September!!

9/9 - Lifted
9/11 - Ran maybe 4?
9/12 - Lifted
9/13 - 3x 1 mile repeats at 7:50-ish. Ow.
9/14 - Lifted
9/15 - Ran 9. It was a LOVELY run
9/16 - Lifted
9/17 - Renaissance Faire. Drinking and trying on corsets counts as a workout, right?
9/18 - Massage. Rest Day. Ahhhhhh
9/19 - Massage recovery day
9/20 - Lifted
9/21 - Ran 4.5
9/22 - AM: lift. PM: Bosu Bounce. A really great workout for the lower-leg stability muscles. Will attend again.
9/23 - Rest day
9/24 - 5th Avenue Mile. 1 mile in 6:24. 2 miles warmup and cooldown. STUPENDOUSLY PROUD OF THIS.
9/25 - Mohonk Preserve 10 Mile Trail Race. 1:51:41. a beautiful run.
9/26 - Rest Day
9/27 - Lifted
9/28 - Ran 4 and Yoga
9/29 - Lifted

September so far (and a bit of August)

8/29: 50 pullups, 3x8 ab-wheel rollouts
8/30: 50 pullups/ 4 mile run
8/31: 50 pullups/ 7 mile run
9/1: 50 pullups
9/2: 50 side to side pullups
9/3: 50 pullups
9/4: 50 pullups
9/5: Long Beach Labor Day 5 Miler, 70th/300, 7th place in division
9/6: 100 pullups
9/7: 50 pullups/ 8 mile run
9/8: 50 pullups
9/9: 50 pullups
9/10: 50 pullups
9/11: 50 pullups/ 16 mile run
9/12: 50 pullups
9/13: 50 pullups/ 5k run
9/14: 50 pullups/ 8 mile run
9/15: 50 pullups/ 5k run
9/16: 50 pullups
9/17: 50 pullups/ 8 mile run

Back and legs. Nothing but back and legs. This is the first time I've trained for a marathon. I've done 2, but this is the first time I have a plan and damn if it's not working me harder than I've ever worked before. Next year, I'd like to add the night workouts back in while I train for marathons during the day.

-Stan

In a fit of genius....

I decided to do a 6 mile tempo run last night. I survived the first 3.5 miles, and then died. Walk/jogged another 3.5 and then spent an hour stretching and on my foam roller. Legs still dead today. Note to self: Don't do that again.

NRLW - back to it

Did 4A1 today - going to do half of stage 4 and half of 5 again before moving on to stage 6. ETA til I can barely walk: 36 hours.

Whew it's been a while!!!

8/17 - Ran 4 miles
8/18 - Ran 4 miles
8/22 - Ran 4 miles
8/23 - Relentless!
8/24 - Ran 3.5ish miles
8/26 - Ran 4 miles; Bootcamp
8/27 - Ran 6.5ish miles
8/30 - Relentless!
8/31 - Run 4 miles
9/2 - Ran 6.6
9/5 - Biked 20 miles
9/6 - Relentless

10 Day Reports

8/19: 50 pullups
8/20: 50 pullups followed by 7.5 mile run
8/21: 50 pullups followed by 14 mile run
8/22: 50 pullups followed by 150 leg lifts per leg
8/23: 50 pullups followed by 4 mile run
8/24: 50 pullups followed by 7 mile run
8/25: 50 pullups
8/26: 50 pullups
8/27: 50 pullups followed by 15 mile "run" Actually, it was 50 pullups followed by the most awful experience of my life. 9 miles of running, 6 miles of hobbling because I refuse to short my runs once I start them.
8/28: 50 pullups PM: Yoga!

Week in Review

8/16 - Relentless.
8/17 - 4 mile run
8/18 - 4 mile run
8/20 - 7 mile run
8/22 - 4.5 mile run
8/23 - Relentless

Since 8/7

8/7: NYC TRI! Beat my previous time by about 5 minutes. Not as dramatic as the time I was hoping for, but that's actually huge. Stronger on the bike, weaker on the run and less dawdling in transition.
8/9: Day 2 of Literary Bootcamp. 5x5 ab-wheel rollouts. All I could manage with 14 hours of writing a day.
8/11: Squeezed in a 4.25 mile run. Felt awful in the N. Carolina heat. Could barely muster any breath.
8/15: 50 pullups in 10-something minutes, and another 5x5 ab-wheel rollouts.
8/16: 50 pullups, 4.25 mile run.
8/17: 50 pullups
8/18: 50 pullups, 7.43 mile run

This 50 pullups a day challenge for 50 days is fun. My lats are definitely barking at me right now. Awesome.

Post-Beast Post

Friday: Bootcamp. Ow.
Saturday: 5 mile run
Sunday: Warrior Dash at Windham. Fun, but not very challenging. It's hilarious to read the comments on their Facebook page lately, about how hard it was. No guys, that wasn't hard, you're just not very fit....
Monday: Pole dancing class!! Fun, but not a great workout. Though I am bruised today!

First week of August

8/1 am: 0.5 miles swimming
8/1 pm: 0.3 miles swimming
8/2 am: 3.5 miles running
8/4 am: 4 miles running
8/6 noon: 13 miles biking
8/7 am: NYC TRI 3:20:24 Finish

W - S

Wednesday - Ran 4 miles
Thursday - scheduled to be a rest day, but got my new running skort, and really wanted to test it out. I love it!!! 4 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - Spartan Beast. AKA making Mt Killington my bitch.

I, too, can run a half marathon!

Saturday - Half mary in 1:58:30. Not a PR, but for a DAMN annoying and circuitous course and a quite hot day, I'm pretty pleased.
Sunday - Rest!
Monday - Rest!
Tuesday - Pilates!

Since 7/23

7/24: 6 mile run and an interview by Fox 5. Be sure to watch on Triathlon Sunday!
7/26: 4.5 mile run
7/27: 10K, PM: Swimming
7/28: Half hour of swimming
7/29: Half hour of swimming
7/30: Queens Half. A shade over 2 hours. Made my first goal of doing a sub-10 pace. Didn't make my 2nd of a sub-2 hour pace.

Anyways, final preparations are in place for next week's triathlon. Go-time!

Thursday

Thursday - Yoga

Today - rest and 8pm bedtime so I can get up at 4! YAY!

7/27

Ran 4 miles. Felt great. Hope that feeling continues on Saturday! Also, GORGEOUS weather.

Tonight: Yoga in the park!

7/26

Pilates this morning.

Last kickboxing class this evening.

Updates!

Saturday - 11 miles. Not nearly as fast as I would have hoped, but I wasn't trying for any particular pace, nor checking my current pace - just trying to get through without passing out. Mission accomplished.

Sunday - Long ass walk around town for errands

Monday - Ran 4 miles. Why OH WHY can't we have today's weather again on Saturday!?

7/23

5 mile race pace run to start the day!

7/21 and 7/22

7/21: Half-hour swim with rehab exercises at the end.
7/22 AM: Half-hour swim with rehab exercises as well.
7/22 PM: Hour long walk in 100 degree temps with a set of 10 pullups to impress pedestrians.

3 swims in 2 days? He's in triathlon gear now!

Heat

Woohoo I have company again!

Thursday: Kickboxing! Only one class left in my groupon, which is sad, cuz I really like it, and it's a fabu workout. But $150/month is just absurd and I refuse to pay it.

Today: 4 miles. Resting this evening in hopes that tomorrow's 11 miles won't suck so much. At least I'm doing it with the support services of NYRR - water, gatorade, salty snacks, etc. And it blissfully starts and ends right near my apt, so that's a total win!

Catching Up Again

Sorry Hannah, Internet problems with Blogger have kept me from posting. Here's a recap of the past 10 days.

7/11: Swimming for 45 minutes at Coles.
7/12: 3.5 mile run. Runs have been feeling awful lately. Clocking in 1 - 2 minutes per mile slower than my normal time.
7/13: 5.25 mile run. Same problems.
7/14: 3.25 mile run.
7/16: Since the MTA screwed up my race day morning, I went home, did 100 pull-ups and ran 5 miles afterwards. Run was somewhat better than the past few, though I was doing it at 45 seconds than my pre-Africa runs.
7/19 AM: 3 miler.
7/19 PM: 45 minutes of swimming.
7/20: 8 miler. Awful. Absolutely awful. Ran out of gas halfway through (although I was clocking in pre-Africa times) and had to walk the rest of the way home in 90+ degree heat. Totally spent.

In case you're wondering, the run pattern is Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1 marathon plan and I'm aiming at the NYC Marathon this year.

ALSO! Fox News wants to do a story on me on Saturday. Stay tuned for more!

Posting to myself is fun!

Tuesday night: Ran sprints with the girls after all. Did 3 x 1 mile intervals, aiming for 7:50 pace. First: 7:44, Second: 7:55, Third: Kate told me she thought they were holding me back, so I should go ahead. Finished in 7:27!!!! Felt awesome, treated self to beers.

Wednesday: Trim down , Tone Up at the gym. Can barely lift my arms now. :)

Tuesday

Pilates! Gotta see about something to do this evening, since sprints with the girls just sounds heinous in 85+ degree weather.

Monday

Ran 4 miles. It was hellish. Legs felt like lead, too warm. These terrible runs always make me fear that the rest of my runs forever will feel this way. But it hasn't happened before (them staying bad, I mean) and I see no reason why that should change now.

Saturday!

Ran a totally new route today - On the greenway, starting at 34th and W Side Highway, down under the lower tip of Manhattan and up the East side along the FDR. Who knew Manhattan went that far down?!?!

SERIOUS hydration problems, though... Not nearly enough water opportunities (I'd only carried a pint...) along the 2nd half of this course, and my friend Kate and I were dying. She was seeing spots... We did find water shortly after realizing we'd both stopped sweating, but I'll have to remember that for the future.

Capped the run with a chai frappuchino. HOLY HELL I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE BEVERAGE. I sorta want another one....

Friday

AM - Relentless

PM - Bootcamp

Nearly two glorious hours sweating for Sam. Tired now.

Also irked that I seem to be burning way fewer calories these days in my workouts than I once did... I am clearly too fit.

Recap

Wednesday - Lifted, but didn't get to the intervals at the end, as I realized I'd forgotten my house keys, and had 4 minutes to get home before Chris would be leaving, and I'd be locked out for the day. Fortunately, I made it.

Thursday - 5 BEAUTIFUL miles. I politely requested that today's weather be replicated on July 30. Here's hoping.

Tuesday!

JEBUS it's too hot and humid to be running. It was a slow 4 miles this AM, but I am super thankful to not have to do it this evening!

Yoga tonight!!!

Monday

Kickboxing! Second class, and this time I managed not to injure myself! Yay!!!

BACK FROM AFRICA

Yesterday: 10K, followed by 45 minutes of swimming, 2 workouts
Today AM: 5x20 knuckle pushups, 4x50 inverted leg lifts on each side

Hannah, looks like you're the last Mohican around here. With the Africa trip, I'm probably going to have to hustle hard to catch you, but I WILL BREAK YOU.

Weekend

Friday: Ran 4 miles.

Saturday: Ran 10 miles.

Sunday: MASSAGE, BITCHES!

Wednesday

New Rules of Lifting for Women Stage 5, workout A, instance 4. DONE! One more workout in stage 5, and then I move on to stage6 - the Pullup. They're MUCH different workouts than what I've been doing, with the SOLE goal of getting you to be able to do a pullup. This stage is half of why I started this program in the first place! WOOHOO!!!

things

Saturday - 6 miles. Longest run I've done solo in a while, it was kinda nice.

Sunday - Weights, even though I really didn't feel like it.

Monday - rest

Tuesday - ran 4 miles with my sister, who is visiting for the week! AND did some crunches/pushups/lunges/medicine ball things in the PM!

Injury and recovery

So I turned/sprained my ankle at kickboxing - I'm clearly not THAT coordinated, but despite swelling I managed to walk 3 miles last night, and run 3 this morning with no pain. I have clearly osmosed some of Tarik's Mutant Healing Powers. Tomorrow, we'll test it out on a longer run.

Tuesday Blues-day

I skipped Pilates cuz I was tired, and said "hey, I'm running tonight anyway!" Then lab reared her ugly head and prevented me from running. Half of me was angry about my data (which continue to suck) and half of me was JUST SO FRUSTRATED to miss a workout.

So on to Wednesday:

5 miles this morning - it's a beautiful morning!

Tonight - going to Kickboxing in Queens. My first real, hitting-things kickboxing class! I asked my "cardio kickboxing" teacher for tips. He said "don't bend your wrist", which I actually already knew from Tae Kwon Do when I was 7. I'm excited to beat things up!!!

Monday Funday!

Lifted this morning. Really wasn't into it - tired, feeling less-than-strong. But then I ran into the judge of the Sinai weightlifting contest, who complimented my lifts, and I felt better.

Tonight: cardio kickboxing. We'll call it my warmup for Wednesday night's REAL kickboxing!

10.5 idyllic miles

Followed by shopping, museum-ing, shopping, drinking, resting, and more drinking. Holy fuck today is tiring.

In which Hannah continues racking up the points...

AM: Run 4 miles. FUCKING humid.

Lifting....

at 3:30 in the afternoon? So it would seem.

NRLW 5B2. Got my intervals up to 8.4mph (7:09 min/mile).

Tuesday Fun Run!

5 miles in the park with the girls. An idyllic day for running!!!

Sunday

Saturday diving turns out to have been canceled for the summer, and no one told me. Sad.

Sunday I did NRLW 5A2 in the AM and went to yoga for the first time in months in the evening.

Today I rested, and all was well!

Saturday

Ran 6 miles with the newer running group, and then 2.3 to get home on my own. A lovely time was had by all.

Tonight: Diving practice!!!

Thursday and Friday

Thursday: AM run, truncated to 3 miles due to my buddies not being willing to go early enough. But I put my foot down, and now they'll go when I want!!

Friday: Bootcamp. Did something naughty to my hip flexors, so I'll be living on a foam roller tonight.

Also bought a groupon for Kickboxing classes. Sure, it's in Queens, but it comes with free gloves! Which I can take to the OTHER kickboxing groupon I bought!

Wednesday

Where is everyone?

AM: NRLW 5B1. Woohoo intervals!!!!

PM: Eat Haitian food. If you break a sweat during a meal, that counts as a workout, right?

Tuesday

AM: Pilates. My instructor and I talked lifting. We are both aghast at the number of women who think lifting heavy weights will make them bulky. Sorry - unless you have some testicles you're not telling us about, or are injecting something, you are not going to get bulky.

PM: Speedwork. Played "catch up" for 1.7 miles, with 1.7 warmup and 2.5 to get to the meetup point. I'd fully intended to take the bus down, but wouldn't ya know it, the Museum Mile party had 5th ave closed. So run down it was!

NRLW 5A1

Ugh, I've seriously lost strength in the last several weeks of not lifting heavy. Last time I lifted, I could do 6 reps of incline DB benchpress at 30#. Today, couldn't do 1. But this is why we're back at it! On the plus side, my bodyweight matrix hasn't slowed down at all!

Rebel Race

Friday: ran 5 miles.

Saturday: Ran the "15k" Rebel Race in Modena, NY. Worst. Organization. Ever. The course was not marked, and there was no one to direct us, so most of my wave got lost, and in no way ran 15k. Some say it was longer, I think it was shorter... Obstacles were OK, but nothing to write home about. Overall experience: C-

Climbing Training 101

I do this close to every day at work so I didn't want to fill the page with redundancy.

20-30 minutes of climbing training at lunch break.

Do you know those ring things in the olympics for gymnastics? Now picture a lot of those just lined up. Now imagine just swining back and forth from them multiple times. Fin~

Nose, meet grindstone...

Grindstone, nose. I've registered for the Spartan Beast at Killington on August 6. Unsure how it will compare to the Tough Mudder, except that it's on a taller mountain... And for any obstacle you miss/fail, you have to do 30 burpees at the end. Fortunately for me, I can do 30 burpees in 1 minute at bootcamp, but after 4 hours up and down a mountain, that might not be so realistic. So training motivation is back!

Today -
AM: Pilates.

PM: My friend from high school has started an unofficial running club. Saturdays they do group long runs, and Tuesday nights are speed workouts. I'll be going tonight, and hoping not to die between the heat and the "oh, I don't really know how to run fast..." If anyone would care to join, I can get you more details. It's free and starts at 7:30 at CP South and 6th Ave.

ETA: Oh holy hell. We ran repeats of Cat Hill. 7:30 pace up, jog down. I did 4, and then had to go, they did 6. I totally could have survived 2 more, but being as I STILL have to go back to lab, I'm ok with the sacrifice. Of course, with the warmup, cooldown, and the fact that I ran 2.5 miles TO the warmup... I ran 8 miles today. ON A WEEKDAY!? Egads!

Saturday

Woke up to my running buddy texting me to ask where I was. Oops!! Still managed to get out and do 4.5 miles with her, but as I'd planned to do 6, and she had to go do Things, I did another 2.5 myself! Who knew the loop from 102 to south of the reservoir was 2.5 miles!? Not I. But it was lovely.

Wrapping up the week

Sunday! RESULTS Monthly Challenge: Came in 2nd place behind Hannah. Hannah, your run was awesome. As far as personal benchmarks go, this was close to my 2009 Brooklyn Half-Marathon which was my strongest running year to date. However, I was in mid-season mode while this year I'm still in rehab mode. I'm super excited about what that means. Hopefully I can drop 5-10 more lbs. in time for the Queens Half-Marathon as well as log in some half-marathon or longer runs. Sub 2-hours is so close!

Tuesday: Yoga in the morning to start the day.
Wednesday: Swimming in the morning.
Today: 5 mile run. Awful. Mentally drained. Almost a 12 minute pace. But at least it's conditioning the body.

National Running day...

And I have a chest cold. No workout for me. Not sure why the rule of thumb is "work out if you're sick above the neck, rest if you're sick below" but that's what everyone says, and I really need to be well SOON so I can get back to kicking my own ass.

Sigh.

Alive and Well

Yest. Ab ripper x
Today. 30minutes of monkey bar madness, and Ab ripper x!

Title Goes Here

Friday AM: Relentless. This class used to be much different than the Thursday Relentless class, and now they're almost identical. Not sure it's worth getting up at 6:15 for...

Saturday: 8.25 miles (yay gps!) with my sister. PERFECT running weather.

Today: 3.9 miles with the girls. Borderline too hot, but I'd better get used to it now, bettern't I? Lungs feeling like they have a virus replicating in them. NOT COOL!

Ugh

Posting from my phone because my computer has just not been cooperating.

Wednesday: 5 mile run
Last night: 2 hour walk through downtown manhattan
This morning: 5 sets of 5 chinup leg lifts followed by 5x5 supe slow chinups then my usual pushup medley.

MOAR RUNNING!

Only 3.5 miles today, since we didn't ramble very much in the ramble. That's ok, Michelle and I were both rather tired. Tonight: Liver workout!

The Ramble

Ran what must have been between 4 and 5 miles today, but much of it was in the Ramble in Central Park, and I didn't have my GPS. There are also no maps of the ramble pathways that I can find, so I can't even estimate.

But this brings me to a new goal! I want to run allllll the pathways of the ramble this summer, with my GPS. I can then take the maps that generates, overlay them on each other, and hopefully come up with a map!! Besides, the ramble is cooooool and green and lush and dark, and a joyous place to run!

Back to Doubles

Pilates AM, Relentless PM.

Relentless was especially unrelenting today. Sam (instructor) made an announcement at the beginning that this class is supposed to be hard, so while you can modify anything you have to in order to be able to do it, he really didn't want you just standing around. If you had to rest, do "active rest", bounce a little, jog in place, etc. I don't typically spend a lot of time standing around anyway, but I sure did burn the 2nd most calories I ever have in that class!

Closing time

I continue to fail at getting up early enough to get to the gym and because I don't have enough money to afford a gym that doesn't suck due to my tenuous financial situation, at this point all this blog is, is a source of anxiety and frustration for me. Every day that I don't post is just reasoning for me to beat myself up. There were times when I didn't post exercises, and because I got used to working out alone, this group-competition format grated on me. I've never responded well to people talking shit or trying to motivate my by acting dude-like. The whole "put it down on facebook or this blog and it becomes real" doesn't work, and just further frustrates me.

I am re-evaluating my goals, as I realized that none of them have real, measurable, tangible ends. "Getting bigger" isn't one, and until I know what those goals are, I'm not sure generating another sense of self-hatred is a valuable one. Because that at this point, is the only product I can see, besides marginally larger biceps. And frankly, I don't respond well to shit-talk. Between getting a full time job, my drivers license, doing a class @ NYU, and some research and creative projects, I just don't know if I have the time.

::commence shit giving::

NRLW 4B4

Finally finished Phase 4, and of course upon finishing noticed that I was supposed to have been doing intervals at the end of the "B" workouts. Oops! Well, there're more intervals to be had in phase 5, so that's fine.

Quandry: How does one improve grip strength? Cuz it's getting to the point, say, during lunges, where my legs can take more weight than my hands can hold onto...

Weekend update with Hannah!

Ran ~5 miles on Saturday, in stunningly perfect weather. Then later walked from 57th and 7th to home - ~2.5 miles. It was lovely... until it rained on me. But I find enduring rain is good practice for the inevitable rainy race days!

Weekend Wrapup

Friday: 10x8 chin-ups
Saturday: 2 hours volunteering at the Brooklyn Half-Marathon
Today: 6x6 diagonal pull-ups, 3x10 ab-wheel rollouts with 60 cross-crunches in between

My foot has been bothering me ever since the 3 near PR attempts the week before. I'm afraid it might have a new injury. Needless to say, I've felt pretty down about not running this past week.

First run after the break

Set out for a nice easy 5 miles. Ran into massive walk for vision. Detoured. Ended up running 5.4 miles (as measured by my phones new GPS app, since I can now carry my phone while running. Check out SPIBelt if you are looking for something to hold your stuff while you run...) GPS is fun!!!

I'm back!!

First workout since the half - I enjoyed my lazy week, but actually got worried since I wasn't fiending for a good sweat. Had I lost all my drive?! But today I went to bootcamp and the drive is back.

Working out really is like heroin - you make it a few days without a fix, and you're pretty much in the clear. But get one little taste and the monkey is right on your back!

being sick

being sick blows

Updates!

Thursday last I ran 4 miles. Legs felt Ok, which boded well for Sunday.

Sunday I ran a half marathon. 1:52:59 was the official time, or an 8:37 pace. My 10k split was 52:26, or 2.5 mins faster than my previous 10k PR. This is in fact faster than my 4 mile pace! (Clearly, I have to run faster on short distances - I require speedwork). I was 131/845 in my age group, 510/7398 out of all women, and 1562/13310 overall.

Stupidly proud.

Weekend Wrapup

Saturday #1: UAE 10K. 8:16 mile pace. I haven't run a 10k this fast since 2009. Very pleased with the result.
Saturday #2: Yoga at Yoga Sutra. Went straight after. Absolutely burnt out. Nothing left. Couldn't even hold my downward dog for 4 breaths. Wow.

Sunday: 5x5 ab-wheel rollouts, 4x25 knuckle pushups

Monday #1: 5x30 knuckle pushups with lots of shadow-boxing. Yoga.

Biceps and Shoulders

All @20lbs

Curls to Shoulders Press 15x2

Hammer Curls 15x2

Outside Curls then alternating shoulder presses 15x2

Friday the 13th

Pre-workout workout: walked from the Williamsburg bridge to 39th st. b/w Madison and 5th.

Workout: Yoga at Yoga Sutra. This may be the highest caliber of yoga class I've ever been in. Tremendously motivated. Also, it helps to be in an area of New York City with the highest density of professional models possible.

Catching up

Yesterday AM: 6 mile run and really letting it fly at the end.
Yesterday PM: 2 hour walk from Dumbo to the Lower East Side to blow off some steam.

Today AM: 9x8 chin-ups.
Today PM: Pre-emptively entering the midnight moving that I'll be helping my girlfriend do. 2 hours of schlepping furniture around. Big fun.

Recovery begins

I wouldn't ordinarily run at all this week, but the half marathon looms big next weekend, and taking this whole week off would be a mistake. Did 3 miles this morning to tray and loosen things up... I hope I feel MUCH better by Sunday, because today wasn't fun.

PR! MOTHER****ER, PR!

7:35 per mile. 4 miles.

Tough Mudder New England

I made Mount Snow my bitch. And she begged for more. That was the single hardest thing I've ever done. An astonishing 87% of entrants finished the event - I figured the number would be closer to 70%. I alone saw probably 10 people carried off the mountain with hypothermia, and twisted knees and ankles. More than one obstacle was labelled "This obstacle will more than likely break your ankle. We're sorry."

Really an amazing experience. And I look forward to the day when the idea of doing another one no longer fills me with horror.

5/7/11

So I think Hannah may have a more hardcore workout than me today.

Nonetheless:
10x5 pull-ups and then 5 alternate-group isometric hangs.
Shadow-boxing in between.

I noticed that there was someone having an intense argument in a Semitic-sounding foreign language over the phone in the park where I was doing pull-ups. Hell with that, this is public property. I think he would've got into a fight with me until I started hitting the metal beams so loud that the whole park started to ring. He eventually got up and moved away. Gotta be honest and say that it felt good.

Uppery

Renewed gym membership thingie.

Dumb Inc Bench 3.15.45

Cable Seated Row 3.15.55

Dumb Shoulder Pr 3.15.40

Wide Lat Pull Dwn 3.15.50

Barbell Bench Pr 3.15.50

High Pull 3.15.40

Double Crunch 4.15

BEHIND!

What has become of me?!

Monday: Hangover
Tuesday: Ran 4 miles (which were particularly fun because rather than running any set course, we just ran around on trails in the park, at each intersection asking "LEFT OR RIGHT" and someone had to decide, though my girls are biased against stairs...)
Wednesday: Ran 4 miles

Wednesday

AM: 20 min. yoga, 10 min. warm-up, 30 min. fartleks, 10 min. cooldown.

Tuesday

9:15pm and I'm still at work. Did no one else do a work out today?

As for me, 10 sets of 4 side-to-side pull-ups. Still had a bit of time left before I HAD to go to work in the morning so I slipped in a 3x3 with the ab-wheel rollouts, 5 second hold at the bottom.

This guy starts doing the side to side's at 0:07.

Push up and Abs

Ab ripper x

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 push ups. Still can't make it to 10

Regular Style
Wide Arm
Military
Diamond

Ahhhhhhh

Sunday: Stretch Class. Today: Not in pain! Woohoo!!!

NRWL Workout A

Dumbell Inc Bench Press: 5/5/70

Cable Seated Row: 5/5/80

Dumbbell Shoulder Press:5/5/45

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown: 5/5/70

Barbell Close Bench: 5/5/70

High Pull: 5/5/70

Chop wood, carry water.

Tough Mudder Training Run

So the good folks at TM arranged a nice training run for us today! 6 miles through the park, but very little of it was on the park drives. Some good rock scrambles, a little creek-wading, lots of pushups, jumping jacks and mountain climbers. Feeling pretty confident for next weekend!! Now I just need the weather gods to clear the rain that is predicted to dump on VT for the next week...

Also, I TOTALLY earned my chocolate croissant this morning!!

Strength and Shadow

Chin-ups: 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6, 6 again. This is becoming very ordinary for me, but I'm beginning to plateau. That just means I have to do less work, more often to power through. Maybe instead of doing lats 3x a week, I'll do less in each session and move up to 6x a week. That may help power through.

Shadow-boxing between sets as per the usual.

AM stretching

Far too sore this morning to consider going to two intense workouts today, so skipped Relentless in favor of half an hour of stretching. Ahhhhhhh.....

Tonight: Boot Camp!

Tomorrow: Tough Mudder training run in the park.

Friday running

2 miles to warm up.
7:12
2 miles to cool down.

April 28

5 miles in my New Balances. :-D

4/28/11

5.5 mile run. Vibrams. Felt good.

PM Surprise

Went to work with a friend of mine named Ron. Instead of doing itemized invoices or messing around with schedules, I hauled cable, lights, racks and boxes of LED lights around for a bit. I'm putting this down because, after my upper body work today, this shit was hard.

I realized how little strength I have working with people who lift all day. Much work to be done.

AM Double

So my running buddies CANNOT be persuaded to go before 7:45 these days, so I opted to get up at 6 to lift before running. Did NRLW 4B3 and then ran 4 miles. WOO!!!

Night training

Couldn't sleep, hit the gym:

Dumbell Inc bench press 4.10.50

Cable Seated Row 4.10.60/50

Dumbell Shoulder Press 4.10.40

Wide-Grip lat Pull-Down 4.10.50

Barbell close-grip bench 4.10.55

High Pull 4.10.50

Double Crunch 3.15

Tuesday Bruisedays

Morning: 10x5 super wide grip pull-ups. Punching a metal beam for 30 seconds during the rest periods.
Evening: Yoga at Golden Bridge. Teacher was talking to some new students and told them to watch me if they didn't understand a pose. Said I had a "strong practice." FIST PUMP. VANITY. HELL YEAH.

Behind, behind, behind.

Monday: ran 4 miles.

Monday 4/25/11

Morning: 5k run to stretch out the feet.
Evening: Acupuncture and stretching protocols. New target: the iliopsoas. IT band? Weak-ass, n00b fink. We deep now, homies.

Legs for once

120lb Squats 3/15

40lb Deadlift Shrugs 3/15

Leg Lifts 3/15

40lb Leg Lifts 3/15

Exercise cut short because I needed to go pick up some lighting equipment, which involved me carrying 50lb boxes of lights up 3 flights of stairs. That counts for something I figure. Oh yea, and about 2 miles of jogging.

Lats for Easter

Chin-ups: 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6, 6 = 100 chin-ups again

A brand new workout

AM: Ran the NYRR 4M and was 2 seconds per mile off my PR. However, my last PR was set at a 5k and today's 4 miler showed that I can hold the pace for a little longer. I came away from today's race with lots of thoughts on how I can still improve.

PM: Parents bought a new massage table so I spent an hour massaging the both of them. All the pull-ups I've been doing have given me the grip strength I need to torment their muscles and ligaments. BOW BEFORE ME.

Race day!

Ran the NYRR 4 miler today with my friend Caroline and her niece Emily. Caroline's newer to running than I, and slower, so I was nowhere near my PR, but I'd committed to staying with her throughout, and I did.

It. Was. WET! Like squishy-in-the-shoes wet. I viewed it as practice for the Tough Mudder in 2 weeks, where I will be going for a swim around mile 4, and so wet, soggy shoes will just be the rest of the race.

To and from the race, plus the race itself = 7.5 miles. I'll have to do 20.7 in the next 7 days to hit my goal of 100 miles in April, but that's eminently doable!!

Evening: Diving practice! My forward dives are starting to feel like they used to, which is excellent!

Ab roller!

New Ab wheel just came in

15x3 - Ab roll outs on my knees

15 oblique extensions

AM Running

4 miles. Why'd it have to get cloudy!?!?

Biceps and Shoulders

shoulders press @20lbs x15
hammer curls @20lbs x15
rest and repeat 6 times

4/21/11

AM: Speedwork! 30 minutes of it! (Followed by 10 sets of 3 super wide-grip pull-ups)
PM: Yoga, 90 minutes of it!

Recap

Out of town lately, so:

Monday: 4 miles in Duke Forest on gravel trails. With hills. Hills that made me realize that Harlem Hill is puny.

Tuesday: 8 miles on the hilariously named "American Tobacco Trail". Running and cigarettes - I know I associate them!!!

Today: 5 miles back on my accustomed turf.

Liftery

Trying and failing to generate consistency. More upper body, this time 4 sets of 10 reps each.

Close Grip Bench, Cable Seated Row, Shoulder Press (dumbell), Inc lat pull down, inc dumbell bench press, and some leg extension double crunches.

Good day today.

Keep your chins up

with chin ups!

Stepping on the scale last night, I was down to 211.2 lbs. which is the lowest I've been since junior year of high school. Now it's only 3.8 lbs lighter than my regular weight but somehow I feel like my lattissimus is really taking well to the lighter frame.

This morning's work out: CHIN-UPS! 12,12,10,10,8,8,6,6,4,4,4,4,6,6 for a total of 100 chin-ups. Shadow-boxing between sets because Stanley rests his body through combat. Ball's in your court, weaklings!

2 days

Yesterday AM: 2 mile run followed by 45 minutes of meditation
Yesterday PM: 6 hour weddings are only slightly easier than 6 hour races.

Today AM: 10x3 ab-wheel rollouts, followed by 10 2 minute rounds of crunches, crunches, crunches, leg lifts, leg lifts, leg lifts, external rotator lifts, external rotator lifts, plank, shadow boxing
Today PM: 45 minutes swimming

Sparring and Basketball

Sparring and Basketball = Win

Tough Mudder Bootcamp

So the team captain (organizer?) of my Tough Mudder team has been running Saturday bootcamps all year, and I made it out for the first time today. WHEW!!! Opened with some running in the woods, with bigger hills than what we see in NY, then circuit of:

50 KB swings
12 "T" pushups
20 Med ball squat/throws
30 StepUps
20 Powerjumps

Then run the woods course again, and repeat. After the 3rd round through the woods, we did some team runs while carrying logs, a set of frog jumps, lunges, more log runs, then a lot of crawling work and various plank/pushups/mountainclimbers/etc. Followed that up with some suicide runs, and finally another round of log runs.

Ended with a nice easy run through the hilly woods.

It was FREEZING and wet, and windy. So basically the exact conditions we'll be running the event under, only today we didn't have to jump into any freezing bodies of water. I'm BEAT. Photos of my bruised-to-hell shoulders to come....

Lithe

AM: 30 minutes stretching out the IT band.

PM: Hour long yoga at Golden Bridge. Just saw that I had a groupon for 10 classes at Yoga Sutra also. I'm thinking about just going balls to the wall with two-a-day yoga. IT BANDS AND PSOAS, BE WARNED!

Mental Health Day

Took today off from work.

AM: Chin-ups, 8,8,6,6,4,4,2,2 with 30 seconds of shadow boxing between each set then Alternate-grip pull-ups 2,2,4,4,6,6 then pushups 25,30,35,40,45,50.

Diving!

So I trekked out to Flushing Gardens Aquatic Center last night for my first diving practice in 9 years. Whew! It doesn't come back quickly, I'll tell you that. But most of the other members of the team have never dived before, and the team is only 10 weeks old! So I'm still at or maybe a bit ahead of the curve. I hope I have legs after Saturday's Boot Camp so I'll be able to go to practice at Columbia!

p90x chest and back

Maximum Reps push ups wide pull ups military push ups rever grip pull ups rest wide arm push ups close grip pull ups inclined push ups heavy pants @20lbs rest diamond push ups lawn mowers at 20lbs dive bombers seated back flys rinse and repeat!

4/14/11

AM: Killing it with a 30 minute swim this morning, extra intensity.
PM: 2 hour walk tonight to settle some thoughts.

Sunny Run!

4 miles with everyone and their mother's dog. Seriously, the park was packed!

Drizzly Run

5 miles. Set out to do 4, but the weather was so lovely we decided to continue.

My buddy observed that on the days when the forecast says 95% chance of rain and I bail, it never rains. But when it says 10% chance and I show, it's always wet. I cannot win.

4/13/11

Morning: 10x3 ab-wheel rollouts, followed by 2 minute rounds, 30 seconds rest of plank, pushups, crunches, ankle inversions on each side x 2, external rotator leg lifts on each side and finally calf raises. What a way to start the day!

4/12/11

Morning: 1 hour yoga
Evening: Started doing muay thai again! This time I found a KGBdeals coupon for 50% off and sank my teeth into it. Got to train with a new friend Nick who has helped my kicking a lot. Looking forward to a lot more!

Relentless - Suck Version

Ohhhh I'm still feeling Sunday. A LOT!!! Relentless sucked. But I survived it!

Chest and Back

Maximum Reps -Push ups -Wide arm pull ups -military push ups -reverse grip pull ups rest -wide arm push ups -close grip pull ups -inclined push ups -heavy pants @20lbs rest -diamond push ups -lawnmowers at 20lbs -dive bombers -seated back lift @20lbs

Because yesterday wasn't enough..

4 foggy miles this morning. Had to get some healing blood into some very, very sore muscles. Kinda felt like ass, though :)

6 AM

...For exhaustion work. Boy 3 sets of 15 feel different than 5 sets of 5.

Inc Bench: 3/15/50

Cable Seated Row: 3/15/40

Lat Pull: 3/15/40

Shoulder Press: 3/15/30

Closed Grip Bench: 3/15/45-45-50

High Pull: 3/15/40

Recovering

Got sick after last week's beastly half-marathon so I've been doing what little I can (though I haven't logged most of it.)

Yesterday AM: 90 minutes hot yoga. First time with Bikram. Very awesome.
Yesterday PM: hour long walk to work off celebratory soul food with my best friend.

Today AM: 2 mile warm-up run, then 10k with my girlfriend who ran her first race ever.
Today PM: Cool-down yoga session.

10k PR

55:09. 2 mins 20 sec faster than my time in December for the Challenge's diagnostic test. WOOHOO!

Resting up for lifting at 5 - wish me luck! REPPIN' THE PHD!!!

ETA: I am now officially Sinai's Strongest Woman

Bench - 85#
Squat - 155#
Plank - 2m 27s (REALLY proud of this)
Pullups - Fail (Hey, had to leave SOME room for improvement!)
Lunges - 55 with a 45# plate. They offered to let me do it with 35#, but I would never have forgiven myself.

HUZZAH!!!!!

Morning Report

5 miles.

Tonight's workout will involve eating my weight in food. mmmmmm..... that's a tasty workout!

Abs and Boxing

Ab ripper x from the p90x workout regiment and a whole lotta shadow boxing. BAM

So no shit...

I joined a diving team. 5 hours from time of conception of the idea to completion of execution. First practice is April 16. I haven't been on the boards in 9 years, but the fact is I'm thinner and fitter now than I was 9 years ago, so what have I got to lose!

New Boot Camp

Thursday morning version of the Friday evening bootcamp. More retirees than highly driven med students, so a somewhat different workout. Still dripping with sweat, though, so it's not all bad.

Nothing but Blue Skies

5hrs of sleep. 1hr of lifting. Incline Benching 70 and lat'pulling 70 as well. I'd like to say that's progress but, I've got a long way to go. Gotta find a way to input food on the move.

Spring needs to get its shit together

On Sunday I ran in shorts. Today, back to thermal tights. Seriously, wtf?

Hypertrophy continues

Legwork today @ 6 AM.

Squats: 5/5/165

Deadlift Shrugs: 5/5/80

Bulgarian split-squat: 5/5/80

Step-Up: 5/5/80

Incline Double Crunch: 3/15 (I am barely making it through 3 sets of these interestingly)

Also, 2 mile jog. Did Upper on Monday too. Finally set up spreadsheet to track workouts, and am going to endeavor to track my foods as best I can.

NRLW 4A3

Complete!

Upped the stepups to 50#, and the DB 1-point row to 30# and the static lunge to 60#. Also made it 95sec of plank, which is a record, but not by much.

The Sinai Strongest Person contest is scheduled for next Sunday (after my 10k....)

5 Events:
Bench press
Squat
Plank for time
Pullups
Walking lunges with a 45# plate

I'm aiming to bench 100, squat 130, plank for 105sec, 1 pullup (?) and a million lunges.

Abs and Kickboxing

Abs class - check.

Kickboxing class with waaaaay too many motherfuckers - also check. I hate overcrowded classes. The "just wanna get fit for spring break" crowd needs to go away. Some of us want to be fit year-round

Stating it here to be counted

June 4th is the Starscape Music Festival. An outdoor all day music festival that I will be going to with my girlfriend. I have 2 months to lift as hard as I can to become as chiseled, stamina-infused and core-strong before walking around out there on the beach, at festivals and in the park.

Now that I have an indefinite position at Hadassah, I will be rejoining my Tae Kwon Do dojo in an effort to retrain myself and sit for my black belt certification test, which I left aside after I graduated from High School.

2 months. Lifting 4x a week, in the mornings before work if at all possible. Pushing hypertrophy hard and doing Tae Kwon Do at night. Working on forms, sparring and being mindful while in motion.

Let it be written, let it be done. I also have no idea what kind of weight gain goals I should set for 2 months, but I want to do something and this means documenting my food and really being regimented with Whey and possibly Creatine use. So be it. Any and all comments or tips/recommendations on doing this without having the munchies all the time would be helpful.

Only way to do it

is to overdo it.

The first race I ever ran was back in 2007. A half-marathon. The Brooklyn. I trained for it by running a grand total of 3 times. A 3-mile run, a 6-mile run, and an almost 9 mile run. I finished the race on sheer willpower, with both calves, both hamstrings and both quads having cramped up.

Yesterday, I ran the World Vision Half Marathon in Vibram Five Fingers. My first race ever in Vibram Five Fingers and my first distance over 10k in Vibram Five Fingers.

It hurt.

I also found out that Flushing has terrible roads outside the park as well as inside the park.

Mud.
Glass.
Gravel.
Debris.

I felt it all.

My calves felt it more.

My feet felt it most of all.

But I did it. And were it not for calf cramps at mile 9, I would've hit a PR by 20 minutes.

Season's only beginning.

Today? Yeah. Today was a recovery day.

Sunday

Hadn't planned to run today, but the weather is too beautiful to not get outside. 6 miles in the park. MMMMM SPRING!!!!!!!!!!111

Saturday

Ran from Georgetown across the Key bridge to Roosevelt island (There's one in DC, too!!!) then across another bridge to the Mall, all around the mall (Saw the Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson memorials, the WWII memorial and the Vietnam vets memorial) and saw... the cherry blossoms! They were lovely. Also, running while pushing a jogging stroller is a GREAT tricep and ab workout! Who knew?!

A medley of push ups and ab ripper x

do one push up stand up next do two then stand up then three, rinse and repeat till 10. Didn't make it to 10 on any of them but did regular, military, wide, and diamond. ab ripper x went on a small vacation but I am back. I refuse to give up! erhhhnn

Relentless - AM Version

So they made a Friday AM version of my Tuesday evening Relentless class. It's at 6:45, so only about 10 people show up. WOW was that fun!!! We did a much greater variety of moves, didn't use the steps at all, and just had a blast.

Good luck at your race, Stan!!

Yesterday, Today

Yesterday:
2 minute rounds, 30 second rests, 10 rounds
I gave myself 5 exercises I could do at anytime. Only goal was to continuously be doing SOMETHING during the 2 minute round. Exercises: Overhead squat, front squat, back squat, cleans, snatches, one-handed overhead squats. Rest period must be done in plank.

Today:
Hot shower followed by 30 min. stretching drills for the IT band.

SO pumped for the race tomorrow.

PM: 90 minutes at a CD recording. In sauna-like conditions. If that ain't a workout, I don't know what is.

Drizzle-Izzle

Minor rain this AM allowed for outdoor running! 4 solitary miles on a day when few other New Yorkers saw it fit to run. Bah I say, BAH!

NRWL Continues

More of Workout A. Up to 70lb incline bench with bells. Though, much of the rest of the exercising is left to be desired. Ah well. Realized that if I don't get my work out in before 8 AM, the gym is unappetizingly full. Guess I know what that means. Workout B tomorrow @ early o'clock. Want to work.

Today!

Skipped the PM workout last night in favor of getting up at 6 today....

NRLW 4A2:

Don't remember all the details, but suffice it to say my lat pulldown is up to 100#! Given, I had to do my 2 sets of 8 as 4 sets of 4, but HUZZAH anyway!!

Limber

AM: MONSTER, MONSTER CORE WORKOUT
        10 x 3 ab-wheel rollouts with THREE SECOND HOLDS at the top of the movement. Beastly. Followed by half an hour of IT band stretching and massaging.

PM: Yoga class. Finally able to do shoulder stands!

Yesterday and today

Yesterday: Yoga. Man, I really need to go to these classes more often.

Now: Off to Pilates

Later: Break Thru Fitness, or possibly a run.

3/28/11

30 minutes of speedwork in the VFF to start the day. Surprising how not-writhing-in-pain I am after some serious velocity this morning.

PM:
Hour long acupuncture treatment for the IT band.

15k

9am: Stretch class. REALLY awesome that I discovered this.

11:15am: 15k start. Unofficially finished in 1:21.22, or 8:45 miles. HOLLA!!! Unexpectedly got to run the whole thing with my friend and WW leader, Melanie, who is awesome. YAY!

3/27/11

Last week, I went to an acupuncturist who told me "Yeah, this IT band is going to need a lot of work." My girlfriend who's studying acupuncture was horrified the first time she tried to massage it because instincts told her that a tendon should never feel like that.

So here's my new routine that I'm going to put in as a workout.

Start with a blisteirngly hot shower. Next, forget foam rollers. Not sturdy enough. I use a softball. Roll on each side for 5-10 minutes each. Try not to cry like a little girl. Next, 3 stretches. Standing cross-legged forward fold, cross-legged fetus pose and then pigeon pose.

Let's see how this goes.

PM EDITS:
6 3minute rounds, 30 seconds plank between each round.

Rounds 1 - 3: Deadlift @135 lbs. Continuous lifting.
Rounds 4 - 5: K-bell swing @ 45 lbs.
Round 6: K-bell clean and presses @ 45 lbs. alternating sides.

Fast 20 minute workout. Tons of fun.

Overtime work out time

Worked for 10 hours today which with last night's late night, killed any formal opportunity to work out.

Hell with that wussy crap.

3x3 L-hold pullups on the door jamb of my office. Slow up, slow down, work that core.

PM EDIT:
Because I'm truly a complete idiot, I left my keys at work so I ended up walking 2 hours to my parent's place last night. 32 degree temperature. I'm definitely logging this as a workout. FML.

NRLW 4A2

I've decided plank is a question of mind over matter. I cannot convince myself to hold it longer than 90 seconds, though I feel quite sure my muscles could do it if I demanded it of them. I wish I had someone else to hold the watch and time me, because I think looking at it all the time makes it worse. Sigh.

Hungover run!!!

4 miles. Felt good for the last half mile or so, but overall I feel so much better. Gearing up for Sunday's 15k!!!

Friday run

5 miles in the Vibrams today. Tweaked the ankle with 100 meters to go. Something is up with my form but I can't figure out what. Will continue to explore.

Thursdaily

2 minute rounds, 30 second rests
Round 1: leg raises
Round 2: tick-tocks
Round 3: side plank left
Round 4: side plank right
Round 5: forearm plank

Wish my core was recovered enough to do roll-outs, still sore from earlier this week. Perhaps tomorrow.

NRLW 4B1

Deadlift: 3x8 @ 110 (book calls for "wide grip deadlift from a box" but my gym lacks boxes)
Bulgarian Split squat: 2x8 @ 25, 1x8@ 35
U/H Lat Pulldown: 3x8 @ 85
Reverse lunge with fwd reach: 2x8 @ 20, 1x8 @ 25 (per hand)
DB Prone Cuban Snatch: 3x8 @ 10
Prone Cobra: 105s, 120s.
Ab series: Swiss ball crunch, reverse crunch, lateral flexion

Tonight I'll be doing an enhanced version of my Wednesday Night Liver Workout!!

5 miles

A beautiful morning for running! Had a blast.

Stan - what's foot conditioning?

More lifting

Another session of Workout B. I need a better gym. Classes, olympic bars, and barbells, plus not having to fight for the deadlift/squat rack like I'm running around Walmart the day after thanksgiving. That would be helpful.

But anyway, onto Job Fair and then back here for more upper body work and then...more job searching. I wonder what my life will be like when I don't spend my free time looking for work.

3/22/11

30 minutes of foot conditioning

EVENING EDIT: Yoga at Golden Bridge Yoga. Coming back to yoga after a 6 month layoff... Yeah, you can imagine.

Kickboxing!

HUUUUGE class today, but fortunately the instructor didn't dumb it down too much. Lovely!

Can't believe I'm not first today

Core Conditioning
5x8 ab-wheel rollouts with TWO second hold at the top of the movement

Then 2 minute rounds of
1) leg-raises
2) leg-raise numbers
3) side plank

Evening: 30 minutes swim

Tone Up Trim Down

What was I THINKING doing weights two days in a row? Well, I guess I was thinking that my bootcamp instructor has a new pair of classes at 6:45 on Mondays called Tone Up/Trim Down. Essentially 30 mins of upper body and 30 mins of lower body. I'll note that Sam (the instructor) is considerably less energized at 6:45 AM than PM.

Most fun exercise was single legged squats over a bench so you can be SURE you went down far enough. Walking down stairs hurts for the first time in months. WOOHOO!!!!

Stretch and Muscles

Found out my gym has a stretch class! It was great! Relaxing, the teacher is pretty funny, and I felt quite loose after. Then hit up NRLW 4A1:

Front Squat/Push Press: 3x8 @ 55
Step Up: 3x8 @ 40
DB 1-leg rows: 2x8 @ 20, 1x8 @ 25
Static Rear-foot elevated lunges: 3x8@50
Pushups 3 x 8
Plank: 75, 90, 75 (I seem unable to break 90s here... Must find willpower!)
Horizontal Wood Chop 3x8 @ plate 5 (50#? no clue)

Rest Day

AM: Did yoga by myself for 30 mins. Holy cow, the hips. Pigeon pose is called "the magic pose" for good reason indeed. I was surprised by how much I remembered even after being out of practice for about half a year. I really look forward to going back to my old teacher.

Because it didn't hurt enough before.

Yesterday: half hour run to keep the form fresh.
Today: full loop through the park in my brand spanking new Vibram Five Fingers. First time out with them. Fascinating sensation. Pretty much hobbled for the rest of the day. Calves and hams are barking at me. Perhaps a 10k was too much to experiment with? Felt great on the run itself though.
Tonight: half hour walk to walk off the aching feet

Even hour run!

6.4 miles on a very unorthodox route through the park. My buddy Heidi was bored with the standard park drive loop, so we went a bit on the bridle path, and some on normal pedestrian walkways. Passed the Zoo, the Alice in Wonderland sculpture, the duck pond and other attractive sites. Was nice to have some new scenery!

Odd-hour run

After unexpectedly taking Thursday off due to being in lab for 12 hours, my running buddies decided early AM was not for them. So we ran at 10am today. SO BEAUTIFUL OUT OMG!!!! I barely noticed 5 miles which included Harlem Hill. Awesome.

ETA:
And in the evening, bootcamp! Moved up to 10# for the first 30 tricep extensions and managed 36 squat thrusts in 60 seconds. woohoo!

Running as a means of transport

Last night I ran to the bar to meet people for Pub Night. This is the second time this week I used running as a mode of transportation, instead of running in a circle and going back home, and have thus saved myself $4.50. I see a lot more of this in my future.

March's Madness

Check out my latest facebook post. What if we were all to attempt one million of something before the end of April and count it as our challenge? No scoring on this one. And maybe we can all do it for charity?

Running one million feet = 189 miles. or 6 30ish mile weeks which is about 8 miles a day, or 2 4 mile runs a day.
Running one million yards = 568 miles or 6 100ish mile weeks.
Doing a million pushups.
Deadlifting a million pounds.
Doing a million situps.
etc.

Let me know your thoughts weaklings!

Deadlift Disappointment

1 hour and 1 minute and 2 seconds?
Disappointing.

300 Deadlifts @ 185 lbs, 82.2% of total bodyweight.

I will rank myself dead last in this event. Sometime this week I will tabulate the scores and the winner shall choose our next trial.

My oh my

Relentless and Break Thru back to back. HUZZAH! That was hard. 2 hours and 15 mins of near-constant activity.

I also finally stopped to introduce myself to my instructor, Sam. He said he was glad I did, and felt bad that he'd been so rude as to not introduce himself (but we know their names, they're on the class schedule!). We talked workouts and food and crazy mud races, and it was generally enjoyable. I told him I'd bring a list of the mud races I'm aware of. This man has biceps the size of my head and he was all "I'd really have to train for that..." Muhahahaha. Yeah right. He could do it tomorrow, hungover. But he said he'd really want to do his best, and for that, there'd be training. I highly admire someone who's that dedicated. And I'm glad to benefit from his enthusiasm and excitement about workouts!

Also contacted the gym to see about a body composition analysis, which they say they could do for $50. Dunno how steep or not that is, but I might go for it.

Leg work

NRWL Workout A #3 and B #2 done. I am getting used to flipping different weights depending on what rep level I'm working on. The 5 sets of 5 seem to still be the easiest, which means I may be a bit too fool-hardy when it comes to the weights I am using on my sets of 10 or 15 reps.

Also 2 mile run and 2 mile walk today. So, my legs freaking fail. Which is a good thing. Tomorrow, more upper body nonsense.

Morning Run

30 minutes trying out new form again. Better today. Not as winded. Still not completely comfortable with it. Will continue to work.

Deadlifts have been moved to tonight as I forgot my ID at home yesterday. To make up for it, I will throw in a bonus set of pull-ups at the end of the test.

Night Run

So yesterday was Pi Day, and in honor of that I sought pie. I ran from 97th and park to 25th and broadway in my quest, and found the store was out of any pies that were worth the calories. C'est la vie. Still got in a good 4.5 miles, though!

In other news, a friend and I are doing this race: http://www.rebelrace.com/event.php?id=35 15k mud race with obstacles, we're signing up for the 3pm start wave. Who here is tough enough to join us? There is also talk of camping out Saturday night for the bonfire/party.

In final news, I have achieved my goal weight! Now time to boost the protein intake and build the serious muscles!

bailey's total fitness

Last day of free trial week so lets max it out!

1.5 hours at the gym.

chest machine, then leg machines, rest rinse and repeat

3/13/11

Morning core:

Playing around with my new gym timer.

5 rounds of 2 minutes, 1 minute rests
Round 1: Plank
Round 2: Ab-wheel rollouts
Round 3: Spider-man pushups
Round 4: Extended arm pushups alternating with downward dog pushups
Round 5: Plank again

Was doing well until I hit Round 3 where everything fell apart. My core actually doesn't feel a workout at all. It barely even woke up today. The main difficulty comes in 2 minutes of ab-wheel rollouts. If you can handle them, your shoulders won't. I just realized that this is 10 minutes of deltoid emphasizing stress.

Maybe that should be the March challenge. Maybe 10 minutes of pushups...

And I'm looking to test on Monday night.

My Run

Stan, I see your 10k, and raise you a 10 miler. (J/k, glad to see you getting back in training!) Also waiting to see how badly you whipped us all in the February challenge... (Who's leading and therefore gets to pick the March challenge, btw?)

Officially my longest run ever! (10.4)

I was thinking about what my reaction would have been if you'd told me a year ago that I'd be running 10.4 miles for fun on a Saturday and training for a Tough Mudder and a half marathon. I'm not sure a-year-ago-me would have believed you. I sometimes stop and barely believe it myself.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack

Took 3 days to rest (and grieve) after my membership expired, but enough of that! There's training to be done!

Did my usual 10k route this morning trying to perfect my running form and I'm still amazed at how tiring (and fast!) injury free running feels. While I went faster when I actually ran, I ran less because of how quickly I was getting gassed. Took me an hour to finish a route, I used to do in 45 minutes. I'm not worried though as I know that when my conditioning improves, I'll better my 45 minute mark by a whole hell of a lot.

------
EDIT

Make that 2 hours of walking around looking for alternately my girlfriend and then my Kilimanjaro buddy.

The journey continues.

Another pair of Workout A & B's for Hypertrophy I

A: Dumbell inc bench: 3/15/27-25-25

Cable Seated Row: 3/15/40-50-50

Dumb Shoulder Press: 3/15/40-40-40

Wide Grip Lat Pull: 3/15/5-5-6

Barb. closed grip bench: 3/10/65-65-65

High Pull: 3/10/40-40-40

Double Crunch: 3/20

B: Reverse Crunch: 3/15

Squat: 3/15 60-60-60 (started really low)

Bulgarian split-squat 3/15/25x2

Step-Up 3/15/27.5x2

Something Else that I can't remember right now and I can't find the book.

So yea, there's all of that and there will continue to be it on (hopefully) consecutive days. I am trying to figure out how to get used to the hurt when going into gym for new hurt. The leg stuff is definitely a 2 day burn, while my upper is kind of a 1.

Bootcamp

Well booted, as usual.

Forgot to mention that I discovered last night I am once again capable of swimming a full 25yds under water. Pretty proud of that :)

I am still here!

I am still alive! Don't Worry!

Today I did ab ripper x from p90x then went to the gym for about an hour alternating chest machines to ab machines. Then when I was driving home and I had to make wide turns I had a hard time cuz my chesticles were all like trembling and stiff and I was like dahhh I am gonna die.

The End

RainRun!

Ok, really drizzle, but it's the first time I've ventured out in any kind of non-frozen precipitation. 4 miles and at a pretty good clip, too!

SWIMMING!

I finally got back to the pool! Sad part is that the chlorine/ozone (it's partially disinfected by ozone...) short circuit my heart rate monitor, so I have no way of knowing how many calories it burns. DOOM!

And of course my "warmup" for swimming was Total Body Workout. It felt EXTRA awesome today, and my instructor even commented on it. Huzzah!

Running (it feels like this is always my title)

5 miles in the park, including the dreaded Harlem Hill (which BLISSFULLY will not be included in the 15k at the end of the month!)

Also, Nota Bene: Squat thrusts on a medicine ball are HARD!!!!

Wanting more ow, but to get away from the crowds.

Hypertrophy Stage I - Workout A & B.

I suppose I need to start remembering to post immediately after work outs. The gym is getting tougher and more frustratin to get bench time for my work outs during times that aren't 7 AM. This may be both a good and bad thing. Pushing, if I do everything I am supposed to, i'll have 4 workouts for the week under my belt for probably only the 2nd time this year. Sad I know.

Not "Goodbye"

but "see you later." Last day of membership at Five Points Academy. The last week I've been doing my farewell tour, giving each instructor my absolute best effort in class. Tonight was Steve's Kettlebell class and Emily's conditioning class.

My best Turkish get-ups.
My best jump rope.
My best attempt to do 2 minutes of double-clap pushups.
More situps.
MORE situps.

I'll be back there in November and I hope to return even stronger than when I left.

Tuesday

Pilates in the AM - done!

Break Thru Fitness in the PM - scheduled!

Monday 3/7/11

Instead of taking Coach Fury's Kettlebell class (and God knows, I've had enough Kettlebells the last 2 months) I took Sergio's Abs class. I'm calling it the Abdominal Abbatoir.

45 minutes of crunching and curling movements.

I think I'm going to add 100 situps to every workout I do from now on. What we do daily defines our strengths, but it also defines our weaknesses. I am going to grind this weakness into a nub.

Lifting

NRLW 3B4 today - stage 3 is done. A little disappointed that I did the lat pulldown at 70# the whole time, but the jump to 85 is a LOT, and this machine has no 5# additional plate that fits it. Someone suggested I try chaining a 5# weight to the stack, which I may do next time.

Tonight - either kickboxing or bra shopping, either of which counts as a workout in my book.

Sunday Recap

First of all...

HOLY SMOKES!

9am: Coogan's Salsa and Blues 5k
12pm: Kettlebells
1pm: TRX Suspension Training
2pm: Ultimate Sandbags

Craziest part? I held back *A LOT* on the 5k and it was a very hilly course. Yet, I still managed to beat my previous best pace by 6 seconds per mile. I picked out a random woman in the beginning to be my target for the race and kept it slow trying to keep her within arms reach. 1 mile, 2 miles... I was getting frustrated. Was she really this slow? Keep it cool, Stan. Wait for your chance to go. So I just kept her pace. Sucks for me that I didn't preview the course map. Before I knew it, we only had 3 blocks to go and at that point, I fist pumped and turned on the after-burners. Didn't feel tired, tight or sore at all after the race as I was thinking more about the marathon day ahead of me.

2011 has never looked more promising!

WOW it's beautiful out!

9 sunny miles with a good breeze. Days like today were MADE for running.

Light Saturday

AM: 10 am Conditioning class with Emily. Though I can jump rope on the slow rope, I haven't been able to transition to the standard yet. Sweated like a pig in a sauna in class today.
PM: Hour long walk to enjoy the weather.

Bootcamp

Bootcamp tonight. I couldn't decide if it felt harder or easier than usual. My heart rate monitor said easier. My body... she might disagree, or she might just be SUPER PISSED at me from lifting last night and running this morning.

Insert Title Here

Ran 4.6 this morning. It's a beautiful day!!!

Morning Core 3/3/11

Ab-wheel rollout pyramids: 5,6,7,8,7,6,5
Spider pushups: 10, 12, 10

Nice and easy day to recover.

FINALLY I CAN POST

Don't know what was up with my internet settings at home this week as it kept on giving me error messages whenever I tried opening up a new blog post.

My workouts this week:

Monday: Kettlebells with Coach Fury. Upgraded to the maximum bell in the gym, the BEAST. 106.5 lbs. of mean, nasty badassery. Swings for time, deadlifts for time, etc. Unbelievable. I left the gym skipping on clouds.

Tuesday AM: 20 minute walk because I hate sleeping in.
Tuesday PM: Double-class! Kettlebells with Steve. Since I did kettlebells the day before, I dropped to the 88 lb. weight. Lots of overhead and single-handed work. Even some double-kettlebell swings. Got a chance to work alongside Coach Bill and it was inspirational. I love the fact that I have the opportunity to train alongside amateur fighters and coaches. Afterwards, I took Emily's conditioning class. Ridiculous core work alongside jump rope. Arms were giving out on me trying to jump rope.

Wednesday: Rest day. No workouts.

Thursday AM: 20 minute walk. Assault lethargy from the first moment you wake up.
Thursday PM: Double class again! Kettlebells with Emily doing long (2 minute) intervals. Trying my best to maintain form throughout the class was an incredible challenge. But the real treat was yet to come. First time taking a class with Sergio. My college friend Dave had been telling me about Sergio's classes ever since I started at Five Points. I've been anxious to take his class and man, oh man, I was not disappointed. Start off with sandbags, kettlebells and agility jumps. 5 straight minutes of sandbags, kettlebells and agility jumps. Move onto 5 minutes of burpees. Go to 5 minutes of battle ropes. Congratulations, you're 1/3 of the way through the class. 15 minutes of jump rope. Finish off with 100 consecutive situps. If you stop, the whole class resets their situp count. When you're done, 100 pushups. 100 jumping jacks. Hit the shower, rookie and be less pathetic less time.

I will do February's test after my membership at 5 points is over this coming Tuesday. Until then, I want to soak up every last class I can.

Train hard.

NRLW 3A4

Done! I won't have to do another bodyweight matrix until Phase 5!!!

Also, note to self: There is a REASON you drag yourself out of bed at 6:15 to lift. It is because the gym is a NIGHTMARE in the evening.

Note to boys at the gym: Try not to smell so bad. I'm sure I don't smell like a rose, but really, that's foul.

Runnin!

4 miles in the park. And since yesterday's pancakes were aborted due to the chef having other obligations, we had them for breakfast today!! Pancakes make great recovery food, especially when served with bacon!!!

National Pancake day!

Morning pilates. Need to make a stronger effort to get to this class each week, rather than the Thursday evening version, cuz this one is so much more intense (in that it is not an "intro" class). Also, being ass-early in the AM means fewer people go, so I get more personal attention. Tonight: Relentless! and PANCAKES!!!!!!!!!

Shaky Start so, re-do

Didn't get the consistency I wanted last week starting Hypertrophy, so I re-started this morning.

Dumbell Bench: 5/5 20x2 (2 sets), 22.5x2 (1set), 25x2 (2sets)

Cable Seated Press: 5/5 60lbs

Shoulder Press: 5/5 20x2

Wide Grip Lat PullDown: 5/5 60lbs (getting easier, will probably add 10 next week)

Barbell Bench: 5/5 105lbs

High Pull: 5/5 20x2 lbs (still shaky on form with this one)

Double Crunch: 3/20 reps

Got my first compliments on body change this weekend. Felt weird, but insanely motivating.

Monthly Challenge Fail

60 deadlifts at 90% bodyweight(couldn't safely pick up 100% of bodyweight) 27 minutes

Indoor Rock Climbing

Indoor rock climbing for an hour. Mad fun

Early-ass Morning Run

Ran 7.7 miles starting at 7am. Surely there's a culture in which 7 is a lucky number? We did 1 loop of the park (clockwise!) and 1 loop of the reservoir, for old time's sake. It was a lovely morning for it!!

Then an hour of stretch yoga to try and deal with this absurd muscle tension.

Catching up

Thursday: 4 mile run
Friday: TRX Suspension class where we did single-legged squats, push-ups into jacknives, and much more. Not as awesome as kettlebells, yet I thoroughly enjoyed the training.
Today: 4 mile race in Prospect Park to be followed by a kettlebell class.

Hotness.

Monthly Challenge

300 deadlifts at 43% of BW, 30:50. Stan, that wasn't fun. But for the record, it burned 340 calories.

Shitty day

Does 30 pushups count as a workout? I think it does, considering the alternative was 30 beers and NO pushups, and with the 30 pushups, I only had 3 beers...

Pilates

Tarik and I went to a Pilates Reformer class last night. Bonus: it was free. Minus: it was EASY. I have 5 more classes that I got through a groupon type deal at a different studio, so at least when I go to those I'll have a basic grasp of how the machine works, but this class only counts as a workout because I walked over a mile each way to the studio. :)

Monthly challenge scheduled for tonight!

AM

3 mile run this morning. So done with winter. So very, very done.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday: 6 mile run, pain free.
This morning: 5x8 ab-wheel rollouts, 4x50 leg raises, 2x100 crunches, plank for time, eat a bear
This evening: 1 hour of kettlebells, 1 hour of mobility exercises, crap out a moose

AM Lifting

Too lazy to write it all out, but did NRLW 3B3 today. Woohoo not re-injuring my back!!

Two workouts!

Abs class, followed by Cardio Kickboxing. Some of the girls in that class are pansies. (this is not a judgement free zone) and look more like they're dancing than trying to hit something. Me? I had my game face on from minute 1.

Monthly Challenge

300 deadlifts for time, you say? How do I know what "group" (gold, silver, dogshit...) I'm in? Or should I just opt for the highest % BW I think I can DO 300 of?

Yesterday. Today

Yesterday Morning: 3x8 ab-wheel rollouts
Yesterday Afternoon: 9 mile run

This morning: 4x50 knuckle pushups
This evening: Kettlebell class with Coach Fury

Belated again!

Ran 8.4 miles on Saturday, and really wished it wasn't so windy. The trouble was that in two loops of the park (so, hitting each of the 4 cardinal directions twice...) I felt a tailwind for about 90 seconds. Thankfully, it was right at the end. But c'mon, wind! That's absurd!

Belated

Last night: Pilates.


Today: 4 of the most beautiful miles I've run in the park in a looooooong time. Almost makes me excited for spring. Almost.

Tonight: Cardio boot camp!

2/18/11

30 minute run in the beautiful morning sunshine.

To hell with your rest day

Morning: 5x40 knuckle pushups
Evening: 2 hour walk to clear the brain

The more you sweat in practice...

2 milestones tonight.
1- I nearly passed out in class. I haven't done that in a workout in YEARS.
2- I upgraded the weight to 88 lbs. (40kg) That makes me the big dawg in class. None of the instructors go this high. My goal for the end of my membership here, on March 8th is to use the BEAST bell, the > 100 lb. bell which is so shiny and new because no one touches it.

So... Kettlebell class.
Then 10 sets of 3 pull-ups.
Then 4 sets of 7 lat pull-downs at half bodyweight.

DESTROY THE LATS.

(Also what gym do you go to Hannah? That class a few posts down looks fun.)

Running

4.4 miles in the park, and we went CLOCKWISE!!! A very different experience, to be sure.

Break Thru Fitness

Tested out a new class at the gym that advertises as being "for serious athletes and fitness enthusiasts only". WHEW! It includes kettlebells, TRX and medicine ball work, and the TRX KILLED ME. My forearms are dying.

Disappointed

MORNING
3x100 calf raises@30lbs. on each leg, 100 foot inversions

EVENING
Kettlebell class, core dominant 10 straight minutes of Turkish get-ups

NRWL Week 4

Went to the gym before noon, just forgot to post in the whirlwind of apps.

Squat 2/15 - 125

Push Ups - 2/20

Double Crunch - 2/20

Static Lunge 2/15 2x27.5lbs = 55lbs

Dumbell Row 2/15 per arm - 27.5lbs

I am starting to crave the soreness of my muscles. Bring the pain.

How do you accidentally run 3 extra miles?

I set out today to run 7 miles near my parents' house in Cleveland. I had mostly in mind what street I'd turn around on to make the proper distance. Except by the time I got there I sorta forgot which one. So I guessed at it, and found myself pretty badly lost :(. This resulted in running 10 miles instead of 7. Oops!!! But now at least I'm pretty confident in my ability to run the 15k I'm signed up for at the end of March!!

Yesterday I lived

Yesterday I had one of the most peaceful and enjoyable sleeps I've had in a long long while. Now I was never one to really enjoy sleep that much, heck I even find it irritating when I ask someone what are their hobbies or what do they like to do and their response is sleep. But last night I had a really enjoyable nights rest because yesterday I lived.

I awoke in the morning at my cousins apartment in new jersey. We then set off for a 'half a day' of snowboarding(9am-3pm). I was ready to tear up the mountain! I got my new board, my new gear, I felt pro! After coming down the mountain a couple of times on the green slopes and after numerous falls and smashed knees and head in helmets against the icy slopes I finally sustained an injury in which I smashed the back of my head at full speed against the ice (thank God for the invention of helmets) in which I made my way down the mountain, unbuckled my snowboard, and with wobbling legs made my way and toppled down sitting at a table bench. I was tko'ed; I was done for the day.

We left shortly after and we rushed back to new york for I had to create a dish for my friday fellowship's cooking competition I was looking forward 2 all week. We ate the rush hour traffic in the city. And didn't even stop at home and went straight to h-mart to pick up meat and seaweedie weed. Arrived home looked at the clock 6:30pm only 30 minutes to cook up a delicious dish that would win the competition. With some help from a friend we finished and left at 7:10. We went to friday fellowship. I lost the cooking competition and after waiting a while for people to finish talking drove my friend back home.

I believe I had such an good night's rest was because at least for the day I had accomplished my goals, I had succeeded. But how did you succeed Phil? Is that what you call success? You tried snowboarding and failed miserably, not getting any better and falling on your ass and knees constantly. You hurried back to new york to create a dish only to lose the cooking competition, not only that you scored last in every category in the cooking competition. How is that success?

I wanted to go snowboarding and I wanted to compete in the cooking competition. I gave it my all, I tried the best with what I had, I went 'balls to the wall'. And after a warm shower as I laid my head still banging in pain on my pillow, I closed my eyes and was at peace, for enjoying the pleasure of living.

Yesterday I lived. What am I going to do today?

Let there be rest!

Went snowboarding yesterday and with a new sense of fitness I was like, Yeah! lets kick it to the max! And after numerous falls on my head and knees today I wake up in pain. I wonder if this is how a boxer feels the day after a fight. Let there be rest.

100% Forgot

Week 3 Workout 3 NRWL

Squats 2/15 - 125 (less ow than before)

Static Lunges 2/15 -50 (25lb dumbell in each arm)

One hand dumbell row 2/15 - 20lbs

Push ups 2/20

Double Crunches 2/20

Got up @ like 6 AM to do it, came back and totally forgot to poast.

Morning core 2/11/11

3x8 ab-wheel rollouts

That's it. Pressed for time upon waking up. Still making significant gains with less time.

EVENING EDIT
2 hour walk to work off a horrendous day.

Last night's Pilates

I went to class, and before it started, I consulted my instructor about what modifications I'd have to do to protect my back. She suggested a few things, and I made it through the class, not really pushing myself too much. But I can honestly say I felt better after the class than before, and I feel 100x better this AM than I expected to!

Lifting fail

Started NRLW 3B3, and shortly in, felt a familiar twinge in my lower back. Stopped immediately. Good thing I have Pilates tonight, and hopefully my instructor can help me with some exercises to relax it. Dang, my first fitness-related injury.

(I felt similar pain years ago, while attempting to stand up from a very comfortable couch. At least this injury feels legit?)

2/10/11

4x50 calf lateral raises holding 40 lbs.

4x100 foot inversions with 120 lb. rubber band

I will fix this foot.

NRWL Week 3

Dead-Lift 2/10 - 115

Step Up - 2/15 - 40

One Arm Press - 2/15 - 17.5

Close Grip Lat Pull - 2/15 - 60

Reverse Crunch - 2/20

The Deadlift on the Smith machine is getting harder. I can feel it not being good for my back. I'd probably switch if I could, but I can't afford a better gym. I feel trapped. I might start using dumbbells instead of the machine. Who knows.

Running

4 miles this AM, in weather that was described as "15, feels like 5". I do not regret wearing 3 shirts. Not one bit!!

New morning routine 2/9/11

30 minutes of calf stretching.

Hopefully I get to do another double class tonight.
========================================
Next Day Edit:

No double class tonight.
One night of kettlebells was enough to knock me out.
Came home and slept 10 hours.

Holy cow.

Relentless!

Was again unrelenting. And note to self: Lifting that includes a massive set of lunges/squats needs to NEVER AGAIN OCCUR ON THE SAME DAY I INTEND TO GO TO RELENTLESS!!!!! Ow.

NRLW 3A3

A: One-arm Dumbbell Snatch: 3x6 @ 25
B1: Dumbbell one-leg Romanian Deadlift: 3x6 @ 50
B2: Barbell Bentover Row: 3x6 @ 65
C1: Dumbbell one-arm overhead squat: 3x6 @ 15 (i.e. 5lbs overhead, 10lbs in lowered hand)
C2: Dumbbell incline Bench Press: 3x6 @ 25
D1: Plank: 3x90 secs (made all 3!!)
D2: Reverse Wood Chop: 3x6 @ No. 4 plate + the bumper plate

E: Bodyweight Matrix

24 Squats
24 lunges (12 each side)
24 jump lunge
24 Jump Squats

First set took 3:10, Second set took 3:20.

In Repair

30 minutes of calf stretches this morning after my acupuncturist found some knots in there.
Also, possibly reconstructing my busted-up foot. LINK

==========================================
EVENING EDIT

Double class tonight.
1 kettlebell class
1 total conditioning class
2 hours of mayhem
joy.

NRWL Week 3

Squat: 2/15 - 115lbs

Dumbell Row: 2/15 - 25lbs

Static Lunge: 2/15 - 22.5lbs

Push-Up: 2/15

Double Crunches: 2/20

2.6.11

Also ran the 4 mile race in Central Park today. Weather was a great relief. For the 3rd run of the year, I was pretty pleased with my time (8:04 pace). Though I should be wiser than to push it as hard as I did at the end without having built up a running base for the year yet. Did get to meet a runner with a two-digit bib number. Asked him what he thought it might take to get to that category. Apparently you can get there with  around a 6:50 time. That's going to be my goal this year. Drop another minute off my mile pace.

Going to slowly re-introduce running and swimming into my regimen this month while still working the major muscle groups with kettlebells. Next month, kettlebells are going to get dropped in favor of biking.

Evening workout:
Core work
5x5 ab-wheel rollouts
4x50 leg raises
plank for time

Racing!

4 miles in central park - the start was a clusterfuck, since the paths between the bag check and the race start were COMPLETELY iced over and people were slipping all over the place. I would not be shocked if there was at least one racer who didn't get to race because they'd broken a bone before they even got to the corrals. Official time is pending, but it looks like I hit a new PR!

Dreadmill

Perhaps I'm a wuss, but I sure hate running in the rain. So today's run occurred on a treadmill, and serendipitously started just at the same time as an old episode of NCIS. WIN! I only did 5 miles instead of the planned 7, but considering I came DAMN close to skipping a workout altogether today, I feel pretty good about it.

Still in recovery 2/4/11

Walked for 90 minutes today.

I can finally fully extend my arms again. No kettlebell class tonight. Going to give my arms a rest this weekend and prepare to launch into February with intensity.

Bootcamp Again

Again well-booted. There is very little as nice as a shower after a good sweat, and then putting on soooooft pj's.

Yes. I'm in Pj's at 8pm on a Friday night. Sue me.

Yesterday 2/3/11

Walked for an hour around town in the morning, and then spent 4 hours dancing at the 2am Club concert.

I'm astonished how beat-up my body was after Monday. Still so sore that I couldn't fully extend my arms out even this morning.

Nonetheless, I think I'll do a kettlebell class tonight with a baby weight and that should fix it right up.

NRLW

Stage 3, Workout B, Instance 2

A: Romanian deadlift with bentover row; 3x6 @ 60
B1: Partial one-legged squat; 3x6 @ 20, 20, 30
B2: Wide Grip Lat pulldown 3x6 @ 70
C1: Back extension, 3x6 @ 20
C2: YTWL; 3x6 @ 5
D1: Swiss Ball Crunch, 3x6
D2: Hip Flexion, 3x6
D3: Lateral Flexion, 3x6
E1: Prone Cobra, 3x90s

Intervals have been rescheduled for this afternoon as I ran out of time, and the only functioning treadmill was in use.

Also, caught myself being a man and admiring my own muscles in the mirror. Awwwww yeah!

Pilates

50 minutes burned 88 calories. That's just sad. But I really find that when I skip Pilates, EVERYTHING becomes harder - running, lifting, kickboxing, all of it. So go I must!!

Runnin!

With my new heart rate monitor!!! 5 miles, 487 calories burned. 19 minutes in the "fat burn" zone and 46 in the "cardio" zone (which includes the walk to/from the park, so 5 miles didn't really take me over an hour...

I love my new toy!!!

Tonight, we find out how many calories Pilates burns!!

2/2/11

5x40 leg raises

That's it.
This is the first time that I've been so out of commission from a workout.
Monday's combination of Angie and a kettlebell class decimated my upper body. This might be the first time, I've felt extreme soreness at both the origin and insertion of a muscle. Forearms are also shot. It's probably slowing the recovery of my transverse and rectus abdominus muscles. What a great feeling.

I'm so going to kill the kettlebells tomorrow morning, but for today, more recovery.

Relentless!

75 minute boot-camp style class called "Relentless!". It was, as usual, unrelenting.

But the bonus is that the instructor is the same guy who does my Friday evening boot camp class, and he spoke to me before we started and said I'm looking really good! AMG!!!! Compliment from one of the fittest people I know?! SQUEEE!!!!!!

NRWL

Squats 2/15 - 120

Dumbell Row 2/15per arm - 20lb dumbell

Static lunge - 2/15 2, 20lb dumbells

Push Ups - 2/15

Double Crunches (as I have no swiss ball) 2/20

Hurts less than it did 3 days ago.

Triple Workout Yesterday

AM:
Ab-wheel rollouts 5x8, no rest at bottom (much easier this way)

PM:
ANGIE (24:13, Phil, your tears taste delicious, I'll retrieve those 10 points. Thanks)
and then
Kettlebell class. Kept it light, going back down to the 50 lb. bell.

Cry, Phil. Cry many tears.

MONTHY CHALLENGE

Angie

100 pull ups
100 push up
100 sit ups
100 squats

Time 29:50

What do I win?

AM Run and New Challenge

4 miles this morning.

Also re-investigated another fitness challenge. My PhD program has a competition with the MD program every spring in a variety of events from Football to a 5K to a pipetting challenge. One of the newer events is "Sinai's Strongest Person". The statement for the event is below:


1) Bench Press - 1 rep - bar begins on the contestants chest, and is lifted unassisted until elbows are locked.
2) Squat - 1 rep - contestant bends down until thighs are parallel to floor and then rises until knees are locked
3) Deadlift - 1 rep - contestant straightens fully and can hold bar for 2 full secs.
4) Military press - 1 rep - from seated position, contestant lifts bar overhead until elbows are locked
5) Pullups - the scoring on this will be different - Contestant gets one point for every rep they do. One rep consists of full extension of arms and then chin over the level of the bar. Kicking and any other type of motion is allowed. Contestant gets bonuses for additional weight added, ie. for every 5 lbs the contestant can hold in a pullup, he/she gets 0.1 points added to each rep. Example: Rep-ing with 45 lbs, student A will get 1.9 points per rep instead of the 1 point. I have not decided on the exact numerical modifier yet though.
6) Walking lunge - Similar scoring as above - Contestant will take one step and bring his/her back knee and touch the ground. Each step will grant 1 point, and again there is an added modifier for weight carried. The modifier will be determined at a later date and announced.
7) Plank - last man standing - whoever holds the plank the longest wins! After 2 minutes, we will begin adding 5 lbs on to the back of each remaining contestant until no one is left.

I discovered that women do NOT, in fact, compete against men, as I'd thought. So it's my new goal to KICK ASS at this event come mid-April. I have 90% confidence now that I can kick the ass of any other woman at Sinai, and with another 2.5 months to prepare... I will tear. it. up.

Post for yesterday

Day of the funeral.
Spent the morning trying to write something to memorialize my grandfather.
Frustration built up so I went for a swim.

During the swim I kept telling myself "Swimming is about surrender, not force, not power." I wished I'd gone to kettlebells instead and swung the hell out of the 79 lb. I wish I had a spar, or a session on the heavybags. But I was in the water, and though I was plowing through water (not a good term to use for swimming), I was drowning in emotion.

45 minute swim workout. 1/30/11

Oh yeah, let's also get in our monthly challenges in as well. I think I'll do that today.

Belated AM lifting post

A: One-arm Dumbbell Snatch: 3x6 @ 20, 20, 25
B1: Dumbbell one-leg Romanian Deadlift: 3x6 @ 40 (i.e. 2 20lb dumbbells), last set @ 50
B2: Barbell Bentover Row: 3x6 @ 60, 60, 65
C1: Dumbbell one-arm overhead squat: 3x6 @ 15 (i.e. 5lbs overhead, 10lbs in lowered hand)
C2: Dumbbell incline Bench Press: 3x6 @ 25
D1: Plank: 3x90 secs (made 90, 90, 60)
D2: Reverse Wood Chop: 3x6 @ No. 4 plate + the bumper plate

E: Bodyweight Matrixs

24 Squats
24 lunges (12 each side)
24 jump lunge
24 Jump Squats

First set took 3:12, Second set took 3:30.

The hams continue to ache.

Break-in B.

Deadlifts 2/65, 70 - 15 reps

Dumbell Shoulder Press - 2/15 per arm per set

Closed grip lat pull down - 2/60, 70 -15 reps

Reverse crunches (did them inclined) 2/15

Step-ups 2/20 dumbell in each hand, 30 reps alternating legs.

Things hurt. The book says to do 2 per week, and one more if you can stand it. I'll try standing it on Tuesday. Debating doing something on my off days. Possibly yoga...possibly going back to TKD if I can afford it.

Saturday Long Run

6.37 miles, according to my buddy's GPS. Longest I've ever done! Next week we aim for 7.

Yesterday's workout

Kettlebells again.
Moved up in weight again.
Now all two-handed movements can be done with the 79# bell.

As a small personal goal, I'd like to finish my month of membership at this academy by doing all 2-handed movements in a class with the maximum weight: the 106 # bell. Of course, that may kill me.

I ain't playin

AM: max reps, @20lbs each hand when applicable

1. Push up
2. Wide front pull up
3. Military push up
4. Reverse grip chin up
5. Wide push up
6. closed grip overhand pull up
7. decline push up
8. heavy pants
9. diamond push ups
11. dive-bombers push-ups
12.back flys

rinse and repeat

PM:
Ab ripperx which is composed of
25 reps each

In and outs
Bicycle
Reverse Bicycle
Crunchy frog
Cross leg/wide leg sit ups
Fife Scissors
Hip rock and raise
Pulse ups/heels to the heavens
V up roll up
oblique v up right side
oblique v up left side
climbing your left leg
climbing your right leg
mason twist

Bootcamp

Consider me well booted. The class usually goes about the same - lots of step-aerobics type stuff with weights at the beginning, then a massive set of lunges, then a massive set of "presses" (what, is he British or something?), then a set of hip-flexor work, and finally core. But today, the presses were missing! Instead, a massive set of squats. Oh. Goody. :)

NRWL beginnings

Did Break-In A. Boy oh boy do 15 squats hurt way more than 5.

Squats 2/15 - 125

Push Ups 2/15

Elevated Sit-Up 2/15

Dumbell Lunge - 2/15 - 17.5

Dumbell Row /w elbow out 2/15 20

That hurt. There is much work to do. There was also a mile and change run, but I am seriously considering reducing running to almost nothing and really hitting this lifting program/weightness hard.

AM: Weights

Did NRLW Phase 3, Workout B, Instance 1 today. I'm at work now and don't fully recall the exercises or weights, but roughly:

A: Romanian deadlift with bentover row; 3x6 @ 55, 55, 60
B1: Partial one-legged squat; 3x6 @ 0, 20, 20
B2: Wide Grip Lat pulldown 3x6 @ 85 (but couldn't make it through the full range of motion, so 2nd and 3rd sets were @ 70
C1: Back extension, 3x6 @ 0, 10, 15
C2: YWTL; 3x6 @ 3, 3, 5
D1: Swiss Ball Crunch, 3x6
D2: Hip Flexion, 3x6
D3: Lateral Flexion, 3x6
E1: Prone Cobra, 3x90s
F: 15 mins intervals. "Easy" was running at 6MPH, "hard" was 7mph for the first two intervals, and 8mph for the last 3.

Intervals make the treadmill SO MUCH MORE BEARABLE!!! I hate treadmills, but this was actually tolerable.

1/26/10

Light day to compensate for last night's madness:
5x5 ab-wheel rollouts. Full extension from standing. 1 sec. hold at the bottom.
3 punch out drills. Max speed. go until exhaustion.

Honor

Last night, I had my best kettlebell class to date.

I think my grandfather's passing at around 4 in the afternoon inspired me to do it. I visited him in the hospital on Monday and saw how illness and old age had shrunk him. Stewing with emotions all of yesterday - the year or so of preparing for this day couldn't hold back the flood - I finally let go during class.

For the first time, I led the class in weight. Using the 74 lb. bell and channeling all the sorrow into each swing... It's silly. I don't think grandfather ever lifted weights in his life. He just had a long life filled with manual labor. But I didn't know how else to honor him last night but to give his memory my very best effort.

I went through the stretching routine. Hips, knees, ankles, loosening. I felt the weight crawl from my heart to my throat. You don't honor iron with tears.

There are only a few times where I felt like I've given something what I can comfortably call "my all."  The Syracuse Half-Ironman, the NYC Marathon, and last night's class. Two of those events are fairly prestigious and one will probably never even merit more than a half-remembered blip in a locker room, but I gave it my all.

74 lbs. 1 hour. Continuous exertion. I was determined to go full throttle to the finish. No saving anything for tomorrow. Tomorrow's not promised to anyone. My eyes will not dim their light.

People who come to me asking to see their 6-pack, get big or "just look good, not like a bodybuilder, but trim y'know?" could never understand what I do. Iron is language. Iron is heart. I run, bike and swim, but I was reborn through the iron and to the iron I will always return. I say that I'll do triathlons for my whole life, and I will, but once I finish on Kona's holy hill, my career for all intents and purposes is over.  A sprint here, an Olympic there and when the itch gets me, a full Iron just to remember the pain. But after I conquer Kona, I'd like to go back to the iron, my dear friend, my lover, my teacher - the language I speak, the curtain to the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Focused. My intention honed, sharpened, tight and taut. No animal soul, but a human mind directing the flow of these ruddy rivers.

People have been asking me what they could do to help. Live your life. "And he has shown you O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) I don't want food. I don't want someone to talk to. Not right now at least. I want to watch your life flourish, roots deepening, shoots lengthening. I want to see you grow, mature, ripen and when the time is ready, for you to pass on the baton yourself, lighting the way to tomorrow with your own life. Want to help me move on? Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with the God who made us. I don't ask people to do things for me. Do something for yourself. Grow. Go out there and discover the width and breadth of this world and find the God who fashioned it all for your joy. Be elated, be broken, wail and laugh, dance and despair at life's enormity. Live.

The iron spun slowly through the air, unfettered manatee ballet. I watched it fly, float dangerously. I was foolish for letting my hands off the bell for so long, and for daring to leave them off longer and longer with each rep. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Even now a three. The speed of the downswing threatened to tear my arm out of its socket, its force pulling me off my toes. Body braced as a unit, I held the line. We held on.

I think about my grandfather. I never knew him well. He lived with me for about a quarter-of-a-century, all but two years of my life, and I do not, can not, recall a single conversation I had with him. But I'm deeply grateful because my mother divests tomes about the love that they shared between each other. That love forged my mother into the woman of dignity and strength that she is today. That woman forged the man I am today. I could not be who I am if he was not as he was. Thank you, grandfather, for the impact you've had on my life. I will continue to honor your memory by pushing forward in my life. Neither China's Communist Revolution nor the challenge of sending down roots in a foreign country late in your life could break you. Neither will life's challenges hold me back. Here's to you.

Pilates

I was seriously the youngest person in this class by at least 10 years. And I don't mind saying, in the best shape except for the instructor.

Yoga

Mmmm yoga. The workout that just keeps on giving. Today I tried to keep my eyes closed for as much of the class as possible - I find when I look at other people I either judge them, or end up judging myself if their pose is prettier than mine. That is SO contrary to the point of yoga, that I have to get myself out of the habit. And if that means I have to do it blind, so be it.

1/4 marathon!

6.5 miles today. It's no half, but it'll have to do.

Manhattan Half

Good morning, children.

Daddy's going to do a half-marathon while you're still sleeping.
Then he's going to 5 Points for workout #2 of the day.

It's 5:30.

BAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Evening

Another kettlebell class. Can comfortably do the 60 lb. bell now. Next week, 70 lbs.

Eyes

I hate when these trashes clog up space in gyms. There she stood in front of me, short, not too skinny, not too flabby, not at all muscled, staring off at the other classes in session.

"First up is the deadlift. Hips back like so. Then drive from the heels like this. Repeat."

I've been doing deadlifts for half a decade now. I've done twice my bodyweight. I've been flirting with 500 lbs. for so long that we should be talking about her place or mine right now. I wouldn't say I'm an expert on deadlifts, but I know enough to be offended by what this woman is doing in front of me.

8 lbs. Lazy, goddamn lazy movement. Back rounded, head turned to the side to look at other people, open mouth sucking in air, muscles barely firing. She looks bored as hell. And why shouldn't she? If I was lifting a weight that cost me nothing, I'd be bored as hell too. I look at the women on her right. One black, one white, both impressive. Backs rigid and flat, hips shooting out back, muscles like steel wires. I look at the other members of this class and all of them are working hard. I'm pushed by their spirit.

But right now, right in front of me is this wom... this girl, who looks like she has a million better things to do.

"Rest!"

We stop. I take in the rest of the class. Some instructors stand arms akimbo clad in their Underarmor shirts. They're barely even warmed up yet. I look at this chubby girl at the far end of the class. She's probably a basic member like me. Comes in sweats and a tank top. I respect her. Most people would say that she's less fit than the girl in front of me. She has jiggle around the middle and on her legs. I take the opposite view. Her spirit works hard and gives a great effort every class. That's worthy of respect.

Henry Rollins taught me that the iron always gives it to you straight. People all around you try to tell you who you are, rock star gods or congealed sewage bricks. The iron never bullshits you, never gives you something you didn't earn. This woman in front of me won't get anything but an injury the way she's going. That chubby girl at the end? She's going to shine. She gives it her all every time and that's all I ask for, all I care about, all I need to stoke the furnace in my own heart.

I don't know who she is. Actually, to be honest, I don't really care to know. I like the class this way. No one talks. No one chats. No one is trying to ask me about the game that was on last night. They're all just working hard; steely eyes, focused, iron will being forged.

This woman won't last. She's already lost. You can tell it in the eyes. The body language. We're 45 minutes in. My lower back is screaming at me. My abdominals want to curl me into a ball and stay there. I'm swimming in a sea of my own sweat. I keep moving. She still dry and still lazily moving the 8 pounder like it was a bag of groceries. Like a suction-cupped tendril from the abyss, her very presence threatens to drag me back to the past, to who I used to be.

What are my eyes doing? I ask myself this question every time. Are they slowly rolling up in their sockets, wandering over and looking at other people? What are they doing? Straight ahead! Focus! We are not done yet! "You go where you look." That's a basic lesson driving schools teach. That's why you're supposed to keep your eyes on the road. That's why every feint in every sport starts with the eyes. Your eyes give away your level of commitment, your spirit, your veritas. Look forward, keep looking forward and nothing can pull you back.