Loss on a Treadmill

4/28/11 - Almost every day I get an email from the only blog that I follow, Run Luau Run. Originally I was turned on to this by Lynn and I immediately liked the guy, mostly because he wore fingers sometimes. This morning I realized I am being lazy. This guy has a life much busier than mine and he wakes up at ungodly hours to run for nothing in particular (now that Boston is over at least). But, he always finds a time to make a quick spurt on his blog. Why can't I do this? Why can't I respond to emails quickly or make that call or do the dishes? I have yet to meditate today. On top of this, I had a great convo during my workout. I was actually using a treadmill today (first time in yeeaaaaars). It was gross outside. But, the universe provided some good chat time with Tony. It was hard to talk, but I enjoyed the challenge. A lot of the chat was, again, about loss. It has allowed reflection for the day and brings me to my DM, "Don't lose anything over the small things"

Treadmill. 15 degree incline. 1' walk (2.3), 1' run (4.5) for 28 minutes. Great for form and the only way a treadmill should ever be used in my opinion. Coming off to the track reaffirmed my belief when my form was great. Then, Straight Leg raises, 10 x 3. Biased pullups to left side x 10 or so. Scap retractions on Lat pulldown (just felt good).

4/27/11 - Daily Meditation - "I will take time to take care of myself." This was an interesting adventure. I had a lot of trouble with the third word. Sometimes it was take, sometimes it was find, and so on. Also interesting is that I often put an "and those around me" at the end of it. Recovery is my singular concern right now. It will make or break me. I find it no coincedence that I struggled with this throughout today. No working out, but a productive day. Had an excellent lunch with Tony to talk about his recent loss.

Meditation

4/26/11 - Had a great workout with my friend Peter. The TCC Underground Training Center was at least 80 degrees and wicked humid. Other people complain, I see opportunity. Did a whole bunch of random carries, some chinups, some throwing, pistol squats, partner pushups and a rocking push press/mountain climber or vsit for 5 rounds. On another note, if you see me, tell me to stop slacking and print out that damn poster!

Finally, I feel like this entire thing is supposed to hone my training and expose my weaknesses. I always thought this would be something like a weak quadricep or adductor or one of those other fancy muscle names. The reality is that my nutrition is sporadic at best and I spend zero time on recovery. I spend all my time destroying my body and no time repairing it. In line with recovery, I have started a daily meditation thought. I will spend 10 minutes every day meditating. Today's "meditation" was "I forgive myself and everyone around me." I noticed I was in a more positive mood with those around me.

4/22/11 - 4/25/11 - EASTER! Going home for me means one thing. Food. And lots of it. This is a good time to introduce my holiday policy. I think people freak out way too much about holiday eating. Lets assume 2 weeks of vacation a year and 14 days of holidays. Thats a total of 28 days a year. That leaves 337 days a year where you should be eating well. So to me, eating crazy for 8% of the year probably doesn't leave us with those unwanted pounds. Sometimes math helps. So for me, Easter was a vacation. I did, however, manage to get in a good 3 hour run/walk complete with some serious hill sprints.

4/21/11 - Eureka! I totally forgot I did a workout with the ladies in my group class. It was tough. Thanks Charlene and Tina for encouraging me.

Lots of hip opening for warm up

Then

Switch when box jumper is done. 3 rounds.

Dips

Side to Side Lunges (?)

Jump over and back 18" box x 10

4/20/11 - Can't remember for the life of me. I am sure I ran though.

4/19/11 - Another missed opportunity. Seem to be a lot of those.

Damn Sugar

4/18/11 - So apparently sugar is everywhere. I eat/drink stuff and its not until I am halfway done that I realize it has sugar. Amazing how unaware I am of what I actually consume. I will say this . . . coffee and tea suck without sugar. I have no idea how people do it or find it pleasurable. I am also fairly certain that this is probably the easiest diet plan to follow. I had a very unproductive day so far as far as training. This is very concerning, but did give me 3 hours to work out. So thats what I did. I worked out for 3 hours straight. Far from super high intensity, but all weird stuff with mostly single limbs doing the work. Its also way to much to write here. I feel alright as of midnight. Will see what tomorrow brings.

4/17/11 - Outside with the dogs. Cleaning of the house. Far from active, but at least I was not on the couch.

4/16/11 - Went to a Red sox game and ate some crappy food. Spent a ridiculous amount of time in traffic and just had nothing left in me by the time I got rain. The 12 feet of rain did not help either.

4/15/11 - Went to Bidwell's in celebration of Kasi's new personal trainer. As part of this celebration, I had a piece of intensely chocolate cake with a glass of milk. While it was good, it was not as good as I had thought. The wings, however, were solid. Some light stretching during the day.

4/14/11 - Foam roll for about 30 minutes.

4/13/11 - Running with Jim. Second loop again but cut out Bushnell Park so maybe 6.5 miles. Did a good part barefoot this time, felt good and much harder. The lump on my leg was acting up again. Found out it is strongly linked to right IT band.

Bonk

4/14/11 - Today I bonked. "Bonk"ing is most commonly used with sporting events, usually with some endurance component. I would think that the physiological reason behind it is that the body has run out of easy to access glycogen and must switch over to harder to access sources of energy. This can also happen in power lifting during the loading phase of a lift where an athlete loses focus/form and is not longer able to drive out of the lift.

But to the rest of the world bonking is waking up late for an important meeting, getting excited about an event only to find that you can't go to it, its regretting the late night binge you had, its staring at the TV when you know you should be doing living life instead of watching someone elses, its missing another workout because of some last minute meeting, its the flat tire you get, the remote control that was chewed up by the dogs, the leaking roof, the hurt back, or the stressful promotion you just got. Bonking is the world stopping you dead in your tracks with little to no warning. Its a sucker punch that takes all the wind out of you.

What bothers me about a lot of blogs (and a lot of people) is that they seem to be a public record of a terribly hard and arduous life. It's almost as if they are saying "Can you believe I am still alive and functioning after all of THIS!" This is not one of those blogs or one of those post. This is a post about commonality and the shared experience that we all have. I would like to think that as much as we think we are unique and special, we share an over whelming amount of emotions, fears, hopes, and experiences. This is recognizing that everyone bonks. And if everyone bonks, then its not that big a deal. If its not a big deal, then it is easy to move past. Moving on.

Hungry!

4/12/11 - An entirely random day. Raining so no running outside. Did 25 minutes of ropes non stop, waves going all the way to the end. Did a lot of rotational stuff which was great for the back. Also started doing some punching stuff which was fun but also extremely applicable to fighting. Its basically progressively loading punches. Then start to do some laps. 1 mile turned into 4 once I got some company, which was very welcomed. Some of those laps were full sprints which felt great. Also made myself a cameo in Burn for a few rounds. Then foam rolling and hot tub. I am beginning to think that I need to roll my right IT band and hip flexor prior to running.

I am ravenous tonight.

Second Loop

4/11/11 - Quasney squats and bench with Brian and Kevin again (5x 3). Felt really really good even after raking more damn leaves in the morning. 125, 185, 205, 225 (failure), 205, 205. Bench press. 125, 165, 205, 225, 225 (failure), 205. Felt good. Had not done bench in a long long time. Face was getting stupidly red.

4/9 and 4/10 - Rake the yard basically all day each day. I am more convinced than ever that manual labour is the best way to truly gain strength. Shoulders and traps were on fire at the end of the day.

4/8/11 - Finished the second loop planned from Hartford, around Elizabeth Park, and back. This part is going to be tricky simply because of the varied concrete and sidewalk elevation. They scream stubbed toe. Had to walk a few more times than I would have liked. Interestingly, muscular endurance seems to be what is holding me back. Loop ended up being 6.89 miles and I finished in an hour and 5 minutes. A rocking pace considering how awful I felt that day and how many times I walked. Ran in fingers again and not able to get my hips firing as much as before. Should be a fun run come the big day.

4/5/11 - Good day for strength. 3 x 5 Quasney Squats (thanks Kevin and Brian). 125, 165, 185, 205, 205. Fat bar(ish) deadlifts 3 x 5. 205, 235, 235, 225, 225. Finally got the course done. It is nothing short of scary. Emailing it out to TCC people and other tomorrow.

4/4/11 - Great recovery day. A random day off work. Egoscue supine groin stretch for at least an hour. Foam roll quads and calves. Lots of food and water.

4/3/11 - Maybe 4 - 5 mile run with Champer Camper. He still had energy. Crazy.

Course is Done!

Link to Run Here!

Official Start, Sort of

4/3/11 - More car work and then helping out at Rugged Fitness. Have a Powerade and realize that it has added sugar. This is going to be harder than expected. Sugar seems to be in everything and I am having a hard time defining what exactly counts as sugar.

4/2/11 - Carwork in the AM then sheer gluttony in the evening. Had a bite of apple pie and a cupcake and then remembered I needed to not eat sugar.

4/1/11 - This is my official start day, even though I have yet to send anything out or put up a flyer. Started my "No Sugar" rule today as well. No added sugar. Do a light KB workout with Jon then train like crazy. Go out to dinner and successfully avoid dessert.

3/31/11 - Ran a few laps inside with Jon. Then had a great run. 5.5 miles in 1:08. Hips were killing me, which is a good sign that I have effectively changed my running style. I was also totally crushed, which is not a good sign. Wore my fingers because it was so cold. It was a good decision and I need to stop being so stubborn about going "true" barefoot." Worried about what the next day would bring.

3/30/11 - Busy day. Planned to stretch at home, but did not. Recovery is a glaring issue at this point.

3/29/11 - Had "Stretch like Whoa" on calendar. Did about 10 minutes of stretching. Quads and right calf are constantly tight now.

3/28/11 - Planned to do something. Did not do much. Can't remember what I did but I know it was not anything crazy