Building Muscle and Bone—At Home, On Your Own

This stuff is pretty much common sense, but it's a well-written article nonetheless from Berkeley Wellness...
Building Muscle and Bone—At Home, On Your Own

Over-estimating my chances

Yesterday was upper body day at the gym. I decided to ride my bike, and to try to negative split the ride back. I knew that would be daunting, because the ride back is slightly more uphill. But nonetheless that was plan.
I made the ride there in just over 10 minutes, never pressing too hard. Then I did the workout itself, which was relatively easy (I might need to increase the weight in some things next time). Then it was time for the return trip.
Things were going great until I made the first turn: a sharp wind from the southwest was hitting me right in the kisser, and it kept up pretty much the entire ride back. So the return trip was more like 11 minutes, and it was 11 TOUGH minutes. My calves were burning when I got off the bike.

I'll bike to the gym again today, but since it's lower-body day, I don't think a negative split is too likely.

Something Counter-Intuitive

I did a full-body weight training session today. I figured that after the 5K yesterday, my legs would be really tired. But in fact I had more trouble with seated rows, which work the back and shoulders. The squats and leg extensions were comparatively no problem. Weird.

Running in the rain

Yesterday I ran a 5K in pouring rain. I did OK: I ran it in 22:55, and it was a decidedly slow pace. (All the rain made everyone's shoes more like ankle weights.)

I felt pretty good most of the time, but at the same time I never felt like I had anything more to put into it. I am wondering if all the longer-distance running I've done has conditioned me to running at a slower pace, albiet for longer periods. I never was a sprinter to begin with, but I'm wondering if 5K is now too short of a distance for me to get the engine really going.

A new view of Lactic Acid

Medical News Today has a thought-provoking article on research showing that lactic acid may not be the evil that marathon's fear...
Lactic Acid Not Athlete's Poison, But An Energy Source - If You Know How To Use It

The body's marathon effort

BBC Sports has a fascinating article on the physiological effects of the body when running a marathon:
BBC SPORT | Athletics | The body's marathon effort

Legs, legs, legs

This week is all about legwork. Tuesday I ran 5K, which was much harder than it should have been: I was really struggling at times, which I think might be because I had had 20oz of water about 30 minutes before I started.
Yesterday was lower-body day at the gym, which I got through without too much struggle. Then I took the dogs for a 3-mile walk in the evening.
Today I am riding my bike between work and the gym, and doing my upper body work while I'm there.

I am feeling like I need to get a lot more cardio/aerobic exercise in, and so I'm trying to do a little bit every day.

Wind-swept biking

Sue and I went for a 10-mile bike ride on Saturday afternoon. That doesn't seem like a lot, but the wind upped the intensity by a ton. We had to work going downhill into the wind, and more than once a crosswind moved my bike a few inches to the left. We cranked it out in 37 minutes anyway, which is pretty good considering the bikes we're using.

Get Fit the Right Way

Here's some really good, common-sense (or what should be common sense) tips..
Nubella - Get Fit the Right Way, or Risk Serious Injuries

I Must Have Done Something Wrong

I got back from the gym a little while ago, and my arms are sore. Ordinarily, this would be a totally acceptable, indeed expected outcome. However, I was working lower body today. So I must have been straining muscles not related to the exercises I was doing, ignoring the Millman's principal of relaxed strength.

Clearly, my mindfulness was lacking.

Leg Training to the Max

I decided this weekend to forgo the 5K and Saturday, and instead spent that day (most of it, anyway) cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

Sunday was another story. I went out to do an 11-mile run, featuring 3.1 miles uphill to start, and then 8 miles of downhill to finish. Running up the hill was a real test of my will, as I watched runners I had passed early on roll past me easily. I found stride and strength in the middle of the run, breezing through the next four miles at a brisk pace, and feeling like I was using no energy to do it. Then my body started to rebel with less than 3 miles to go. There was pain and stiffness in my back and my legs, and I could feel panic starting to creep into my breathing. I reverted to the lessons of my yoga training, and focused on deep breathing, and relaxing the muscles of my shoulders. It wasn't easy, but I finished just one minute under my goal.

That evening, I had volleyball. I was worried that I would be tired and sore, but I kept stretching periodically throughout the day to stay loose. I found I had plenty of energy, getting up for blocks, scrambling to cover open spaces, and generally playing as hard as I could. I shook off a couple of bad serves early by again focusing on breathing and relaxed strength.
We won the first match to get to the final, and we played hard against the top-seeded team we faced there. In the end, it seemed like a couple of my teammates ran out of gas in the third and deciding game of that match. I told them that they will need to work on conditioning in the off season.
After the game, we had our season-ending pizza party. Since they had no bottled water, I had a root beer. I am paying for it today: my stomach feels like crap.

Hit the wall

I did the lower-body workout yesterday. After four days of intense leg-related cardio (biking, volleyball, and running intervals), my quadriceps finally gave up during jump squats. I was still able to do barbell squats and extensions, but the explosion needed for performing a jump just vanished about 30 seconds into the second set. I finished out the set just doing deep squats and raising to toes, but it's just not the same.

Decision Time

I have to decide what I'm doing this weekend. On Saturday, there's the Coaches vs. Cancer 5K, which is a fun race for a good cause. On Sunday, there is Tussey Teaser #2, which is an 11-mile run which I've really been looking forward to doing. (It's a point-to-point race, so I had been planning to ride my bike over the course first, and then run.)
Originally, the Tussey race had been scheduled for Saturday, so I couldn't have run both. I would have just done Tussey. Now, I could conceivably do both races. Physically, I'm sure I could manage it. But here's the complication: Sunday is also the last round of volleyball playoffs. If things go well, we'll play three matches. That's a lot of legwork, and I don't want to let the team down by showing up too fatigued.

My workout schedule for this week will be a little modified to have my legs most rested and ready for this weekend. I'll do intervals tonight, then lower-body tomorrow. That will give my legs two days of recovery before Saturday. Thursday will be upper body, and Friday is a light yoga. Saturday will include more yoga after the race. Then Sunday morning I'll just have to see how I feel in the morning.

Spring Forward

I had a busy week of training, and a busier weekend. I did my strength training and yoga during the week, and then Friday I did a four-mile run. Saturday Sue and I did an arduous moutain bike ride. Trying to ride up a steep gravel-covered path with the wind in your face is the worst, followed closely by trying to ride through wet sand. It was only an hour ride, but it was intense.
Sunday the sun was out, so Sue and I did many hours of yardwork. So now I have my first sunburn of the season. Then I played two volleyball matches that evening. We dominated the first match, and the first game of the second match, but then the proverbial wheels came off. I think people just got tired, and started getting caught flat-footed. I do have an impressive bruise on my iliac crest, because, hey, these are the playoffs!