Wednesday afternoon.
Did my revised "Middle" ST workout, which is my old Back ST workout with some stuff from my cannibalized Top ST workout rolled in. Man, that's a lot of stuff to do. Now I'm wondering if my three-days-a-week st schedule should be more of a HIIT workout (High Intensity Interval Training), in order to get all the exercises in, or perhaps more realistically a MIIT workout--(Medium Intensity Interval Training). And then on alternate weeks I could do my regular four-days-a-week st schedule, which involves the same amount of exercises, and do them at a somewhat more leisurely pace, but push the max weights a bit more during those workouts. So, the obsessive mind insists on plotting it out:
Max Weights
Su: ST-Bottom
M: ST-Front
Tu: Run-Intervals/Tempo
W: ST-Back
Th: Run-Hills
F: ST-Top
Sa: Run-LSD
MIIT
Su: Rest
M: ST-Bottom
Tu: Run-Intervals/Tempo
W: ST-Middle
Th: Run-Hills
F: ST-Top
Sa: Run-LSD
Or I suppose I could just start the three-day-a-week workouts 20-30 minutes earlier, so I have time to push the max weights a bit too.
Anyway, still loving the wood choppers, and my new
$35 HemingWeigh® foam pad came in really handy for doing back extensions with the stability ball (yes, I spent $35 on a piece of rubber, and it was actually one of the cheaper ones out there). Now I can tuck my legs under the bench without discomfort while I lie on top of the ball at a 45-degree angle, similar to this video but with my feet braced under the bench (with some weights on top of the bench), which allows me put the ball closer to my legs, gaining greater leverage and thus movement in the extension, and allows me to do it holding a 25lb-plate to my chest without rolling forward:
I then follow the extensions with side crunches, again with the legs braced under the bench and the ball placed closer to the legs:
And then Pikes on the suspension straps (that's actually me with my gal pal Mitzi Traynor):
And a few other things using the straps. Wow, great way to attack the back without stressing it too much.
Today we're supposed to get five inches of snow. I'll use that as an excuse to run shod and give my abraded soles a rest. There's one spot on the outside of my right forefoot that's especially painful after I run. Maybe today's the day I get back into some hill training. It would be the first of the season, except it's going to snow, so it's still the old season, right? Running hills today would make the slog through the wet snow more tolerable I think, since I'd already be going slow and working the quads on hills. The snow will just add to the workout.
Good news. Finally back under 220 lbs, no dieting, just daily exercise. I think Scedastic's right though, some of the weight gain since last fall has gone to the upper body. Still, wanna get down to 200 some time this year.
Bad news. I knew this was coming, but now it's official: my wife has prohibited me from running in any mass event races. I could argue it, give her stats about the likelihood of dying in a car crash versus a terrorist attack, and so on, but it's not worth the stress it would cause her. So I guess I'm going to stay stuck as an ordinary recreational runner. There's a chance she could change her mind by the time of the Minnesota Half Marathon in August, but not likely.
It comes a little bit as a relief, as I can now really 'just run,' with no concern at all for rate of improvement, and really stick to my mantra of letting pace and distance come to me, and not go chasing after them. Still, I was kind of looking forward to the half. I think I probably would've been ready by then. Maybe even could've met my goal of running it in two hours. Oh well. Hopefully I can still meet up with Dutchie and Dama pre- or post-race. It would be good to confirm that we're not all just internet-savvy chipmunks.
Again the term "run" comes into question. I did run the first half of the marathon, the second half was a cycle of trot, cramp, stretch and rub, walk, repeat. I don't know if my definition of rough matches anyone else's. Ken Bob would probably breeze through my rough chip seal conditions. I would have described the course of 1/3 mild chip seal, 1/3 moderate, and 1/3 rough. But given that the rough was also on the steepest grade and then the heat kicked in, it made even the mild chip seal tough by the end of the race. I hope to redeem myself someday, but right now I have no desire to log long distances on chip seal even though my feet are much more conditioned now.
Yah, we'll see how long I stick with the idea of pushing my tolerances in this area. It's definitely not something I'll seek out on every run, but I do like the idea of adding surface type into the mix of BFR parameters that I'd like to improve upon, along with pace, distance, and terrain (hills).
