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Biking, A Healthier, Cheaper and Cleaner Commute

June 11, 2008 By 11 Comments

Before last year, the most common reason I would hear for not working out was not enough time. People were busy, they had things to do, places to be and people to meet. No one seemed to have time for working out even though they knew it was important. These days, things have changed a bit. All of a sudden, it’s not that people don’t have time, it’s that they don’t have money. The gym costs too much, exercise equipment for the house is too much money and no one can afford a personal trainer.

Well, those things may be true, but health and fitness do not have to take up a lot of time, nor do they have to cost a lot of money. To illustrate this example, I am going to use my commute to work.

First, The Cost Comparison

I traveled around 2000 miles on my bike last year. I spent around $10 in maintenance. The previous year I spent a bit more since I also tuned it up so I’m going to use an average yearly cost of $20. That means my bike costs me an average of $.01 a mile to operate. That’s a cent per mile that I’m on the bike.

My car is a 1999 Infinity Sedan. It’s not a gas guzzler but it’s also not the most efficient of cars. It gets an average MPG of around 25. With today’s gas costing about $4 in California, that means a cost of 16 cents per mile. I also spent about $500 in maintenance last year and drove 10,000 miles. That’s an additional 5 cents per mile for a total car cost of around 21 cents per mile.

By the way, I’m not including calculations for the purchase price of the car, which was much higher than the bike obviously, or the lower healthcare costs I incur by being in shape. Those are just a bonus. The above figures are already good enough to illustrate my point.

My Old Commute

With my old house and office, my commute was about 5 miles or a 10 mile round trip. So doing the math, commuting on the bike cost me around 10 cents while commuting in the car cost me $2.10. That’s $2.00 saved every single day. Actually, it was a bit less than that since gas prices weren’t so high back then but it was still around $1 saved every day.

Commuting on the bike took me about 20 minutes each way while the car commute took around 10 minutes each way. So yes, I was spending 20 more minutes per day on my commute. However, I was getting a decent workout and I was enjoying myself far more than spending 20 minutes in traffic.

My new commute

Since we moved homes and I moved jobs, my new commute is about 20 miles each way. In the car, this would cost an average of $8.40 every day. Yep, that’s right, with current gas prices, I am paying $8.40 every single day just to get to work. My alternative is to take the bike to the train station, take the train and then ride the bike from the train station to the office. This means 10 miles per day on the bike for a cost of $.10 and a train ticket. I buy a ten ride ticket which works out to about $5 per day’s worth of commute. Total cost is $5.10 which means I save $3.30 per day.

Time wise, the car would take me 45 minutes each way due to awful traffic. The bike / train commute takes around 1 hour each way. At first that sounds like I’m losing 15 minutes each way for a total of half an hour each day. However, please consider that time on the train can be productive. For example, this entire post was written while on the train this morning. I could also read a book, do some work or just nap. Whatever it is, it’s a lot more stressful than 45 minutes of stop and go traffic. So both time and money wise I come out ahead.

So What’s The Point?

Some of you might be saying “woopty doo! You saved a couple of bucks and a minute or two here and there. Who cares? This is too small to be significant.” However, you’re missing the point. This isn’t a blog about time management or personal finance and so the money saved and time not wasted are nice, but they’re not the point. The point is that I got a workout and I did it while saving money and not wasting time. Every single day, even if I don’t go to the gym, I am getting 20 minutes of solid physical activity and I didn’t have to spend an extra cent for it! In fact, I saved both money and time by doing it this morning.

Now this doesn’t apply to everyone equally. Some people have commutes where public transportation or biking is not possible. Others may not enjoy biking as much as I do. Still, the point is that you can get more physical activity into your day without spending extra cash. That day out to the movies with your friends? Why not make it a day out to the park with a frisbee? It’s a lot cheaper and more fun. That fancy dinner with your wife or husband? Why not wrap up a picnic and go hiking? Cheaper, healthier and far more romantic. There’s so many options out there that are both cheaper and healthier that money should never be an excuse to not be fit and healthy. In fact, money can be a motivator towards fitness.

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Stop thinking about health and fitness as things that use up money and time. Done right, living a healthy lifestyle can save both time and money.

NOTE – corrected my math based on Alex’s comment below.  It’s a good thing my stats teacher didn’t see me fail basic division. :)

Filed Under: Cardio, Money, Time Management Tagged With:

The How and Why Of Interval Training

April 18, 2008 By 2 Comments

Interval training is a form of cardio that relies on increasing the exercise difficulty for brief periods of time while you workout.  Most people might be familiar with the name but they’re not familiar with the details.

Benefits

The benefits of interval training are increased performance and increased calorie burn.  The higher difficulty intervals cause your heart to beat faster and your body to spend more energy.  This energy expenditure is maintained even when you slow down for a few minutes.  Thus, your body spends energy as though it’s running at a high speed while you rest.  This is similar in concept to the post workout energy burn where your body is still spending calories as though the workout is continuing while you’re in the recovery and rest stage.

For example, if you’re running at 5.0mph, which is a pretty slow pace, your body might be burning 400 calories an hour.  Now you increase that speed to 6.5mph and your calorie burn goes up to 800 calories per hour.  You maintain 6.5mph for a minute and then go back down to 5.0mph.  Well, your calorie burn doesn’t immediately go back down to 400.  In fact, it stays up near 800 for a few minutes before your body realizes that it’s no longer needed.  At that point you can do another high speed interval.  The result is a high calorie burn even though you spent most of your run at a relatively low speed.

The other benefit of interval training is increased performance.  By increasing difficulty for brief periods of time, you make your body adjust to this increased demand.  The result, is an increased ability to handle greater demand.  This is similar to using a very high weight for one rep and then switching back to your normal weights.  The normal weight will seem easy because your body is adjusting to the strain and demand of the very high weight.

For example, if you normally run at 5.0mph, you might find it difficult to increase that speed to 5.5mph.  However, if you increase the speed to 6.5mph for 1 minute, you might find that decreasing it back down to 5.5mph feels quite good.  Where before 5.5mph seemed impossible, it now seems positively restful.

How To Interval Train

The how to of interval training is pretty easy.  Just exercise at your normal speed for a few minutes.  Now increase that speed for a minute or so and then drop it back down.  There are no hard and fast rules about how much you should increase the speed and for how long.  You need to pick a time and speed high enough to challenge you but not high enough to force you to stop or slow down to a slower pace then usual.  For example, I usually run at 6.5mph.  When I do intervals, I will spend every 5th minute running at 7mph.  That’s high enough to really challenge me, but it’s not too high which means I can go back to 6.5mph afterwards and keep running for another 4 minutes until my next 7mph interval.  If I had to slow down to less than 6.5mph after my interval then I’m probably speeding up too much during that 1 minute.

By the way, interval training isn’t just for running.  You can do it with any cardio activity.  When I swim, I do 9 laps of at a relatively moderate pace and then 1 lap at a really fast pace that leaves me out of breath and in need of rest.  I get that rest during the next 9 laps of moderate pace and then I’m ready for another fast lap.

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By the way, the other side benefit of intervals is that it makes your exercise time go by much faster.  You’re so busy getting ready for the next interval that you don’t even notice how long you’ve been working out.

Filed Under: Cardio

How To Tell If You’re Working Out Too Hard, Not Hard Enough or Just Right

March 21, 2008 By 4 Comments

Note, the following information is for cardio sessions, not resistance training.

One of the most common questions I get is “am I working out too hard?” or the opposite “am I working out hard enough?” Usually, people will tell me how fast they run, how long they swim or what resistance level they turn the elliptical machine up to and ask me if that’s the right difficulty level for them.  Unfortunately, that’s just not enough information for me to answer that question.

Heart Rate

Ideally, cardio exercise should keep your heart rate somewhere between 60% and 80% of max.   Anything less and you’re not really working out very hard.  Anything more and you’re placing too much strain on your body.

What’s My Max Heart Rate?

A rough estimate of your max heart rate is 220 minus your age.  So for me, being 34, my max heart rate is 186.  That means that if I want to keep my workout between 60 and 80%, I should keep it somewhere between 111 and 148.

But How The Heck Do I Measure That While Exercising?

Yah, that’s the problem.  It’s a little hard to measure heart rate while exercising.  You either need to stop and measure it yourself or you need to hold on to some handle or device that will measure heart rate for you.  Both of these options interrupt your workout and can actually get a bit dangerous.  In fact, the only time I ever fell off a treadmill is because I was trying to measure my heart rate while running.  Seems a bit funny now (ok, it seems a lot funny now) but it was quite painful back then.

So What’s The Alternative

Here’s a slightly less scientific but more practical approach.  Try saying the following sentence while exercising.  “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.”

  • Were you able to say that without any problems at all and with a normal sounding voice?  If so, you’re probably not working hard enough.
  • Did you have issues saying that sentence and needed to gasp for breath between every word?  If so, you’re probably working too hard.
  • Could you say the sentence but had to pause midway for a quick breath?  If so, you’re probably working at the right level.

In general, you should be able to talk while exercising but not hold a normal conversation.  If you can hold a normal conversation then you’re not working out hard enough.  If you’re completely unable to talk or need to breath between every word and you’re straining for every breath, you’re working out too hard.

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You shouldn’t feel like you’re about to die when you work out.  However, you also shouldn’t feel like you’re taking a leisurely stroll.  Aim for somewhere in between.

Filed Under: Cardio, Exercise, Work Out

Swim Your Way To Fitness

March 17, 2008 By 6 Comments

It’s spring time, and I thought it might be time to write a post about swimming.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that swimming is no longer a warm weather only exercise.  Just about every gym I know has a pool that is heated year round allowing swimmers to work out regardless of the weather.  So I may write this in the spring, but feel free to read this at any season.

Why Not Swim?

When you ask most people about exercise, very few of them think about swimming.  Why is that?  Well, I think it has a few reasons.

  • Equipment – Swimming needs a lot of specialized equipment.  For example, you need a pool.
  • Temperature – Most people have the same mindset I do, which says that pools and water are a summer only activity.
  • Cardio – Swimming doesn’t seem to be as strenuous as jogging or biking so most people don’t think of it as good cardio.
  • Shyness – If you’re out of shape, it’s going to take a lot of courage to strip down to a swim suit and get in that pool.
  • Skill – Everyone knows how to run, but not everyone knows how to swim.

I’m here to tell you that all of these reasons are completely wrong.

  • Equipment – Yes, you do need a pool, but those are available at most gyms, colleges, hotels and apartment complexes.  In fact, access to a pool is more common than access to a gym.
  • Temperature – Many pools are heated year round.  The only exceptions are some apartment complex pools.  So with the right gym membership or access to a college, you can swim year round.
  • Cardio – Swimming is excellent cardio and a whole lot more.  I’ll talk a bit more about that in a second.
  • Shyness – Yep, it’s a little awkward sometimes to take clothes off, but hey, you’re doing this to get in shape, right?  Believe me, no one is judging you.
  • Skill – Swimming classes are available at many colleges, gyms and community centers for relatively low prices.  You’ll get coaching in a skill that’s not just good for exercise, it’s also something I would consider a vital life skill.

So Why Swim?

Swimming is one of the most incredible exercises you can perform.

  • Full body workout – Unlike many cardio exercises, swimming works out your entire body.  Now this depends a bit on the stroke you pick, but even simpler strokes like freestyle will work your upper body better than most other cardio.  Try something like the breast stroke and you’ll get an amazing full body workout.
  • Low impact – Again, unlike most other cardio exercises, swimming is zero impact.  What does that mean?  It means that you get a great workout while doing zero damage to your body.  Yes, some exercises do in fact damage your body.  For example, jogging places a lot of strain on legs and biking can be hard on your back. By comparison, swimming has zero impact and zero strain.

Honestly, I can’t think of a better cardio exercise than swimming from a physical perspective.

The Downside

While swimming is rather perfect on the physical side, it does have some real issues on the motivational side.

  • Hard to gauge performance – Unlike running or jogging, it’s relatively hard to gauge how hard you’re working out while swimming.  You have to be very motivated in order to keep up a fast swimming pace.
  • Boring – You can’t read, watch TV or talk to your friend while swimming.  All you can do is swim.  Many people find that boring and could cut their workout short because of it.

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If you can motivate yourself, I highly recommend that you try swimming as an exercise.  It’s quite literally the best cardio workout I have found.  However, it does get a bit monotonous so, unless you really love swimming, I recommend mixing it up and not swimming more than once a week.

Filed Under: Cardio, Work Out Tagged With:

Bounce Skyhigh! A Great Alternative Workout.

February 27, 2008 By 2 Comments

Every once in a while, I try to high light an alternative workout on 60 in 3. No, an alternative workout is not something that involves a lot of candles and chanting, it’s simply a way to get your heart rate up and your body moving without going to the gym. Today, I wanted to talk about something I mentioned in my weekend update, Sky High Sports.

What The Heck Is Skyhigh?

Skyhigh is a big warehouse full of trampolines. Of course, that’s only part of the story. Skyhigh was the brainchild of two bay area brothers who wanted a fun and safe place to play with their kids. Being trampoline enthusiasts, they came up with the idea of a play house filled with trampolines. Of course, this being the Silicon Valley, the two brothers decided to turn their idea into a business and Skyhigh was born.

Skyhigh has three main areas. The first is a large freeform area where people simply bounce up and down as much as they want. The trampolines are all set up right next to the other with the frames covered up by soft foam. That way you can bounce from one trampoline to the other without the fear of falling in between. There are also trampolines set up on the walls so you can bounce into them and back out. The second area is similar to the first except it’s dedicated to playing dodgeball. Yep, you heard me, dodgeball. And oh wow is it a blast! The third and final area is again set up with multiple trampolines, but it also has a big foam pit into which you can dive off of the trampolines.

Skyhigh and Exercise

When my wife first suggested Skyhigh, I was a bit reluctant. After all, aren’t trampolines for kids? Well, I take that all back now. First of all, Skyhigh was an amazing workout. Within 5 minutes of bouncing up and down, my heart was racing and I was struggling for breath. My first bouncing dodge ball game was incredible fun, but it was also a wonderful cardio workout and some great balance work. Overall, our stay at Skyhigh was the equivalent of a high end cardio workout with some lower back, legs and arm work thrown in.

Skyhigh and Fun

The best part was that Skyhigh was an incredible amount of fun. I didn’t even notice the clock and I certainly wasn’t bored. Even simple bouncing was enjoyable and I cannot even begin to explain the amount of sheer fun that trampoline dodgeball is. In other words, this was a workout that I LOVED!

Cost

Skyhigh was a bit expensive, $9 for two hours per person, so it’s not exactly a gym replacement. However, for slightly less than a movie ticket, we spent two hours having fun together and getting exercise. That sounds like a great evening out to me.

But What If I’m Not In The Bay Area?

I realize Skyhigh is a local thing. If you live in the Bay Area or Sacramento (where they just opened up their second warehouse), then I highly recommend you check them out. However, what if you don’t? Well, if you don’t live in this area then how about going online to check out what other fun alternative workouts are available in your area? Is there an indoor rock climbing gym? How about something like city beach where you can run through obstacle courses? Looked at the local dance studios lately? How about that martial arts class you’ve been thinking of? Every area has its own unique offerings. A quick online search can help you find quite a few of these fun alternative workouts.

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A workout doesn’t necessarily have to occur in the gym and it doesn’t have to be boring. Take a break and check out an alternative workout, they’re a fun way of exercising.

Sky High

Filed Under: Alternative Workouts, Cardio, Exercise

Too much of a good thing: Can endurance training be bad for us?

September 3, 2007 By 2 Comments

A reader of 60 in 3 recently sent me this article by Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple.  The article describes how endurance training can actually be bad for you due to the continuous strain it places on your body.

First of all, I would recommend that everyone read this article as it has a number of good facts about your body.  Remember, the more you can educate yourself about how your body works, the better you’ll be to make decisions such as this for yourself.  Second, before you decide that the gym is the cause of all your aches, let’s actually take a look at what the article says.

Endurance training can be bad for you

Yes, this is absolutely true, and the article explains why.  Essentially, when you train for something like a marathon or triathalon, you are placing continuous strain on your body.  Your body has systems in place to cope with this strain, but this comes at a cost.  That cost is aches, pains and sometimes permanent damage to your body.  I’m not going to repeat the entire article here, but I do completely agree with its points. Prolonged endurance training can cause long term damage to your bones, muscles and circulatory systems.

So I should quit my cardio routine?

The key word in that last sentence was prolonged.  What we’re talking about here is endurance athletes who train for marathon, triathlons and other such events.  Their training regimen includes daily runs or rides that last for hours.  If this is you, then yes, you are doing damage to your body.  However, the majority of us who are not trying to train for a long endurance event and who are simply doing this to get a bit fitter are just fine.  Our cardio routines are relatively short and only happen twice or three times a week.

Example

When I first started jogging, I had the exact same mindset that Mark describes “more is better.”  Since a little running was good for me, a lot of running should be great.  I ran for an hour every weekday and longer on the weekends.  I did lose weight, but I was also in constant pain.  My shins and feet were especially painful and it got to a point where I had difficulty running.  So I cut things down a bit, to only three days a week and only 45 minutes each.  That worked like a charm.  My body felt better and the pains went away.

These days I cut running down even further.  Three times a week for 30 minutes each, but I did add a fourth cardio session on a stationary bike.  The biking is much lower stress but is still good cardio.

Summary

Interestingly enough, the only sports related injury I had was when I was training for a half marathon about two years ago.  It was a stress fracture in my right foot due to the long running sessions I was doing in preparation for the event.  To me, that really drove home the fact that endurance training is good, but only in moderation.  Three or four sessions a week, none of them more than 30 minutes.  Also, if you are running, try to avoid hard surfaces like asphalt of pavement.  Those will add to the potential injuries because of their impact on your feet and lower legs.

So yes, those marathon runners, triathlons runners and tour de France bikers you see out there are actually harming themselves in the long run.  They’re still healthier than someone 100lbs overweight who never gets off the couch, but they’re not as healthy as the fit person who works out in moderation.  That’s you I hope.

Filed Under: Cardio, Injuries

Interval Training: What is it and why you should do it

August 28, 2007 By Leave a Comment

If you’re going to spend any amount of time with someone who’s training for an endurance event of some kind (Marathon, triathlon and so on) you’ll eventually hear the term interval training.  Actually, if you spend any amount of time around someone who does a lot of cardio workouts, you’ll probably hear that word even if they’re not training for an event.  Unfortunately, you might not understand what interval training is, what the benefits are, if you should do it and if so, how.  Have no fear, that’s what today’s post is here to help you with.

What is interval training?

Interval training is a type of cardio workout during which you go all out for a short period of time followed by a resting period.  Note that resting period does not mean standing still or sitting.  It means you’re still going but at a slow enough pace so you can recover.  Let’s take a look at an example.

I like jogging.  I usually jog at about 6.5 miles per hour for about 40 minutes.  When I do interval training, I’ll go all out for a minute which means running at 7.5 miles per hour.  Then I’ll rest, which means running at 5.5 miles per hour for two minutes.  I’ll keep alternating like this for 30 minutes.

That’s the basic set up of an interval training session, go all out for a short period of time and then go slowly for a slightly longer period.  Rinse and repeat until your time is up or you collapse in a sweaty heap.

Why do interval training?

There are two benefits of interval training.  The first is the theory that interval training elevates metabolism and calorie burning over simple cardio.  I’ve seen several studies that support this with figures around 10 to 20% greater calorie burn for interval training over normal cardio.  This is because your body ramps up its energy level to meet the highest requirement.  So when you keep going all out, you force your body to rev up its internal motor to meet that demand.  The rest periods are then kept short enough that your body never has a chance to rev down.

The second benefit of interval training is better performance.  Interval training helps you improve your performance by getting your body used to moving at a faster pace.  Your average pace during interval training is actually slower than your normal cardio session.  However, your body doesn’t notice that.  All your body knows is you’re going really fast.  Next time you’re doing a regular cardio session, your body will perform better since it’s expecting the peak requirement of interval training.  In other words, interval training helps you increase your speed during non interval sessions by getting your body used to running at a higher speed.

This second benefit really worked for me when I plateaued in my running performance.  I got to a point where I was running at about 6 miles per hour and I just couldn’t figure out a way to improve.  I tried running faster but couldn’t.  Then a friend told me about interval training and suggested I try it.  It really helped and, within weeks, I had broken through my plateau and started improving again.  These days I do interval training once a week and normal cardio three times a week.

Who should try interval training?

Personally, I think everyone should do interval training once they’re in relatively good shape.  If you’re doing cardio more than once a week then you can fit one interval training session into your schedule.  I’d also recommend it for people trying to improve speed and performance.  I will mention that interval training is really challenging.  So if you’re just starting out and you’re barely doing normal cardio, stay away from intervals.  The peak period will place a strain on your body that’s more than you need right now.

How do I do interval training? 

It’s simple.  Go all out, as hard as you can, for a short period of time.  For example, 1 minute.  Now rest by going slower than your usual pace for about twice or three times that period.  Remember that this is different than sprinting.  You do actually need to maintain your all out pace for a minute or so and you will need to do it again and again.  So don’t set a pace that you can’t maintain.  However, you should challenge yourself during that 1 minute all out period with a hard pace you can barely keep up.  At the same time, don’t slow down too much on the rest period.  It should be slow enough for you to catch your breath but it shouldn’t be slow to the point of standing still.

By the way, I keep using a running example here, but there’s no reason that interval training can’t be used with biking, elliptical or any other form of cardio.  Just use the basic pattern of an all out period followed by a longer rest period and you’re fine.

Summary

Interval training isn’t for beginners, but for people who are relatively comfortable with cardio training it can be a great tool to improve performance.

Filed Under: Cardio, Work Out
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