Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I couldn’t help laughing at this video for the Treadmill Bicycle.

If you love your treadmill as much as I do, then you know that deep down, you kind of wish that the treadmill bicycle wasn’t a joke. Honestly, I only like to run and walk outside when the weather is perfect. If it’s too cold or hot, I head for the treadmill and watch one of my walking videos instead.

Major props to the people at Bicycle Forest for thinking of the Treadmill Bicycle:

• The Bicycle Forest :: Treadmill Bike

In all sincerity, though, funny gadgets like this remind us that all we really need to be fit are a good pair of running shoes and a door out of the house.

Via: CraziestGadgets.com » Treadmill Bicycle

There is no question in my mind what my absolute favorite activity on Wii Fit is: Running on Wii Fit Island. So far, I’ve opened up the Short Run, the Long Run, Island Lap and Free Run. With Free Run, I can run for 10-30 minutes without stopping.

When I first started working out with the Wii Fit, I was worried that I wouldn’t really be able to get a good cardio workout. The Aerobics activities were intense enough to get my heart rate into the high range, but they were only a few minutes long. With the addition of Free Run, however, I can get a REAL aerobic workout and enjoy the scenery of Wii Fit Island.

Here is a video of the Short Run:

This video only shows you a small part of Wii Fit Island. Here is a map of the running trails:

Anyone familiar with the Nintendo/Mario Universe will recognize many little in-jokes and familiar sites. Wii Fit Town looks a lot like Delfino Square and the run through Rocky Peak is very much like a Mario Kart drive through Choco Mountain (try to see the choco boulders falling off the cliffs).

Everything that I wished for in that Island Worlds program, has come to pass in Wii Fit with the Basic Run and Free Run activities. They’re better, in fact, because I’m running with my Miis. Every time I pass a Mii that we created, it feels like I’m out exercising with my friends. If you watch carefully at the end of the video, Mike is waiting for me at the end of the run. Just seeing that one of my friends is ahead of me while I’m running makes me run a little faster to catch up to them.

Laura,

I know you’re not a medical authority. I know that you will begin your reply to this question with “talk to your doctor”. I also know you do a lot of running, know people who run and read a lot of articles on the subject.

So here goes…

I’m nearing a year ago when I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. Since then, I’ve limited my walking/running to allow my feet to heal. If you’ve never had this, you can’t imagine how painful this can be.

While I looked good walking with a cane, it was no fun.

I want to start walking/running again, but whenever I do my feet hurt that night. I don’t want to reinjure myself. (The latest was actually when I fired up my Wii Fit and did the “running” minigame.)

I’ve always heard of people who just train through the pain.

Do you know of anyone who has plantar fasciitis and when they went back to training? Did it hurt? How do I know when it’s ok to go back to being active?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ernie

Ernie,

Actually, I DO know about the pain of plantar faciitis. I had it when I first started walking in the early nineties. I went to a doctor for it and he wrapped it. It wasn’t until months later that I found something to help it. I talked about it on Starling Fitness before:

• Starling Fitness » Shin Splints

Before and after exercise, I would do the Straight Leg Calf Stretch. After my cardio, I would also do Calf Raises after the stretch (about twenty per leg). Strengthening the calf muscle somehow protects those tendons at the bottom of my feet and I NEVER have that pain anymore.

You’re right, of course. You really should see a doctor to make sure that your foot pain isn’t something more serious. My doctor x-rayed my feet to make sure there weren’t any other issues.

I actually LOVE the running game on the Wii Fit. It is just like my walking videos and I love to pass the Miis that represent the people I know and love. Now that I’ve opened up the Free Run option in the Aerobics section, I have been running in place in front of my television every day.

Do I “train through the pain”? A little, yes. Sometimes some exercise helps me work out some of the muscle soreness. There are other times when I have really overdone it, however, and I rest. We didn’t get fat overnight, so it’s alright to get slim slowly. Don’t believe the Biggest Loser mentality. You are doing GREAT if you exercise 3-5 times a week. That gives you plenty of time to rest between workouts.

Believe me, I KNOW that it’s easy to overdo it while playing Wii Fit. I was surprised at how much muscle soreness I had after doing EVERY exercise available on the program. Learning to take it slowly is something that I have been working on as well.

Thanks for being such a loyal reader and commenter, Ernie. I hope you know how much I appreciate regular readers like you.

Best,
Laura Moncur

Suunto has just released a new series of watches called the T Series. All of them are heart rate monitors that track your calories burned and time in each training zone. The upper end watches work with foot and bicycle pods to track your mileage.

Only the t6c comes even close to doing all that I would want and the Suunto website is so sparse that I can’t even tell if the computer program would be anything near as good as the Nike+ site.

• New Suunto Training Series

Sure, the Nike+ doesn’t track my heart rate or use a GPS to locate my position, but it has a place where there are a lot of runners who can compete with me in challenges. It’s nearly impossible for me to find a group of runners in my hometown who are running exactly as fast and long as I am, but on Nike+, I can find a large group easily.

Right now, it looks like the Suunto t6c is about $400 and that only includes the heart rate monitor. I’d have to pay extra for a foot pod or GPS tracking device. At that price tag, the new Suunto series doesn’t even pique my interest. I’ll stick with my low tech Nike+ for now. Ironically, it’s still better.

Via: Shiny Shiny: Suunto answer the ‘sun shining = diet’ equation

After a week of exercising with the Wii Fit, I have a few thoughts.

Is it a good workout?

When I started working out with the Wii Fit with my Nike Imara Heart Rate Monitor, I was worried that I wouldn’t get much of a workout. Some of the balance games (like the Soccer Heading game I showed you last week), barely got my heart rate above the low mark. The aerobic sections of the game were the BEST at getting my heart rate up.

Worse still, there is a lot of navigating through menus that wastes time. For example, I kept my stopwatch running and in over an hour of workout time, the Wii Fit logged only 45 minutes of actually working out.

Here are the stats from a typical workout:

Wii Fit Activity Time: 45 minutes
Total Workout Time: 1:07:14 minutes
Total Calories Burned: 536 calories
Average Heart Rate: 121 bpm
Time in High HR Zone: 26:37 minutes
Time in Medium HR Zone: 30:12 minutes
Time in Low HR Zone: 10:24 minutes

In this workout, I did every Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobic and Balance activity that had been opened. I’m sure you could workout for hours once you’ve opened up all the activities and repetitions.

Hands down, the biggest calorie burner is the hula hoop game. My heart rate shot up to 167 bpm while I played this game trying to keep all the hoops in the air and catch more. I’m surprised at how good of a workout it is and I’m excited to keep testing it over the weeks.

Shiny Shiny made a collection of the other week-long reviews of the Wii Fit here:

• Shiny Shiny: Does the Wii Fit actually get you fit? The reviews decide…

It doesn’t look like anyone is reporting weight loss any more than a simple one or two pounds a week, but it certainly is a fun way to add activity to your day.

It’s rare when I laugh out loud at anything. I love to read comics. Most of the time, I chuckle happily to myself at them, but this comic from Joy of Tech made me literally laugh out loud.

• The Joy of Tech – Wii Fit Makes a Killing

When the Wii Balance Board turned my Mii into a short and bloated character, I seriously thought the same thing. Yes, I know I’m fat. Why do you think I bought the Wii Fit in the first place?!

Other than that, I’ve LOVED the Wii Fit. I’ll write a full review for it when I’ve finished working out with it for a week.

After a lengthy quest all throughout the city, Mike and I finally found a Wii Fit. I set it up and it told me that I was fat (I knew that already) and made my poor little Mii character a short and pudgy icon after weighing me. I had no idea that the Wii Balance Board was also a scale, but it doubles in that capacity. When compared to my high-tech digital scale in the bathroom, it reads quite accurately.

The first time we played with the Wii Fit, I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I did get a good sweat on. The most fun Balance game to play was the Soccer Heading. You can see a video of it here:

We had plenty of laughs while I tried to dodge the soccer cleats and panda heads. I will be working out with Wii Fit for the next couple of weeks and give you more feedback about how many calories I burn while playing and how effective a workout it is.

Long before my tread on the bottom of my shoes wears out, the inside heel of my shoes gives up the ghost. This entry from Instructables shows you how to repair the inside heel:

• How to Repair the Heel of Athletic Shoes – Instructables – DIY, How To,

With some durable cloth, strong thread and shoe glue, you can add miles to your favorite shoes. They end up looking like this:

I’ve talked about cleaning my shoes and replacing the shoelaces to make my running shoes last longer here:

• Starling Fitness » Bringing New Life To Running Shoes

They say that you should replace your shoes every 400 miles, but if you can get extra miles out of your shoes, it not only saves you money, you don’t have to go through the trouble of breaking in new shoes.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: HOW TO: Repair the Heels of Athletic Shoes

Chris at Runner+ gave us a fantastic review of the new Garmin Forerunner 405. It’s a GPS running watch that will track your runs (like Nike+, but more accurate).

• Garmin Forerunner 405 first impressions & review – RUNNER+

Here is the killer for me:

First off, most important issue: there is Zero Mac support. The frustrating thing about this is that nowhere does it say this. Not on the box it came in, and not in the documentation that comes with the 405. Thankfully I have both Mac and Windows PCs, but I primarily use a Mac. Even the 305 has some moderate support for Mac. I called Garmin and they confirmed that Mac support is non-existent, and if you are a Mac-only runner, you’ll have to wait for “late Q3 or Q4 2008” to use this device. Merry Christmas!

On the bright side, I heard that REI is putting the older Forerunner 305 on clearance for less than $200 and it DOES work with the Mac. If you are a PC user, then the software problems are not an issue.

After a few runs, he also noted a few more things:

• The battery life of the 405 with GPS enabled is only 8 hours (compared to the 305’s 10 hour life) which may prohibit some ultra marathon runners from upgrading to the 405 and sticking with the 305.

• Charging the battery on the 405 couldn’t be easier. You can charge it with the included USB cable to any PC (including a Mac), or attach the adapter to charge via any household power outlet. The way it charges the 405 is via a clip (think of an aligator clip) that clips onto the side of the watch and makes contact with two metal contact points on the bottom of the watch. Pretty cool!

• The default backlight timeout is 8 seconds, probably to conserve battery life from the get-go, but it’s far too short. Luckily it’s easy to change in the options menu to 15 or 30 seconds, 1 minute, or “stays on” mode which keeps the light on until you touch the bezel with two fingers. My preference is 15 seconds.

• Odd GPS behavior: after my run it kept the GPS turned on. This drained my battery life after a few hours from 100% down to 91%. Would prefer that if I wasn’t in training mode that it would automatically turn the GPS off. So now it’s a bit of a pain to have to turn the GPS on and off, before and after each run. It should be automatic.

Chris had a lot more to say about the Forerunner 405, so click on over to the full review to see the rest:

• Garmin Forerunner 405 first impressions & review – RUNNER+

I love Ernie’s entry on Google Maps and their public transportation options:

• little. yellow. different. – Dear Google Maps: Your public transportation options mock me

This is the result map that came up when I typed in that I wanted to take public transportation from my house to the DMV. (Public transportation since, you know, I forgot to renew my car registration. Ooops.)

I love how it’s all, “WALK THERE, YOU FAT F***ER.”

The Salt Lake County public transportation is so inefficient that if anything is closer than three miles, it’s ALWAYS faster to walk there. One of the reasons that I like to exercise is because if I have to do something like walk to the DMV, I can. Nothing is in my way and I can survive on just my two feet alone.