Tag: pain

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.

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Publish date:
February 21st, 2012
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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.

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February 16th, 2012
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running
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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.

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February 1st, 2012
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2012-01-23 workout and follow-up

Ran at the FAU track with a buddy.

C25k training, week 1 day 1, 0:24:39 1.58 miles

Half marathon/Spartan race training, 0:34:34 3.17 miles

Total for the day: 4.75 miles

That was my longest run that I’ve logged so far. Surprisingly, except for some calf tightness, I was not too sore, even my ITB was OK. That was, it was OK until I actively stretched it out. During the State of the Union address, in an attempt to help stave off any ITB tightness, I seemingly overstretched and since then, it’s actually been hurting a little bit so I have laid off the runs for the last two days. Hopefully I can log another one this weekend before the run resumes on Monday, but I may just lay off and do some strength work instead.

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January 27th, 2012
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I laced up my shoes and magic happened

The magic started by my lacing up shoes in the first place, but I was damned determined to run today, ITB pain or not. This was pretty boneheaded of me to even think, just sayin’. But today, I was in a mood to get shit done since my professor decided to end class 3 minutes after he walked in and asked us to hand in our papers — I did not drive all the way to campus for something I could have emailed. So after I got home, full of gusto, I threw on some running shorts and decided to conduct my final running experiment of the last month: running in (real) shoes. Not my huaraches, I honestly cannot wear them for running any more, they just do not stay put no matter how tight I tie them. I find they are great for yard work but not for running, sadly. Once those nylon webbing laces get saturated with water/sweat, they stretch out hardcore. I tossed on my Trail Gloves for the first time in what must have been three months, coincidentally it has been about that long since I last wore any shoes that were not flip flops. After filling the water bottles up and starting the Garmin, I was off.

That’s when the magic happened: I ran 3.29 miles nearly pain-free. I was expecting to cut the run off after a mile or so since that has been the point at which the ITB pain just gets too much to bear recently, but not today. Not today! The last time I was able to run continuously for more than a mile was a few days after the Freedom 5k on 11 Sept 2011. Nearly a month to the day since I started plodding along in pain in training.

But not today. The first two miles were glorious and were easy! I maintained a great pace over those miles — about 10:37 — and the only time I stopped was for traffic and to pull a stink bug out of my shoe since it was doing an excellent job of stinging me. Right around that 2 mile mark is when I started to feel the ITB pain again but it was very minimal and not the searing, burning, excruciating pain I have experienced in previous weeks. It was more of a dull and annoying pain, almost like someone gave me a Charlie horse in the hip. I also experienced no SI or lumbar pain in the piriformis region, great news! The worst part of the run was, aside from wearing shoes, I did not bring a towel or shirt to wick away sweat and my sexy headband is more for looks than anything else. All that searing, sweaty man glaze burned my eyes for the last 1.3 miles of the run. I could really use a hat!

So for now, I will no longer be training strictly barefoot. I have two races in the next three weeks and I need to get my body back up to speed for the distances. I will more than likely run the races barefoot or in new huaraches that stay tight to my feet (Brancas, perhaps?) but training will be strictly shod. As sad as this makes me, I have to run in a way that keeps me moving forward and out of the doctor’s office. I hope this change is not permanent, the feeling of running barefoot is second to none.

My first 5k in a month was a smashing success even if there was no one around to witness it, it made me feel like a titan.

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Publish date:
October 12th, 2011
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