A question from Kate
Hi Frank,
I have to say I heard your interview on NPR and my ears immediately perked up when you mentioned the weight gain after swim team. I myself swam in high school and college and for the first time found myself able to clothing shop without tears. I'm now in the phase of life that comes after - gaining weight! I hate it! I'm presently about 25 lbs. heavier than I was just four years ago (and swimming competitively), and wonder when it will stop.
My question for you is this, what's your workout schedule like for a week? That is to say, how much do you actually work out? I've upped my activity level after hearing your interview, and was curious how much you workout. Thanks much!
- Kate
Answer:
It varies from week to week. But I'd say at the end of a month, I've probably averaged four days of serious exercise a week, and maybe six to seven hours a week. I'll try to have some days when, between a run and weight lifting/mat work, I wind up with more than 90 minutes of fairly intense exercise. Other days it'll just be 40 minutes of running. It's still not enough: I should be 10 pounds lighter, and I'd love more caloric wiggle room, so to speak, when I sit down at the table. But it's never just 25 minutes on the elliptical while reading The Economist. If you can read without dripping sweat on the page---if you can concentrate that well on something other than, say, the beat of the music through your iPod---you're probably not working out hard enough. That's what I tell myself, at least.
Lately I've also been trying to build more incidental exercise into a day. A 25-block walk instead of the subway. An 8-mile bike ride rather than a taxi to a friend's. That sort of thing. I need to do this more; am trying to.
