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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

A Life Based On The Concept Of "Minimally Effective Dose"!

When I was working thru getting my blood pressure under control, I experimented with a couple of drugs, and finally settled on lisinopril. After playing with dose, I was able to settle on a 5mg dose which made my blood pressure reasonable, but didn't cause much in the way of side effects. Minimally effective dose. This concept is applicable to many other aspects of my life these days.
Due to my orthopaedic limitations, I have settled for around 40K a week of running over 4 or 5 days. I can't run more that an hour and a half without a lot of soreness over the following couple days, so I have limited racing to those events that take around a half hour to an hour. I need to do some running at intensity, but even though short sprints and fast intervals would be a great fitness builder, I again have too much follow up pain from these kinds of workouts. So, I keep my two weekly runs of intensity at a 20 to 30 minute threshold or sub threshold run, and keep my shorter interval workout in the three to five minute interval range......any shorter than that I tend to go too fast and pay the price over the days that follow. So, for what is left of my racing attempts, they will have to be based on this level of training.
When I go to the gym, I do 8 specific lifts......the first three are multiple muscle group exercises that I do three sets of, and the other five I do just two sets of. I keep headphones on and don't talk to anyone (unless a pretty girl asks a question or for a spot), and my entire workout takes between 40 and 45 minutes. That is about the level I have found that allows me to bust my hump before I either start to get tired, sore, or lose my concentration.
When I drink, I usually start with a beer or glass or two of wine, and then hit the bourbon for a couple glasses on ice. I try to enjoy the buzz, but stop short of getting stupid. Usually pretty effective with that.
Weather it is making investment decisions, managing our budget on a one page sheet, keeping my caloric intake as light as possible, or most other aspects of my old man retired life, I try to keep things very simple, as well as try to find that minimally effective dose. My ability to maintain my concentration and multitask are much reduced over the last 20 years or so, and at times I feel like I am developing senior ADD. Guess that is also why my blog posts are so short......
Anyway, my right knee (the one broken 4 1/2 years ago from the truck hitting me) has been stiff, arthritic, and achy this fall and winter, so I have started my gym workouts with a set of leg sled presses without weight, and then once loosened up, a second set with two 45lb plates, and a third with two 25lb plates. the sled mechanism itself is around 60lbs, so that totals out at 150lbs and 110lbs.....so I look just like this guy, except my legs are like rotten sticks, and the only bulging vessels are those varicose monster veins in the back of my legs......

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