Sunday, January 16, 2011

Training Summary 1/10- 1/16

Monday

upper body trx
Tuesday

4 mile run base pace, + lower body trx.
Wednesday

snowpocalypse and work issues took up the am, so no exercise. Plus, I'm getting sick. raspy cough. Probably not a good time to run for the next couple of days.
Thurs - Sunday: Sick,Sick Sick. Lungs are full of crud. Body felt like crap till Sunday. Lungs still shot. Lopa suggested spooning raw ginger followed by water as an alternicure. You know, it's actually working ?!?

This next week coming up is probably shot, and the next week is SURFING, SAYULITA Style! Meaning warm weather, beer, waves. I'm stoked!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Training Summary 1/4 - 1/10

Tuesday

slept in. Yeah.

Wednesday

Running, 4.8 miles, 4 hill sprints on Pukeworthy hill. Good times. Leg resistance: 2 rounds of TRX single leg plyos, 2 sets x 30 squats w/35 lb dumbells. Need to get heavier dumbells, dammit.

Thursday

1500 yards done as 10x150: 100 free + 50 breast. Continuous. Good way to get back in the swimming saddle.

Friday

3 mi easy, then Legs and upper body TRX

Saturday:

5 miles 14x30x30. Noticed that my avg pace has gotten slower. Could be tired from yesterday, or could be lack of speedwork.

Sunday:

kids ski lessons, got in about 1.5 hours of snowboarding.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Training Summary 12/26/2010-1/3/2011

Yikes, another year has gone by and I'm older and in slightly more pain :) Pain is actually caused by the last couple of days of pretending I'm invincible. Today was a 7 mile easy run followed by a 1/2 day of snowboarding with Kiran. His best day on skis ever, he's come a long way this year, from being very tentative to wearing an ear to ear grin on the fairly steep blue run down from Central Express. I'm keeping it interesting by riding switch-pants as much as I can, and on a directional board, that's pretty interesting at times. There is always the split instant of 'whathefuckamidoing' when I transition from heel to toe riding switch. I seem to remember that when learning to ride, hopefully it fades as I get the hang of it.

Just booked a place down in Sayulita, so that's (1) airfare, (2) lodging, and we're going to book (3) surf lessons when we get down there (this is following the Jay Clark 'let's wing it plan', which always seems to work out). Oh, and I've got to (4) update Alaska Air with my passport info, like tomorrow-ish.

Sunday:

running, 7 miles. 9:30 avg.

started out slow, with a head cold and a sore throat. Decided to rock it mellow, and just maintain good form and quick turnover. Headed up the hill from E Mercer to the swimming pool, and started to feel better. From the pool it's all downhill, so that, of course, flowed like wine. All in all, I'm glad I got out, I would have stayed inside and felt like shit otherwise. Back and knees are a little sensitive from the over enthusiastic weights and plyos, as well as Fridays Snowboarding Melee. Getting old can suck.

Monday

sleeping in.
Fuckalmighty, I had a tough time getting to sleep, and then before I know it, WHAM it's 7:30 and I'm still in bed. Barely made the 8:30 into work, tussled mightily with a bash file and office politics all day, launched a job against the updated cluster and saw it work just like the old cluster, and slouched home early, despondent at the utter bleakness of it all. Nah, just kidding. Sort of. Tomorrow's another day. Hopefully my head cold will kick it.

Tuesday

Upper Body TRX. That's all I had time for after sleeping in again.

Wednesday

Ran 3 miles, did leg TRX. Felt like puking, so I pushed it hard enough.

Thursday

4.5 miles, decent clip, nothing planned. Just trying to get outside in the 32 degree weather and blow off some steam so I dont uncork on someone at work.

Friday

Got out of bed, late, and decided to make it an upper body day. Did some pretty good frying via the TRX, especially the hands/fingers via the new Talon extensions I just installed. Also ordered some Dura Ace 9 spd bar end shifters, when they arrive I can start tearing down the front of the bike and rebuilding as a full tri machine.

Saturday

Run: 8 miles, 8:40 avg pace. 150 avg HR.

Happy New Year! I think I want to devote more time to reviewing the year, but for now I want to summarize by saying how incredibly grateful we're all healthy, that the kids are very sweet, that Lopa is happy, that I have a job that I like, and that I'm able to get out and play, which is essential for me to be happy. This was a rough year for several of our friends, one of whom just lost their 6 year old daughter to leukemia last night, and there is simply nothing that can be said about that to make it better. It does, however, make me look at my kids and realize how much it would destroy me to lose either of them.

Anyways, to celebrate the new year I took off on an 8 mile out and back along W Mercer. It was beautifully sunny, and very cold out, but no wind, so once I got warm it felt great. I was toodling along when some guy showed up in front of me, one of those shufflers who still manage to move fast. Right then it went from a 'whatever' run to a 'lets catch him' run. I caught him, and then I had to keep the pace up to drop him, so I decided it would be a tempo run. Pretty hilly, so 8:15 - 8:36, with HR in high 150 low 160, was how I rolled on the way out. On the way back, I put in a 7:36 mile, and then shut it down on the steep downhill/uphill back home. Great day to get out for a run, and now my headache is gone!

Sunday

upper body resistance exercises. I was kind of cooked after the run yesterday, also we had a lot to do wrt errands, so I just got in some me time on the TRX.

Monday

Skated up to Windy Pass, 1:30, 9.55 miles

Disney has Jan 3 as a holiday. Hell yeah! kids are in school, Lopa is working -- I got up into the mountains for the first skate of the year. 13 degrees out, bluebird, and no wind. The snow was impeccably cordouroyed, and no one was there to fuck it up except for me! Also, with those temps, the snow was fast. Even though I had on warm weather glide wax, I made good time and didn't stop as much as I would have expected for my first skate of the year, up the backside of what never fails to be an epic loop.

Lessons learned:
(1) on really fucking cold days, pack a different jacket/hat/gloves for the way down. Or turn into an icicle.
(2) the Moonstone wind-jacket was a good choice, even on the way up, even though it was soaked through. Even without a different jacket for the DH, my core was fine, unlike my head/fingers.
(3) Not sure if it was the snow, but I felt much better than I usually do on the first skate of the year. It might also be the leg exercises I've been doing. Don't get me wrong, it was still hard as fuck, and I spent some good time in the pain cave. But it wasn't a god-seeing, life shortening experience. With the additional leg work I'm planning on putting in, I might have a chance at keeping pace with Rob the Mutant!