The short: Opted for the half-marathon and was slow as hell, clocking in at 3:10:51
The long: After the bout of the flu and the chaos that was this past Thanksgiving weekend, I went into the event to just get as much time on my feet as I could have allowed myself without screwing up too much and to see my friends during the event. Doing the whole 26.2 miles was a mild pipe dream due to the fact that I hadn't had run anything longer than 12 miles and that my conditioning levels for strength were okay, but I was on the downside for aerobic capacity compared to before (should have gotten that flu shot when I had the chance.) I also decided to go a bit minimalist and run in my Crocs. I wanted to maintain my form as best as I could and there is no better way to do that then to run minimalist.
As I said before, it's the Thanksgiving weekend and I was busy as hell. Even though I had a 4-day weekend away from work, home and family took over like mad and I got just as little sleep as I would have during the work week. Rest is important and I gave it the finger.
On race day, I scrambled out the door in my cold-weather gear and got to the race location later than expected. No parking spots near the start/finish for me. Even though I was supposed to early start with everyone at 7am, I ended up 10+ minutes past. Lucky for me, Scott Krell (the RD) was cool enough to let me just keep my own time. Wasn't like I was going to break any records or BQ anyway.
So with Crocs on my feet, I set off along the trail. It was a cold and windy day, so with my construction bag/body-bag poncho I made up the night before, I was kept nice and warm while the winds that came off the waters of Lake Washington doubled as an invisible hill. The bag acted like a parachute when running into the wind and as a sail when the wind was on my back. Yin and Yang baby, gotta love that.
My feet/legs were feeling good for the first 8-9 miles and I was running at the pace that I'd be grooving at (sub-12 minute miles). However, my hamstrings gave out on me at mile 10 and I ended up practically slow walking most of the last 5k to the finish line. I tapped out and opted to take the half-marathon finish. Funny thing is that from the waist up, I was fine. I wasn't winded and felt like I had the energy to keep going. But from the waist down, those hamstrings weren't cooperating and a blister on my right foot (4th toe) wasn't helping things along, even after downing two AC&C pills to ease the pain.
So what did I learn? Well...
1.) My running form has improved, but it's not there yet for a longer distance yet.
2.) I need to run more and get my long runs longer and more frequent.
3.) I need to hammer on my hamstrings more. I've neglected deadlifting and other exercises that targeted the hamstrings.
I've got about a month before the Pigtails Flat Ass run, but I'm more optimistic about that one to finish it and do much better time wise on a minute per mile basis than I did at the Ghost.
Do I consider this a defeat? Nope, just another learning experience. I figured out my faults and will start beating the crap out of them before I test out myself again for the next event. Onward!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Food for Thought: "All the 'Cool Kids' do it!"
I had referenced this link on the CrossFit boards when someone posted up about CrossFit Endurance (specifically doing CrossFit and an ultra-marathon).
http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/wiggins_cool_kids.html
The article is more of a thought from Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins and it was addressed to the MMA crowd. However, his words go well beyond Mixed-Martial Arts and hits anyone who does any sport. Strength & Conditioning (or training for anything) is very diverse. Diversity is a good thing. What isn't good is to have the mentality of "My shit is better than your shit." Why? Because if you fail at any event, people can easily point to your program. Also, discounting other S&C programs isn't a good thing either. All programs have some type of value if you look objectively. But making sweeping statements about your program being superior over everyone else's just doesn't do you any good and makes you look like an ass. Also, if the program you used to train with didn't work for you, you have to face facts and consider that just maybe you may have flaws within your training (even if you were successful with it the first time using it, you might have gotten lucky!)
I've developed my own program specific to me. I'm experimenting with myself and I have no qualms with saying that if I succeed, then I know my program contributed to it. If I fail, then it's on me and also the program I made up - which I would then re-analyze on what went wrong and fix whatever needed to be fixed.
Questions are: If you fail at your respective sport, are you going to make excuses for your failure or will you point the blame at yourself and the things you did that got you to that failure? Will you actually learn from your failures and use that to fix what went wrong with your training or will you keep insisting that your methods are flawless and there is no room for anything else?
Never stop learning. Never stop growing.
http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/wiggins_cool_kids.html
The article is more of a thought from Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins and it was addressed to the MMA crowd. However, his words go well beyond Mixed-Martial Arts and hits anyone who does any sport. Strength & Conditioning (or training for anything) is very diverse. Diversity is a good thing. What isn't good is to have the mentality of "My shit is better than your shit." Why? Because if you fail at any event, people can easily point to your program. Also, discounting other S&C programs isn't a good thing either. All programs have some type of value if you look objectively. But making sweeping statements about your program being superior over everyone else's just doesn't do you any good and makes you look like an ass. Also, if the program you used to train with didn't work for you, you have to face facts and consider that just maybe you may have flaws within your training (even if you were successful with it the first time using it, you might have gotten lucky!)
I've developed my own program specific to me. I'm experimenting with myself and I have no qualms with saying that if I succeed, then I know my program contributed to it. If I fail, then it's on me and also the program I made up - which I would then re-analyze on what went wrong and fix whatever needed to be fixed.
Questions are: If you fail at your respective sport, are you going to make excuses for your failure or will you point the blame at yourself and the things you did that got you to that failure? Will you actually learn from your failures and use that to fix what went wrong with your training or will you keep insisting that your methods are flawless and there is no room for anything else?
Never stop learning. Never stop growing.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Mild Reset
Due to getting my ass kicked from the flu for over a week, I have to modify things a bit. Sucks too, since I was doing so well.
The first two weeks of Strength-Endurance training was going pretty well before the flu hit hard. I got up to doing 30 second rests in my 75 lbs sandbag clean & presses and my 150 lbs sandbag back squats. The clean & presses really messed with my CNS though and it took a few days for the feeling to pass with each workout. The back squats rocked and the combo of both workouts really reflected well in my runs, my speed picked up and so did my stamina during my long runs by a few minutes.
So what's up now? Well, I have to get back into the swing of things right. This means I need to do a benchmark test and see how much I can lift and then use that as my metric to continue the rest of time during this strength-endurance phase while still completing the Seattle Ghost Marathon next weekend.
The first two weeks of Strength-Endurance training was going pretty well before the flu hit hard. I got up to doing 30 second rests in my 75 lbs sandbag clean & presses and my 150 lbs sandbag back squats. The clean & presses really messed with my CNS though and it took a few days for the feeling to pass with each workout. The back squats rocked and the combo of both workouts really reflected well in my runs, my speed picked up and so did my stamina during my long runs by a few minutes.
So what's up now? Well, I have to get back into the swing of things right. This means I need to do a benchmark test and see how much I can lift and then use that as my metric to continue the rest of time during this strength-endurance phase while still completing the Seattle Ghost Marathon next weekend.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Next Phase - Strength-Endurance
After pouring over various resources, I've cobbled together the next session of workouts (but I'm still evaluating as I go).
As I stated here about this, I decided to follow the 50/20 plan (which is based on Density Training) but with some twists.
1.) Two workout movements picked. In this case, I chose the Sandbag Clean & Press and the Sandbag Back Squat.
2.) The first movement (Clean & Press) is done on Mondays and Thursdays, the other (Squat) on Tuesdays and Fridays.
3.) Based on Prilepin's numbers and Wiggy's thing about Heavy Weights+Volume+Limited Rest, there would be 3 reps per set and the weight used would start around 55-65% (but I'm going to increase this sooner, I'll explain later).
4.) Rest intervals are timed with a digital cooking timer I got at DollarTree (works great!). 60 seconds after each set, reducing the rest period by 10 seconds with each new workout until I hit 20 seconds. Once the workout with 20 seconds is up, the next workout of the same movement will increase in weight by 5 lbs and the rest time clock resets at 60 seconds again.
5.) All workouts are within a 20 minute window and it is to be done with as many sets as possible. Obviously, as the rest times decrease, the number of sets will. (Yes, this does train Power-Endurance/Work-Capacity also - so I might as well get the best of both worlds).
6.) Eventual goal should be 17 or more sets with 20 second rests.
So far, I've done one Clean & Press workout and one Squat this week. The clean & press was at 60 lbs (about 50% of my calculated 1-RM for the Military Press), but the weight felt too light and I did 19 sets. This is too many for the first time at the longest rest, meaning that I'm more durable and need more weight. I'm going to increase the weight to 75 lbs today and decrease the time to 50 seconds for rest. That should get my sets closer to 14-15 at most. The squat was done at 137.5 lbs (about 53% of my calculated 1-RM for the squat). I could tell I was a bit rusty doing the squat at first since I had not really done any weighted ones for nearly a week. But I eventually got into my groove and I hit 12 sets in the alloted time. This is much better and on target for the number I should have landed on for sets compared to the clean and press. But I think I'll also raise the weight as well on this one (just needs a slight amp-up in the intensity).
While this is going on, I'm still running on Tuesdays (typically intervals) and Thursdays (typically tempo/Steady-State) and Saturdays (Long). I'm also doing the 100 Push-up program and 20 Pull-up Program as well for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as well at home (pull-up bar is there). Yeah, I've got a great deal more volume than before with my schedule being:
Monday - Lunchtime Clean & Press, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Tuesday - Lunchtime Squat, PM Run
Wednesday - Lunchtime Rest, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Thursday - Lunchtime Clean & Press, PM Run
Friday - Lunchtime Squat, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Saturday - AM Long Run
Sunday - Rest
Also, I'm Greasing The Groove and practicing my one-legged squats (pistols) and one-arm push-ups throughout the day. My range of motion is gently increased for both movements, but it's going to be a long time before I nail both of them down.
Since I suck at pull-ups, I'm starting on Week -2 and doing a great deal of negatives. But things are moving in a positive direction. However, I'll repeat that week anyway to improve. The push-ups are not going so well. Seems that my 15 max push-ups aren't translating well to week 1 of the push-up program (failed in set 4 of the first day and failed set 3 on the second), so I'll be repeating that week for sure.
One thing I'm trying to figure out is where to insert the Max/Raw Strength workouts. I know that if I keep up with the strength-endurance ones, I'll lose some raw strength in the process. I also need to watch out for staleness too and switch things up. But I'm sure I'll come up with something. Edit: And I figured it out. After getting to the 20 seconds of rest, I'll do max/raw strength work (upper-body on Thursday, lower-body on Friday). This will get me 4 sessions of max/raw strength work during this cycle.
During this cycle, I've got a few events that will supplement my training mileage.
11/28 - Seattle Ghost Marathon (5th week of the cycle)
12/19 - Pigtails Flat Ass (8th week of the cycle)
1/2 - Western WA Fat Ass (10th week of the cycle), but this is weather permitting since last year's snowstorm killed the event and a few brave/insane folks decided to give the run a go anyway in the heavy snow.
1/9 - Bridle Trails 50k Twilight Run (11th week of the cycle)
There's also the Last Chance Marathon on 12/31 and the 1st Call to Run Marathon & Ultra the day after on my birthday. However, I'm not in the position to start running back to backs just yet...not until the next cycle anyway. ;-)
I'm also experimenting with my nutrition as well. Following the Carbohydrate Curve on Mark's Daily Apple, I've set Mondays and Wednesdays as low IF/Ketosis days - keeping my carb intake at 50 grams or less. The rest of the week, I'm ranging from 100 to 150 grams a day with maybe one cheat day depending on my mood. I remember when I went almost completely carbless and the volume of weight I lost. However, I was a weak bastard and didn't do enough strength training and didn't eat enough protein and fat to supplement properly compared to now.
So far, the first low day was tough. The second one (yesterday) was much easier to deal with. I purposely set it up on Mondays and Wednesdays due to my running on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I felt that I didn't want to screw myself up too badly since running taps more glucose stores than lifting. Like I said, so far, so good.
What I'm expecting will happen in the next 12 weeks:
1.) A significant increase in stamina. (This is already happening, based on my last interval run - I reduced my time by 5-10 seconds.)
2.) Recovery time will improve. Less time to suck wind = More time to keep moving in a race.
3.) Strength gains I made during the first cycle will maintain.
4.) Body composition will change further for the better (lighter, but still durable).
Half-way through the first week. Let's see where the rest of the cycle goes.
As I stated here about this, I decided to follow the 50/20 plan (which is based on Density Training) but with some twists.
1.) Two workout movements picked. In this case, I chose the Sandbag Clean & Press and the Sandbag Back Squat.
2.) The first movement (Clean & Press) is done on Mondays and Thursdays, the other (Squat) on Tuesdays and Fridays.
3.) Based on Prilepin's numbers and Wiggy's thing about Heavy Weights+Volume+Limited Rest, there would be 3 reps per set and the weight used would start around 55-65% (but I'm going to increase this sooner, I'll explain later).
4.) Rest intervals are timed with a digital cooking timer I got at DollarTree (works great!). 60 seconds after each set, reducing the rest period by 10 seconds with each new workout until I hit 20 seconds. Once the workout with 20 seconds is up, the next workout of the same movement will increase in weight by 5 lbs and the rest time clock resets at 60 seconds again.
5.) All workouts are within a 20 minute window and it is to be done with as many sets as possible. Obviously, as the rest times decrease, the number of sets will. (Yes, this does train Power-Endurance/Work-Capacity also - so I might as well get the best of both worlds).
6.) Eventual goal should be 17 or more sets with 20 second rests.
So far, I've done one Clean & Press workout and one Squat this week. The clean & press was at 60 lbs (about 50% of my calculated 1-RM for the Military Press), but the weight felt too light and I did 19 sets. This is too many for the first time at the longest rest, meaning that I'm more durable and need more weight. I'm going to increase the weight to 75 lbs today and decrease the time to 50 seconds for rest. That should get my sets closer to 14-15 at most. The squat was done at 137.5 lbs (about 53% of my calculated 1-RM for the squat). I could tell I was a bit rusty doing the squat at first since I had not really done any weighted ones for nearly a week. But I eventually got into my groove and I hit 12 sets in the alloted time. This is much better and on target for the number I should have landed on for sets compared to the clean and press. But I think I'll also raise the weight as well on this one (just needs a slight amp-up in the intensity).
While this is going on, I'm still running on Tuesdays (typically intervals) and Thursdays (typically tempo/Steady-State) and Saturdays (Long). I'm also doing the 100 Push-up program and 20 Pull-up Program as well for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as well at home (pull-up bar is there). Yeah, I've got a great deal more volume than before with my schedule being:
Monday - Lunchtime Clean & Press, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Tuesday - Lunchtime Squat, PM Run
Wednesday - Lunchtime Rest, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Thursday - Lunchtime Clean & Press, PM Run
Friday - Lunchtime Squat, PM Push-up and Pull-up
Saturday - AM Long Run
Sunday - Rest
Also, I'm Greasing The Groove and practicing my one-legged squats (pistols) and one-arm push-ups throughout the day. My range of motion is gently increased for both movements, but it's going to be a long time before I nail both of them down.
Since I suck at pull-ups, I'm starting on Week -2 and doing a great deal of negatives. But things are moving in a positive direction. However, I'll repeat that week anyway to improve. The push-ups are not going so well. Seems that my 15 max push-ups aren't translating well to week 1 of the push-up program (failed in set 4 of the first day and failed set 3 on the second), so I'll be repeating that week for sure.
One thing I'm trying to figure out is where to insert the Max/Raw Strength workouts. I know that if I keep up with the strength-endurance ones, I'll lose some raw strength in the process. I also need to watch out for staleness too and switch things up. But I'm sure I'll come up with something. Edit: And I figured it out. After getting to the 20 seconds of rest, I'll do max/raw strength work (upper-body on Thursday, lower-body on Friday). This will get me 4 sessions of max/raw strength work during this cycle.
During this cycle, I've got a few events that will supplement my training mileage.
11/28 - Seattle Ghost Marathon (5th week of the cycle)
12/19 - Pigtails Flat Ass (8th week of the cycle)
1/2 - Western WA Fat Ass (10th week of the cycle), but this is weather permitting since last year's snowstorm killed the event and a few brave/insane folks decided to give the run a go anyway in the heavy snow.
1/9 - Bridle Trails 50k Twilight Run (11th week of the cycle)
There's also the Last Chance Marathon on 12/31 and the 1st Call to Run Marathon & Ultra the day after on my birthday. However, I'm not in the position to start running back to backs just yet...not until the next cycle anyway. ;-)
I'm also experimenting with my nutrition as well. Following the Carbohydrate Curve on Mark's Daily Apple, I've set Mondays and Wednesdays as low IF/Ketosis days - keeping my carb intake at 50 grams or less. The rest of the week, I'm ranging from 100 to 150 grams a day with maybe one cheat day depending on my mood. I remember when I went almost completely carbless and the volume of weight I lost. However, I was a weak bastard and didn't do enough strength training and didn't eat enough protein and fat to supplement properly compared to now.
So far, the first low day was tough. The second one (yesterday) was much easier to deal with. I purposely set it up on Mondays and Wednesdays due to my running on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I felt that I didn't want to screw myself up too badly since running taps more glucose stores than lifting. Like I said, so far, so good.
What I'm expecting will happen in the next 12 weeks:
1.) A significant increase in stamina. (This is already happening, based on my last interval run - I reduced my time by 5-10 seconds.)
2.) Recovery time will improve. Less time to suck wind = More time to keep moving in a race.
3.) Strength gains I made during the first cycle will maintain.
4.) Body composition will change further for the better (lighter, but still durable).
Half-way through the first week. Let's see where the rest of the cycle goes.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
And the weight rolls back!
The scale is cooperating now and I'm 1.5 lbs from my 235 lbs original weight when I started the Stronglifts 5x5 Sandbag program 12 weeks ago. w00t!!!!
Early this morning, a nice 9.2 mile run in 1:55. It has been a long time since I did a run in the morning and not have any food before going. Would have been a bit faster, but nature called and I'm so glad that there was a Wendy's along my running route.
Looking forward to chilling out tomorrow and officially ending this first cycle.
I'll post up the workouts for the next cycle. It's going to be intense!
Early this morning, a nice 9.2 mile run in 1:55. It has been a long time since I did a run in the morning and not have any food before going. Would have been a bit faster, but nature called and I'm so glad that there was a Wendy's along my running route.
Looking forward to chilling out tomorrow and officially ending this first cycle.
I'll post up the workouts for the next cycle. It's going to be intense!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Phase 1 complete
Today was the last lifting day...and I didn't bother.
I needed a few days to unload. I've noticed that is done in quite a bit of exercise training programs (whether they're for strength or running or whatever). So tonight, I'll do some lighter lifts, but not in excess of what is approaching my 1-Rep Max.
So my final numbers in the end come out to be:
Back Squat - 215 lbs (in a 5x5, which by 1 Rep Max calculators - 215 lbs matches my 5 Rep Max and my 1 Rep Max comes out to 259 lbs, which is above my current body weight!)
Overhead Press - 122 lbs (in a 3x5 set via barbell. My 1 Rep Max is calculated at 129 lbs, so I think I've exceeded this.)
Bench Press - 110 lbs (in a 5x5. Too easy though and I've already subbed for push-ups now since I'm lifting more weight via push-ups than by sandbag or barbell anyway).
Power Clean - 105 lbs (in a 5x5, but as I said before in my past post, I've done 130 lbs sandbag cleans and 122 lbs barbell cleans, so with more polished technique - I can do 150 lbs or better if I practice.)
Deadlift - 250 lbs (in a 1x5, but I really should head to a local CF gym to see if I can test my Max and get anywhere close to 322 lbs.)
Since I've never lifted before like this, I would have to say this is indeed a success - even with subbing/ditching some of the days (4 days out of 12 weeks).
After my 2 hour run tomorrow, I need to focus on getting ready for my Strength-Endurance phase. I think I've hammered enough of the details out, so I should be good. But it's always good to re-check your info too.
I needed a few days to unload. I've noticed that is done in quite a bit of exercise training programs (whether they're for strength or running or whatever). So tonight, I'll do some lighter lifts, but not in excess of what is approaching my 1-Rep Max.
So my final numbers in the end come out to be:
Back Squat - 215 lbs (in a 5x5, which by 1 Rep Max calculators - 215 lbs matches my 5 Rep Max and my 1 Rep Max comes out to 259 lbs, which is above my current body weight!)
Overhead Press - 122 lbs (in a 3x5 set via barbell. My 1 Rep Max is calculated at 129 lbs, so I think I've exceeded this.)
Bench Press - 110 lbs (in a 5x5. Too easy though and I've already subbed for push-ups now since I'm lifting more weight via push-ups than by sandbag or barbell anyway).
Power Clean - 105 lbs (in a 5x5, but as I said before in my past post, I've done 130 lbs sandbag cleans and 122 lbs barbell cleans, so with more polished technique - I can do 150 lbs or better if I practice.)
Deadlift - 250 lbs (in a 1x5, but I really should head to a local CF gym to see if I can test my Max and get anywhere close to 322 lbs.)
Since I've never lifted before like this, I would have to say this is indeed a success - even with subbing/ditching some of the days (4 days out of 12 weeks).
After my 2 hour run tomorrow, I need to focus on getting ready for my Strength-Endurance phase. I think I've hammered enough of the details out, so I should be good. But it's always good to re-check your info too.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Inspiration
To those that don't believe that completing a 100 miles is possible for anyone:
http://www.ultrarunning.com/ultra/features/news/amputee-wins-heartland-10.shtml
Yeah, Amy Palmiero-Winters. She lost her leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago and she's done tons of races, from various running distances to tri's. Now she can check off "Ultrarunning Champion" to that list as well.
So, what did you do today?
http://www.ultrarunning.com/ultra/features/news/amputee-wins-heartland-10.shtml
Yeah, Amy Palmiero-Winters. She lost her leg in a motorcycle accident a few years ago and she's done tons of races, from various running distances to tri's. Now she can check off "Ultrarunning Champion" to that list as well.
So, what did you do today?
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