It is a day off for me. I am going to do nothing.
•••••
This is all for the better, though, because I am in somewhat of a foul mood, precipitated by minor events yesterday afternoon that were not resolved. I am one to mull over things, and my mood has been stuck down in the goat s*** for almost a whole day now.
•••••
I watched a documentary on NetFlix this morning. In addition to receiving dvds in the mail, you can instantly watch shows and movies on the internet. I might go watch a movie now. I tried to practice, but the foul mood brought me down, so I quit early.
•••••
Say something ludicrously funny to cheer me up.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
PT Power Run, Rice
An excellent run today! Thought about postponing the 10 miler until tomorrow, but then decided to just get out there and run.
Temp was 43, windchill 38. Wore shorts. My legs looked sickly white. First planned just to do 7:50s the whole way, but then decided to kick it up a bit and run the 2nd half faster. Threw in 20 pushups before the run and after every mile, thereby giving me 220 total. The shoulders sort of feel it. Good stuff. Stopped the watch everytime I did pushups, which gave me a 15 second break after each mile.
Miles:
1- 7:49
2- 7:25
3- 7:33.60
4- 7:33.66
5- 7:23
BAM!
6- 6:42
7- 6:26
8- 6:23
9- 6:15
10- 7:43
1st half in 37:45 (7:33 average)
2nd half in 33:31 (6:42 average)
Total- 1:11:16 (7:08)
Wind was sort of blowing at me during the first half, then had it pretty much toward my back on the way home. Ran fast, but not so fast that there was a lot of pain or effort. Sort of just relaxed. My lips were sort of jiggling around. That's one way to know you are relaxed.
Was going to cooldown the last two miles, but decided to get in another good mile. Did not know where the half-mile mark was, but I thought I was on 6:00 pace, so I sped up the 2nd half.
Started going faster the last 600m, feeling the lactic acid accumlating. In the last 200m I thought I could break 6:00 so I started going even faster.
Evidently, where I thought the half-mile mark was was not the half-mile mark. It was a cruel joke.
When I saw that I would not break 6:00, I sort of backed off. It was a good idea, because everything was starting to feel bad and I started groaning. I am not in shape to go as fast as I thought I could go. Finished in 6:15 though...pretty satisfied with the effort! Hoorary!
The pushups after the 9th mile were sort of hard, and I had to make strange noises in order to summon the strength to keep going. Headed back home at an easy pace.
A great run!
•••••
My mom made some really good rice today! Nothing special. Cooked some brown rice, then threw it in a skillet with sesame oil, leeks, and shredded carrots. Yum yum!
Rice is the new thing. I am going to see what kind of rice creations I can come up with. Recipes to come!
•••••
Finished the week with 40 miles. A good number. 45 next week, then either 35 or 50 the next week, depending on how fresh the legs feel.
Hope you had a good week!
Temp was 43, windchill 38. Wore shorts. My legs looked sickly white. First planned just to do 7:50s the whole way, but then decided to kick it up a bit and run the 2nd half faster. Threw in 20 pushups before the run and after every mile, thereby giving me 220 total. The shoulders sort of feel it. Good stuff. Stopped the watch everytime I did pushups, which gave me a 15 second break after each mile.
Miles:
1- 7:49
2- 7:25
3- 7:33.60
4- 7:33.66
5- 7:23
BAM!
6- 6:42
7- 6:26
8- 6:23
9- 6:15
10- 7:43
1st half in 37:45 (7:33 average)
2nd half in 33:31 (6:42 average)
Total- 1:11:16 (7:08)
Wind was sort of blowing at me during the first half, then had it pretty much toward my back on the way home. Ran fast, but not so fast that there was a lot of pain or effort. Sort of just relaxed. My lips were sort of jiggling around. That's one way to know you are relaxed.
Was going to cooldown the last two miles, but decided to get in another good mile. Did not know where the half-mile mark was, but I thought I was on 6:00 pace, so I sped up the 2nd half.
Started going faster the last 600m, feeling the lactic acid accumlating. In the last 200m I thought I could break 6:00 so I started going even faster.
Evidently, where I thought the half-mile mark was was not the half-mile mark. It was a cruel joke.
When I saw that I would not break 6:00, I sort of backed off. It was a good idea, because everything was starting to feel bad and I started groaning. I am not in shape to go as fast as I thought I could go. Finished in 6:15 though...pretty satisfied with the effort! Hoorary!
The pushups after the 9th mile were sort of hard, and I had to make strange noises in order to summon the strength to keep going. Headed back home at an easy pace.
A great run!
•••••
My mom made some really good rice today! Nothing special. Cooked some brown rice, then threw it in a skillet with sesame oil, leeks, and shredded carrots. Yum yum!
Rice is the new thing. I am going to see what kind of rice creations I can come up with. Recipes to come!
•••••
Finished the week with 40 miles. A good number. 45 next week, then either 35 or 50 the next week, depending on how fresh the legs feel.
Hope you had a good week!
Negative Pullups
The following text started out as a comment for Abby for her latest blog entry. It got too long, though, so I pasted it here. It is probably more readable this way.
•••••
Negative Pullups
1) Stand below the bar
2) Jump up into the "up" position. The head should be just above the bar.
3) SLOWLY lower yourself down all the way until you are just hanging there. Take 3 seconds or so to lower yourself.
4) Let go of the bar and get back on the floor.
5) Repeat.
Maybe you can use the program suggested on that site I sent a couple days ago.
Also, BE CAREFUL of the grip you are using for pullups. The thumb should not be wrapped around the bar (like you wrap it when you hold a baseball bat). The thumb should be right next to your index finger, on top of the bar. Doing pullups with thumb wrapped around bar makes the pullup less efficient and transfers a lot of the effort from the back and shoulder muscles into the forearms. This will make pullups harder.
•••••
There are also a lot of variations of pullups.
1) Regular
2) Close (hands touching)
3) Wide (hands far apart)
4) Reverse (AKA "chinup"
5) Mountain Climbers (grip the bar with right hand in front of left, right index finger touching left little finger. Lift yourself until right shoulder touches bar. Lower. Lift until left shoulder touches bar. Etc. Use opposite hand grip, too.
•••••
Negative Pullups
1) Stand below the bar
2) Jump up into the "up" position. The head should be just above the bar.
3) SLOWLY lower yourself down all the way until you are just hanging there. Take 3 seconds or so to lower yourself.
4) Let go of the bar and get back on the floor.
5) Repeat.
Maybe you can use the program suggested on that site I sent a couple days ago.
Also, BE CAREFUL of the grip you are using for pullups. The thumb should not be wrapped around the bar (like you wrap it when you hold a baseball bat). The thumb should be right next to your index finger, on top of the bar. Doing pullups with thumb wrapped around bar makes the pullup less efficient and transfers a lot of the effort from the back and shoulder muscles into the forearms. This will make pullups harder.
•••••
There are also a lot of variations of pullups.
1) Regular
2) Close (hands touching)
3) Wide (hands far apart)
4) Reverse (AKA "chinup"
5) Mountain Climbers (grip the bar with right hand in front of left, right index finger touching left little finger. Lift yourself until right shoulder touches bar. Lower. Lift until left shoulder touches bar. Etc. Use opposite hand grip, too.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday and Friday, Answers
Thursday it was cold. I walked 3 miles on the treadmill (1 hour total). I did 6 x 25 pushup. 1 min. each ab plank.
Lower back was sort of sore. Doing back planks is a bad idea right now. I think the back is stronger than the abs. Maybe the hips are being pulled back and up because of weak abs. I do not know if this is for real or just my active imagination.
At any rate, I need to get the abs strong again. Strong abs.
•••••
Friday I ran 8 miles outside at probably around 7:45 pace. Temp of 28-32. Wind from SSW at 12. Felt pretty good until the way back. Did not eat enough food for breakfast. I felt weak.
No PT today. Rested instead.
Slept in to 10:37, and I had to work at 2:30, so the whole period of day before work felt rushed. I will try to get up earlier tomorrow.
I have to work Sat, Sun, Mon. Then Tuesday get ready to go to California! The weather there is predicted to be around 60 during the days, mid 30s at night. Nothing summery, but a good change of clime. Plus, my first time in California! We plan to go to Lake Tahoe, to some redwood forest thing, San Francisco, and Pacifica (where I wanted to live when I was still planning on going to school in SF).
•••••
Fireroads are an awesome North Face shoe (though I think all North Face gear is awesome, even if I've had only two running shoes).
I had to google what a fireroad was. Here in Nebraska there is no such thing. The first things that came up were "is your child fire smart?" and "fireroads: find great deals and save" as if a fireroad was something like a book or a shawl or an accessory for you color coordinated bedroom (what's with that anyway? anytime you search for something, it comes up with all these places where you can "find" or "buy" the thing.)
I always thought a fireroad was a road leading up a mountain where trucks could come to put out a fire. Something like that. It makes sense, doesn't it? I pictured it being a crushed limestone or mulch trail.
In the description of the Fireroad shoe, it says something that it is too aggressive for the pavement, but can't handle real trail. So I guess a crushed limestone path would be a good setting for the Fireroads to thrive.
•••••
The actual definition of a fireroad is this:
"a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as a logging road, jeep trail, secondary road, or a highway ."
It is also known as a fire break, or a fuel break, or a fire line.
So I guess I was sort of close.
•••••
Neat things about the Fireroad shoe:
1) Very light
2) Very stable (a pretty much flat bottom)
3) Sheds mud (flag bottom doesn't allow mud to accumulate)
4) Features the North Face orthotic (like all of the running shoes)
5) Interesting support system...some shoes have a more dense material to prevent pronation...the fireroads have this material more forward on the foot. Rather than having it under that bone that sticks out on your ankle, the Fireroads have a little web of plastic stuff right before the ball of the foot, on both sides (look at the picture, the little yellow stuff you can see). I think this works for me because although I don't pronate that much, my feet used to seem to sort of flop around during the running motion. I think the plastic web thing helps to guide the foot forward, thereby improving the stride rate, efficiency, and making me think that I am Haile Gebreselassie.
•••••
Drawbacks (which do not really exist):
The fireroad is not an ENDURANCE SHOE. It is not designed like the Rucky Chucky or the Arnuva, which are for 100 mile races. But for now, they are good. I won't be going that far for a while!
•••••
More info:
http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=10903&storeId=207&catalogId=10201&langId=-1&from=subCat&parent_category_rn=11706&variationId=8Z5
Lower back was sort of sore. Doing back planks is a bad idea right now. I think the back is stronger than the abs. Maybe the hips are being pulled back and up because of weak abs. I do not know if this is for real or just my active imagination.
At any rate, I need to get the abs strong again. Strong abs.
•••••
Friday I ran 8 miles outside at probably around 7:45 pace. Temp of 28-32. Wind from SSW at 12. Felt pretty good until the way back. Did not eat enough food for breakfast. I felt weak.
No PT today. Rested instead.
Slept in to 10:37, and I had to work at 2:30, so the whole period of day before work felt rushed. I will try to get up earlier tomorrow.
I have to work Sat, Sun, Mon. Then Tuesday get ready to go to California! The weather there is predicted to be around 60 during the days, mid 30s at night. Nothing summery, but a good change of clime. Plus, my first time in California! We plan to go to Lake Tahoe, to some redwood forest thing, San Francisco, and Pacifica (where I wanted to live when I was still planning on going to school in SF).
•••••
Fireroads are an awesome North Face shoe (though I think all North Face gear is awesome, even if I've had only two running shoes).I had to google what a fireroad was. Here in Nebraska there is no such thing. The first things that came up were "is your child fire smart?" and "fireroads: find great deals and save" as if a fireroad was something like a book or a shawl or an accessory for you color coordinated bedroom (what's with that anyway? anytime you search for something, it comes up with all these places where you can "find" or "buy" the thing.)
I always thought a fireroad was a road leading up a mountain where trucks could come to put out a fire. Something like that. It makes sense, doesn't it? I pictured it being a crushed limestone or mulch trail.
In the description of the Fireroad shoe, it says something that it is too aggressive for the pavement, but can't handle real trail. So I guess a crushed limestone path would be a good setting for the Fireroads to thrive.
•••••
The actual definition of a fireroad is this:
"a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as a logging road, jeep trail, secondary road, or a highway ."
It is also known as a fire break, or a fuel break, or a fire line.
So I guess I was sort of close.
•••••
Neat things about the Fireroad shoe:
1) Very light
2) Very stable (a pretty much flat bottom)
3) Sheds mud (flag bottom doesn't allow mud to accumulate)
4) Features the North Face orthotic (like all of the running shoes)
5) Interesting support system...some shoes have a more dense material to prevent pronation...the fireroads have this material more forward on the foot. Rather than having it under that bone that sticks out on your ankle, the Fireroads have a little web of plastic stuff right before the ball of the foot, on both sides (look at the picture, the little yellow stuff you can see). I think this works for me because although I don't pronate that much, my feet used to seem to sort of flop around during the running motion. I think the plastic web thing helps to guide the foot forward, thereby improving the stride rate, efficiency, and making me think that I am Haile Gebreselassie.
•••••
Drawbacks (which do not really exist):
The fireroad is not an ENDURANCE SHOE. It is not designed like the Rucky Chucky or the Arnuva, which are for 100 mile races. But for now, they are good. I won't be going that far for a while!
•••••
More info:
http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=10903&storeId=207&catalogId=10201&langId=-1&from=subCat&parent_category_rn=11706&variationId=8Z5
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Walk, PT, Yasso, Cat, Proposition
It was COLD outside, so I decided to stay inside and walk on the treadmill. I thought I could walk 4 miles in an hour. That is 15:00 per mile. It didn't sound too hard.
But then the treadmill has to make everything seem harder than it is, so I dropped it to 3 mph. Therefore, I had to walk for 1:20 in order to get 4 miles.
Walked in the other pair of Fireroads. They have never been worn, so it was like breaking them in. They liked walking, I think.
Played with the 4 x 4 cube while walking. Also talked on the phone to Lisa.
During the last 20 minutes, the legs, mostly the calves, started feeling like they were being worked. Walking always seems to make me tired than running. It is strange thing. I was walking with Lisa in the mall last Saturday, and I started to complain that my legs hurt. She told me to stop being a pansy.
•••••
Did some mild PT. Just a little. But for right now it was plenty.
•••••
Yasso 800s are a good workout. Basically, you do the workout once a week. If you are going to run a 3:40 marathon, then run the 800s in 3:40. Start with 4, and build up to 10 or 12 during training. Make sure to run all of them at the same pace. Don't make some 10 seconds faster and others 10 seconds slower. Run all of them the same.
•••••
There was a stray cat that came to our house. My mom fed it food. It stuck around. We fed it more stuff. Later, it was still there. I took some boxes out to the shed and designed a little hutch for it to sleep in. The cat didn't want to go in the hutch. I picked it up, picked HER up (probably a female), and put her in the hutch. She climbed out right away. She rubbed against my legs and purred. I petted it on the head.
•••••
Proposition.
Hey you all who read this. Maybe we can all do a similar training schedule, like long run on Sunday, speedwork on Thursday, and easy days the rest. Then we can all sort of "train" together, even though we are miles and miles apart. We are so many miles apart that it would take weeks or months to run to where the others are. If we wanted to visit Anton, we would have to run to the Pacific coast, then swim to Hawaii. Sharks would attack. We would have harpoons, though, and could fend them off. We might even manage to make a meal out of one or two of them.
That is the proposition. Not the part about harpooning the sharks. The other part. The one about having a similar training schedule.
•••••
I wasn't going to do any dips, but after reading Anton's blog I got motivated. I am doing what he did today: 15, 10, 5. That is a quick dip workout but good. The arms need to have an easy transition into more serious PT anyway.
Thanks for motivating me!
•••••
Totals:
4 miles (4 miles on F2s)
5 x 25 push 1 = 125 , 1 min. planks sides and front, 15, 10, 5 dips = 30, 20 neck each
But then the treadmill has to make everything seem harder than it is, so I dropped it to 3 mph. Therefore, I had to walk for 1:20 in order to get 4 miles.
Walked in the other pair of Fireroads. They have never been worn, so it was like breaking them in. They liked walking, I think.
Played with the 4 x 4 cube while walking. Also talked on the phone to Lisa.
During the last 20 minutes, the legs, mostly the calves, started feeling like they were being worked. Walking always seems to make me tired than running. It is strange thing. I was walking with Lisa in the mall last Saturday, and I started to complain that my legs hurt. She told me to stop being a pansy.
•••••
Did some mild PT. Just a little. But for right now it was plenty.
•••••
Yasso 800s are a good workout. Basically, you do the workout once a week. If you are going to run a 3:40 marathon, then run the 800s in 3:40. Start with 4, and build up to 10 or 12 during training. Make sure to run all of them at the same pace. Don't make some 10 seconds faster and others 10 seconds slower. Run all of them the same.
•••••
There was a stray cat that came to our house. My mom fed it food. It stuck around. We fed it more stuff. Later, it was still there. I took some boxes out to the shed and designed a little hutch for it to sleep in. The cat didn't want to go in the hutch. I picked it up, picked HER up (probably a female), and put her in the hutch. She climbed out right away. She rubbed against my legs and purred. I petted it on the head.
•••••
Proposition.
Hey you all who read this. Maybe we can all do a similar training schedule, like long run on Sunday, speedwork on Thursday, and easy days the rest. Then we can all sort of "train" together, even though we are miles and miles apart. We are so many miles apart that it would take weeks or months to run to where the others are. If we wanted to visit Anton, we would have to run to the Pacific coast, then swim to Hawaii. Sharks would attack. We would have harpoons, though, and could fend them off. We might even manage to make a meal out of one or two of them.
That is the proposition. Not the part about harpooning the sharks. The other part. The one about having a similar training schedule.
•••••
I wasn't going to do any dips, but after reading Anton's blog I got motivated. I am doing what he did today: 15, 10, 5. That is a quick dip workout but good. The arms need to have an easy transition into more serious PT anyway.
Thanks for motivating me!
•••••
Totals:
4 miles (4 miles on F2s)
5 x 25 push 1 = 125 , 1 min. planks sides and front, 15, 10, 5 dips = 30, 20 neck each
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Awesome Run!
Great run today! 8 miles in 57:15! 7:10 per mile!
Reading what Ben and Abby had to say, about just getting up and going sometimes, made me super pumped to get outside.
I started off sort of fast, and then I decided to run negative splits, which I did. Some things from the run:
Total- 57:15
Half 1- 29:32 (7:24 per mile)
Half 2- 27:43 (6:56 per mile)
Half 1 Splits-
A- 12:40
B- 9:27
C- 7:24
Half 2 Splits-
C- 6:45 (-0:39)
B- 9:08 (-0:19)
A- 11:48 (-0:52)
A VERY good run today! Makes me excited! Below is the run route, for those of you who are ever in Aurora. It starts at my house. It ends there too. We have goodies inside, like cereal and candy.
First good run of 2009 route...http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2489606
Did 1 min. all planks before run, then 1 min. all planks later = 2 min. total. Maybe these are just as good as situps. Only time will tell. The back is still a little bit sore, so I don't want to do any situps for a while...probably not until at least Febrario.
Plan to run twice tomorrow, 4 miles at a time. Good stuff.
I hope your day was as good as mine!
94 miles on shoe.
Reading what Ben and Abby had to say, about just getting up and going sometimes, made me super pumped to get outside.
I started off sort of fast, and then I decided to run negative splits, which I did. Some things from the run:
Total- 57:15
Half 1- 29:32 (7:24 per mile)
Half 2- 27:43 (6:56 per mile)
Half 1 Splits-
A- 12:40
B- 9:27
C- 7:24
Half 2 Splits-
C- 6:45 (-0:39)
B- 9:08 (-0:19)
A- 11:48 (-0:52)
A VERY good run today! Makes me excited! Below is the run route, for those of you who are ever in Aurora. It starts at my house. It ends there too. We have goodies inside, like cereal and candy.
First good run of 2009 route...http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2489606
Did 1 min. all planks before run, then 1 min. all planks later = 2 min. total. Maybe these are just as good as situps. Only time will tell. The back is still a little bit sore, so I don't want to do any situps for a while...probably not until at least Febrario.
Plan to run twice tomorrow, 4 miles at a time. Good stuff.
I hope your day was as good as mine!
94 miles on shoe.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tricksters
Weather.com = tricksters.
They say that is is 30 degrees with a windchill of 14.
False!
Usually when it is 14, breathing the cold air doesn't hurt the lungs. Or, when it is 14, the feet don't start to feel numb.
Now, when I look at the temp, it says it is 25 with a windchill of 5. That is more like what it feels. The delay of informing me! Dang tricksters!
Planned to go 5, cut it to 3 because it was so cold. Planning 2-4 more miles tonight, if the wind dies down.
•••••
Quick Draw:
4x20 push, 1 min. ab plank all.
They say that is is 30 degrees with a windchill of 14.
False!
Usually when it is 14, breathing the cold air doesn't hurt the lungs. Or, when it is 14, the feet don't start to feel numb.
Now, when I look at the temp, it says it is 25 with a windchill of 5. That is more like what it feels. The delay of informing me! Dang tricksters!
Planned to go 5, cut it to 3 because it was so cold. Planning 2-4 more miles tonight, if the wind dies down.
•••••
Quick Draw:
4x20 push, 1 min. ab plank all.
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