chitchat

2012-02-20 workout: Spartan taper

The SoFlo Super Spartan is only a few days away so I decidedly took today easy, comparatively.

Warm up
5 dead hang pronated pull-ups, using two small towels for grip modification. FYI: Towels are soft and cuddly, but try holding onto one as if your life depended on it and it’s like sandpaper — mega-blisters.
10 toes-to-bar
5 GHD sit-ups
3 minutes of “jump rope” (more like 3 minutes of getting the rope stuck in my Vibrams)

Workout proper
2.72mi in 30:55.83, 11:22 avg pace
160 avg heart rate
15 push-ups and 5 dive bombers after mile 1
13 push-ups, 4 dive bombers, and 10 second plank after mile 2
For extra fun — aka trying to vomit — the last two 100m stretches were run at ~70% full sprint and ~90% full sprint

Cool down
11 push-ups followed by a really slow walk to the Rec Center
10 more towel-as-sandpaper dead hang parallel grip pull-ups
15 toes-to-bar
10 GHD sit-ups (I think)
12-10-8 wrist rotators, 25lb w/tossed hand-off
5-4-3-2 wrist rotators, 35lbs. I could barely hold on to the weight at this point, my grip was gone
3×10 12.5lb barbell wrist levers w/flip hand-off for extra wrist-breaking-dexterity
5 5 second L-sits on parallettes. By the 3rd one, holding the L-sit was made possible by sheer determination as my arms could barely support me.

I’m certainly starting to question whether my “cool down” is really just another workout I’m doing a hell of a lot more slowly than an actual cool down routine.

Author name:
Publish date:
February 21st, 2012
Categories:
chitchat
Tags:






Another week closer to the Spartan Race

I’m still not up to the distance I need to be, around 9 miles overall. I’ve been trying to follow some half-marathon training plans but I’ll be honest, they’re not working. I’ve successfully gotten to just under 4.75mi on most runs but I can’t seem to break that barrier just yet…and my calves end up hurting/being overly tight for days on end afterwards. So I’m still just under half the distance I need to run and I can’t make any progress because what I’m running now is setting me back…what a conundrum. At this point, I’ve decided that I’d rather keep running at whatever distance I make it to rather than follow a prescribed plan which may just ramp up the miles too quickly, leaving my poor bare feet beaten up and sore. I figure that since I basically made it this far simply by running until I stop comfortably, I can make it further. In the last few months, I’ve become too goal-oriented and running went from fun to something I did on routine. That makes it a lot less enjoyable. It’s gone from fun to a chore and I don’t like that at all.

In interest of training for the Spartan, of which I’m doing two of in three weeks, I’ve been adding in a lot more randomized weight training. I know where my weaknesses are and I know that I can’t fully address them in a matter of a month, but it’s at least a start. In order to hopefully address my on-going ITB issues, I’m adding in lower body stuff like dead lifts and front/back squats. I’m also adding in stuff specifically to slam the glutes and hamstrings like GHD sit-ups which are anything but fun. While the last 9+ months of running have certainly whipped my legs into shape, I can feel that it’s been to the detriment of other muscles and cross-training is now necessary rather than something I would like to avoid. I just need to cement a training regiment and a stretching routine to make sure I nail that stuff to keep things supple and flossy.

All of this stuff should help build a strength base that I will then use in the upcoming FAU Strong Owl strongman competition that the University puts on twice a year. It’s funny, a year ago, I was just trying to fit into my jeans but now I’m signing up for crazy ass obstacle course races and strongman comps, and for the most part, I’m having fun doing it. I’m still not sure what my girlfriend thinks of all this, she doesn’t really say much about it, I think she’s just appeasing me at times since all I do is talk about training in one form or another. Maybe I’m just being overzealous right now since I’m having fun.

Got a photography club meeting today that I’m on the fence about, not because I don’t enjoy the club, but because I’ve literally got nothing to address or talk about today (and I’m tired). I hope we can cut the meeting short to get some administrative business out of the way and then come home to veg out.

Author name:
Publish date:
February 16th, 2012
Categories:
chitchat
running
workout
Tags:



2012-02-13 Workout: Empty the tank

So I felt great all day, not too much tightness anywhere and was mostly amped to run. That is, until I got down to the nitty gritty of it.

Warm up
2 min jump rope
5 pull ups
5 toes to bar
5 GHD sit up

Workout
4.68 mi, 65mins (includes warm-up time).
For some weird reason, the Timex Run Trainer had a hell of a time getting a GPS lock. This is a known issue on the newest firmware but it’s the first time I’ve had this issue.

Cool down 5 pull ups
10 toes to bar
10 GHD sit up
5 back squat 135 lbs
5 front squat 105lbs
5 dead lifts 105 lbs

All those squats seemed like a good idea at the time but they weren’t, I was way too stiff to do them right. And that weight blasted me after the run, now I’m paying for it. So sore today. Next time I’ll just do the regular cool-down routine

Author name:
Publish date:
February 14th, 2012
Categories:
workout
Tags:



Hellish humidity

I’ve only had one training day this week so far and I’m OK with that, it’s been nice lounging while I get stuff for school and the OWL Photography Club ready for upcoming events. The training run on Monday was good but I think it was a bit in the direction of overreaching because for the whole run, my calves weren’t so happy. I had a nice run on Saturday but did not massage my calves enough to work out some of the muscular tightness and that hurt my progress on Monday. But, it was also humid as hell, literally. When it wasn’t raining, the humidity was creeping up the barometer; I believe it topped out over 75% by the time the sun went down. Needless to say, I hated it. But overall, the workout itself was great.

**Warm up**
Slogging through a bunch of puddles to the rec center (yes, I count this! You try lugging 15lbs of books through puddles wearing flip flops and wet pants!)
5 SEAL pull ups
5 toes to bar
Dynamic stretching

**Workout proper**
3.93mi in 55mins, slow run to keep in Zone 3 (didn’t really work), ran about 85% trails

**Cool down**
5 more pull ups
5 more toes to bar
Static stretches
Grip exercises: 3 mins of plate grip forearm rotations, 25lb plate. This was harder than I expected, the 35 plate was worse. By the end, I could barely even hold the plate.
5 more super slow, super strict pull ups with extended hang-out between 4 and 5 to really tax the grip.

Frankly, I had to cut the run short because of my calves and the fact that I after mile 3, I was having trouble keeping my heart rate under control. After a two minute walk, I must have run 20 feet and my TRT shot from the 130s to 187 in an instant, that’s when I stopped for good. I’m not 100% sure what it was that was causing erratic heart rates but I know it had to do with my calf soreness. After that, I just went to the Campus Rec Center to cool down and try to get some dead lifts in.

Well, that didn’t work because all the Delta Bravos were hogging the racks, mostly to stare at themselves in the mirrors while doing bar curls with 10lb bumpers. I must have hung around for about 30 minutes before I gave up the quest and got my stuff. However, the grip work was fun but excruciating. Not only was the weight itself rather heavy, the rubber coating didn’t like my sweaty grip all over it, so it was more of a fight against time than grip failure. Maybe I’ll hit the gym this weekend to get some weights in since I know Saturday morning, the gym is practically empty all day.

But if I go on an empty day, who will be there to see me workout?! Isn’t that the point of going to the gym?!

(PS – In my younger years, I was a true gym rat. I was at the gym 5-6 days a week for nearly a decade, punishing myself. I understand the lure of working out all those rippley muscles for the ladies, it’s why we invented gyms: to get ladies to go where men are sweaty and gross smelling)

Author name:
Publish date:
February 8th, 2012
Categories:
chitchat
minimalist
running
Tags:



2012-01-31 workout: Shin Smasher

I have dubbed yesterday’s workout the *Shin Smasher* for no other reason than I almost bonked a 10lb sledge against my leg at least a dozen times.

**Warm up**
10 sledgehammer around the worlds/windmills
5 kettlebell halos
15 knees to chest (and some other goodies from KB master Mike Mahler)

**Workout proper**
2-hand slam, 5 rounds alternating 5/5
Tire carry, ~26lbs ea, approximately 140ft between rounds of slams
10-10-10-10-13 2-hand overhead slam
~36lb water carry approximately 140ft between rounds over overhead slams
10-10-12 butter churn ladder

**Cool down**
10 sledgehammer around the worlds/windmills
10 kettlebell halos
5-4-3-2-1 burpees ladder
12-10-8-4 knee to elbow plank ladder

This workout itself has made me rethink my future workout regimen. I’ve got two “heavy things” to lift and use to workout (as the line goes from Richard Nikoley and Mark Sisson:

    1. Sledgehammer
    2. Kettlebell

Working out with both is very fun and very challenging but I think I may stop the kettlebell training for now as I’m very worried about tweaking my back. Or I’ll stop until I can take a few classes with a reputable RKC to tweak and refine my form rather than continuing to swing mine and do some serious harm. I think I’ve got the form down but I am not terribly certain that it’s exactly right as my KB workouts don’t totally kill me despite doing 5 or 6 sets of swings with upwards of 15 reps. Sure, I’m sweaty but really, I’m not feeling it especially the next day.

But that’s where I like the sledge workouts, it’s totally self-correcting. If I’m swinging wrong, I’ll feel it almost immediately either in my shoulder or my delts. If I hit the tire wrong, the sledgehammer’s head twists and wrenches right on my wrist. It’s immediate and it hurts like hell. But with my KB, it’s more nuanced and it’s hard for me to always track whether I really am popping my hip flexors or if I’m just using the bell’s momentum to swing. Doing that with a sledgehammer will either result in it not moving at all or bouncing off the tire straight into my face…and then not moving at all, probably because I’d be on the ground gushing blood and passed out. That lack of pendulum-like motion is an excellent feedback loop, I just don’t get that so far with my kettlebells. I like feedback, it’s important to get it to make sure you’re not about to crunch a disc or pop a joint out.

So, perhaps for all of February I will train with sledgehammer work only until I can get enrolled in an RKC-led kettlebell class to get some input on what I may or may not be doing wrong and go from there. Plus, I think swinging a sledgehammer looks way more manly.

Author name:
Publish date:
February 1st, 2012
Categories:
workout
Tags:




Older entries