This is a blog about running.
Friday 19 August 2011
Resolution about what this blog is about.
See, lately P-dazzle and I have been focusing on strength workouts. This is in part out of laziness and in part because once we get the weights out, both of us lift, and we put the weights back, we've already killed two hours and the world outside of fitness is imposing its demands and strictures upon us with stuff like showering before going to work.
Anyway, I've started to talk the talk and run the...run. I've just been doing a warmup jog before lifting, getting a feel for the new Vibrams (which I broke in and got extremely dirty on a hike last week), and trying to develop a technique akin to the POSE method. Who knew running had to be so complicated? The first time I took off on a warm up jog, which was a little under a mile long, I realized how great running feels and how much I've been missing it. Before this summer, I'd worked myself up to 3.5 miles and was feeling good about it. I haven't run that distance all summer, unfortunately, and I think that I've suffered for it in more ways than one. Much better athletes and runners have said this before me, but it really does affect my mood. So, now I'm renewed in my quest! It's time to start running more. I'm not planning on dropping the strength bit of training--it's been useful and gratifying--but I need to start pushing myself more. Especially since I started this blog with a deadline: February = 13 miles. Hoo boy.
So, sprints were good, I've been active, and I've been improving in my lifting! Just so I can gloat, I'm going to list my lifting stats as they stand now:
Back squat: 95 lbs (almost 100!)
Dead lift: 120 lbs
Bench: 65 lbs
Overhead Press: 50 lbs
Power clean: 75 lbs
To the seasoned lifter, this probably isn't much, but weight lifting like this is something I've never tried before, and it's been an incredible source of empowerment for me. It's nice to share these stats now with everyone--it feels like a motivator to improve so I can show you all the work I've been able to do. It's incredibly humbling at times because it is incredibly difficult, but it's also pretty cool to feel yourself push 95 extra pounds up with your back. Someday soon it'll be even more.
Thanks for reading, folks.
Wednesday 3 August 2011
The Shoes Make the Runner, Right?
Thanks for reading, y'all.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Grok Walkin'
"Complete, throughout the course of an hour-long walk:
30 Pullups
50 Squats
40 Pushups
20 Handstand Pushups
Climb Something, Twice
5 Short (30-ish meter) Sprints
Find Something Heavy to Carry for Seven Minutes"
P-dazzle and I set out to do precisely that. We climbed things (trees, walls, playground equipment) more than twice, did a sprint or two, some pushups, and I think I did about 10 squats. In our quest to complete the workout (though we weren't all that concerned about it--I'm nowhere near capable of doing a handstand, let alone 20 handstand pushups), we were sidetracked by a satisfyingly profound discussion that delved into issues that had been on our minds: questions and thoughts about religion, philosophy, the nature of Truth, the origins of Life and the Universe--you know, all the basic stuff. (I'm not trying to make us sound extra-intellectual or anything, it just happened to be a very philosophical discussion.)
We spent a good chunk of time arguing about extremists of all sorts at a park (gathering looks, I'm sure, from the few families who had brought their kids to play) as we climbed over the equipment, and found ourselves back home with only fragments of the workout done, but that didn't matter to me because what's been on my mind is the question of how to balance these things: cultivating an intellectual life, a spiritual life, and a physically fit life--and here it happened that I spent an entire afternoon doing all three!
(I've decided that to sign off this thing I'll say "good-bye" or "so long" or some such variation in a different language--but I won't look it up--I'll have to have learned it from a non-Google/search engine source. Intellectual life, there ya go.)
Adios, amigos.
Thursday 14 July 2011
Forgive me, Father Fitness, for I have sinned.
Thursday 30 June 2011
So...it's been a while.
Anyway, it's been a while. (Hey, that's the name of this entry!) But NOT because I haven't been working out. Because I have! More or less. In the days after I posted my first entry, my workouts weren't so great. P-Dazzle and I were going to the YMCA in Mission Viejo, which is nice (especially because I get to piggyback on P's family plan and not pay anything). However, via P-Dazzle, I have been focusing a lot on building strength through weight lifting, and for some reason, the Y doesn't have a squat rack, which is surprisingly essential to the type of work we're doing. There is a slew of various other reasons why I don't particularly like working out at the Y--anyway, the point is that it was not conducive to a good attitude for working out, and my workouts definitely suffered. So, I didn't feel that I had much blog-worthy stuff to write about. I'll try to get better about posting more frequently...maybe self-deprecating humor would be a good way to get around talking about crappy workouts.
Luckily for me and my fluctuating attitude about working out, Preston's weight set came last week so now I can't use the excuse of not wanting to go ALL the way to the Y (and that I didn't particularly like going to the Y anyway) to not work out. We now have in our possession a very nice Pendlay barbell and olympic plates in 4x45, 2x25, 2x15; and iron plates in 2x 10, 5, 2.5 (weak light ones for me.) Since then we've been working out a system for how to fit lifting into the spin of life that's already here, but it seems to work out to do it on the back patio.
So, now no more excuses! My life as an athlete can begin! Right after I get done helping with VBS, and find a job, and clean the house and--nah, just kidding. P-Dazzle's too good of a motivator for that. So, to use this blog for what it's actually mean to be used, here's some workouts I've been doing:
Saturday, June 24th 2011
We did a metcon (Metabolic conditioning--not my terminology) that consisted of: 16, 12, and 8 reps for time of:
Kettlebell swings (1 pood...ha, pood.) and
Jumping pullups (for me. P can do real pullups.)
After that, at my insistence, we did more endurance-geared interval running, which consisted of 3x 400 m runs with approximately 2 minutes of rest in between. The goal was to keep the times for each run within 3-5 seconds. My times were 1:27, 1:31, 1:39. Excuse time: we were running in the middle of the afternoon in bright sunshine in about as hot a heat as coastal California can have. So there.
I've done more since then, (seeing as that's almost a week ago), but I don't want to draw these out too long. More to come about:
Stay tuned! Ew--no, wait...
Find out next time on-- bleh.
All this and more on the next installment of-- errhhhgh.
How on earth do you sign off of a blog and not sound like a doofus?
Friday 17 June 2011
Commitments
Before I get ahead of myself--It's not happening until February 2012. But running and I have always had an ambivalent relationship and the farthest I've ever been able to run is about 3.5 miles.
I do want to get in shape, though--it would be cool to be able to run that far. So, to keep myself on task I first thought I'd keep a fitness journal. But then I thought: why do that when I can expose myself and my musings to the whole wide world? Everyone else is doing it. Clearly that is the better choice.
So here we are. This is mostly for me to stay motivated (and it's nice to have an outlet for some writing, as well), but support, encouragement, and advice will always be welcome.
Anyway, to get things rolling, here's the workout I did today. I have been partaking in the sweet nectars of Crossfit (thanks to my boyfriend, who shall henceforth be known as P-dazzle), and today we did a scaled down version of Crossfit Football's metcon "Crushing Helen." We skipped the strength workout due to time restrictions and went down to the park after goofing around with medicine ball/sandbag squats.
At the park, we brought our trusty kettlebells along and mapped out an approximate 100 yd. running course. The workout is meant to go:
8 rounds (for time) of:
-100 yard sprint
-8 kettlebell swings (2 pood)
[I'm still not sure what "pood" means but P-dazzle is dictating right now...he says 1 pood is 16 kg or roughly 35 lbs. He thinks.]
-5 plyo pushups
We started out strong but by round two I wasn't as optimistic it could be done (+5 points if you get that reference).
We ended up doing 5 rounds instead of 8, and I did girly pushups and completed it in 6:14. (Minutes, not hours, guys.) I also used a one-pood kettlebell. P-dazzle tells me that 2 pood is really heavy, so I shouldn't feel bad, but I don't care because I'm too busy laughing about the word "pood".
It was a fun workout, and I realized how much nicer running is when you're barefoot and on soft cushy grass (something to keep in mind?). But, as I've done little running without shoes, my feet are now rather sore. Life's a trade-off.
Afterwards, we were talking with P-dazzle's mom who wants to get back into running marathons. Naturally, I volunteered to train with her and naturally, this is the result. So... LET THE GREAT EXPERIMENT BEGIN! (You guys should just accept right now that this blog will be littered with Arrested Development quotes.)
TTFN, I guess.