Savage 300 Workout & Easy Running in Downtown Boston

Downtown, uptown, I never know the difference. There were tall buildings, so there's no doubt about the 'town' part - but beyond that, I haven't a clue. It sounded good in the title, so I sacrificed accuracy for style.

I am staying at the Lenox hotel, in which there is the traditionally 'just adequate' gym. The gyms in big city hotels are so similar, I usually feel like I've been there before. It's nice - like a home from home.

The photo, taken from their website, pretty much tells the story. Out of view, behind the photographer, is a set of 10 - 50lb dumbbells, a pull down machine, a leg raise machine and a wooden bench for sitting on. This came in handy, as it happens.

Tuesday

I improvised a cheat 300 workout using the available equipment. These were the exercises:

25 Machine pull downs @ 120 lbs
50 Press ups
50 Dumbbell deadlifts @ 50lbs each
50 Tuck Jumps
50 Floor wipers with 50 lb dumbbells
25 Dumbbell clean and press @ 30lbs
25 Machine pull downs @ 120 lbs

I deliberately chose lighter weights so I could minimise rest due to muscle failure.

Time: 18.25
Food afterwards: Asparagus and mushroom omelet

The plan worked - I may have been forced to use lighter weights by the available equipment, but by deliberately judging the other weights (such as pull downs) to avoid lots of enforced rests, I made this the toughest session I've had in weeks.

By the end, I was in serious pain. The 'sitting down' bench came in handy. It was a good job it was 4.30am and the gym was empty, because I was making a lot of noise in the closing set.

Back at the room, a brief lie down was required.

Yesterday

I have bought a heart rate monitor that connects with tracking software on my mobile phone. This means I get a map of the route and graphs of altitude, speed and heart rate. Very cool. When I have downloaded the paid-for version of the tracking software I will be able to post the graphs for future runs.

To test it, I ran around Boston 'town' for an hour, over some bridges, along some water and through some car parks when I got lost. Of course it's not possible to actually get lost anymore, since my phone tells me where I am, where the hotel is, and what direction I am moving in.

I did the run in my Vibram Five Finger Mocs - not really designed for outdoor running, but they stood up to the challenge and gave me the closest thing to a truly barefoot running experience I've ever had.

The good news: by running at what felt like about the right pace for easy exercise, I kept my heart rate at an average of 148 bmp, which I think is about right. I didn't monitor it while running - just looked at the graph afterwards.

Time: 60 minutes.
Food afterwards: none - fasted until evening.