery in our state.We run for miles on the heavy sand with the great waves crashing and pounding and swirling,at times,to knee depth as we run. Or we run upon the the golf links,or moors,or some speed work,occasionally on the grassed oval in one of the prettiest and most natural amphitheaters,surely,in the world. Here, in this enviroment, over this terrain,the spirit of beauty and high endeavor enters our souls. Seek out your Portseas,train and run as the impulse comes on you. An hour,two hours of training slips away as so many minutes. You become tired,exhaustingly tired, but never unhappy. It is work,but it seems only fun. Exhilarating,satisfying fun." Whew--that about says it all to me as far as what is the essence of Stotan or Cerutty inspired running. Something to especially take note of is written near the end when he says: "Seek out your Portseas..." You can establish your version of Portsea somewhere around where you live. When you do, your running will reach a whole new level in regards to enjoyment and performance.  -- Percy Cerutty

Kickbike scooting : Kickbike Walking

I don't know how I got to this -- another novel/out there -- consideration but I was reviewing 'barefoot running' science -- such as it is. I was thinking barefoot kickbiking because barefoot is an easy jump on.

No shoelaces to worry about.  

But when you review the barefoot running rationale there's really no point to go barefoot on a kickbike as your foot strike is not  heel based. It's way up front and a lot lighter than a runner's stomp. So injuries on a kickbike from pronation or twist ankles or achilles tendonitis or whatever are zilch.

So for kickbiking I wear my beloved Dunlop Volleys  (and will continue to wear) -- and mine are from the cheap end of the catalogue: purchased from Big W or Target.

The irony being that for barefoot runner wannabes the Volley is recommended as a transition or beginner shoe.

As for more general wear I have monitored my experiments and $ outlays and find that the Volleys will cross train' both on the kickbike and in the water and still last me maybe one year at a stretch with several pairs in use. The only drawback -- as with any shoe -- is those odd times when you get the shoe heel caught under the scooter's back wheel. This usually grinds the shoe back or rips the canvas.

So do I want to go barefoot....? Why? Also as a diabetic maybe it's not a good idea afterall. In fact it is a contraindication.

But the whole question got me thinking about my continuing preference for light simple footwear and barefoot is as light as you can get.

But then, since I've used this an an excuse to read  Christopher  McDougall's barefooter's bible -- Born to Run -- I've got to think a bit more about what I'm doing on/with a kickbike -- and why I abhorred all the cross trainer hype that are used to sell these scooters.

I know I have talked about this before -- the difference between EXERCISE and RECREATION -- but I am now much enamored with the perspective being offered from HIIT adherents like Chris Highcock -- who's HillFit I've discussed before.  

Hillfitery has been a bit of a major revelation for me.

It's about doing less but doing it well and then seeing, in my case, kickbiking as primarily recreation without having to make demands of the scootering.

That said I now do interval sprints on the kickbike and am now experimenting with a 40 second exertion followed by a 20 second coast x 8 times -- rather than angsting over distances. It's like hill climbing. I have 'interval music' in my mp3 player and sprint full on along a straight, wide, and low traffic road. Since it is so flat here my sprints are my make-believe typography topography. 

These intense pushes really focus my attention on my technique -- such as getting as much drive a I can from each kick. Then a few minutes later , sprints completed, I'm back in recreational mode.

This is how the option of barefooting came up in my head: foot strike. But as I say, it's a false issue on a kickbike as you do strike so lightly compared to running.That raises the question of 'natural kickbiking' -- like natural running -- and begs the other question of how much does kickbiking impact on your walking or running gait and style?

Since you don't kickbike like you run...but what if you run or walk like you kickbike?

That may seem silly but just for an experiment get up and walk around the room like you are pushing a kickbike as though you are scootering. Then break back into 'normal stride'.

Note the difference and how your pelvis is aligned in with each move. Your gait is wider and your hips are rockier left and right. You are a little shorter and there is more work demanded of the abdominals. You also walk with less immediate strike or weight falling directly on the heel.

So is this good for walking or not?

I wonder...

If I wanted to walk better or differently all I'd need to do is whisper to my brain: "switch to kickbike mode". And since kickbiking gives you such a cute ass --- well maybe if you wanted to strut the walk this is the way.

Out in the laboratory: I spent a good part of  yesterday walking in kickbike mode for maybe 4-5 km. I had no difficulty keeping it up as the simple directive 'kickbike mode' ruled my brain. The drawback however, is that today I feel I have been hit by a truck. Maybe too much too quickly? Experiment or not. Is my walking posture bad and my kickbike posture better?

I'm reading: Esther Gokhale at the moment and she has some interesting concepts about natural ways to move which seem to support this gait.* In my past lives I was an exponent of the Feldenkrais Method as well as a Tai Chi practitioner.  So Awareness Movement  is a subject  I'm familiar with and am keen on.

But then after plying through such an inspiring read as the one that McDougall offers in Born to Run I have to wonder how much transposition is possible to engineer Born to Scoot. 

If I was going to take up running again I'd never consider pounding the pavement as fun. But beach running or trail running is something else. 

I used to run everywhere before I fell ill -- to and from work, across town, along so many secret routes and shortcuts. It was my way of embracing a region...and getting around. While I now walk hither and yon the complication is that you can only walk so far in any one hour. Now I kick scoot when I can and proceed forward in above jogging pace . So kickbiking/scootering is a great trade off from running especially if you begin to scoot over weight. 

My current weight is a full 20 kgm heavier than my lowest running weight -- 30 years ago. Pick up a 20 kgm weight and try bouncing that on your knees!

Those extra kilograms bearing down on your knee or ankle while you pound asphalt is a bad business. They do say that exercise is not a sure fire way to lose weight -- contrary to all the hype of course. It may be worth 20% of the weight loss ratio. Even on caloric expenditure you are better off lifting weights:

In terms of calorie expenditure riding a regular bike at about 16-18 km/hr. will burn about 450 cal./hr. The calories burned on a footbike at the same speed will be about 700 cal./hr. Of note: walking will burn about 300cal./hr. (link)

But then there are other issues that suggest that it is preferable to utilize your kickbiking for many more reasons than  fat reduction. Kickbikes  for instance make for great cardio.

However, what I'm also trying to get at here is a consideration of kickbiking for movement awareness and posture change. 

I'll tell you why this is so much of interest to me: I began my recent exercise focus walking with a cane and while I later swapped the cane for one then two trekking poles -- my next adaption was to get my self a scooter. This was a homemade heavy thing cannibalized from two BMX bikes -- but with superb glide. I chose to scoot primarily because I didn't think mounting a bike was going to be so easy. So I'd put my walking stick on the handle bars (for later post-dismount use) and scoot off.

It was liberating.

And now, here  I am, several years later without crutches or canes of any sort, running up stairs, dancing and considering trail jogging...

The cane created a me that was bent over. The trekking poles forced me upright. The scooter lengthened my stride and pulled my body upwards....and gave me back mobility I had lost.

In like mode, and for all foot users, here is an excellent exploration of form from the Natural Running stable:

Stability and Mobility for healthy Running

*What Gokhale calls 'Glidewalking' -- " a series of smooth forward propulsions, challenging the muscles of the lower body and sparing the weight-bearing joints throughout the body" -- parallels much of the kickbike scoot. The key difference is the fact that the kickbiker is astride a device and the legs go out on consecutive sides so you won't get, while riding, a straight line foot fall. However I notice that if you throw your leg forward while walking -- in a true kickbike swing -- there is a medial shift before the foot strike. But as Gokhale notes in her book when you start doing this 'walk' you get buttock pain. You bet.Those gluteals  are working for you big time.