Training Log Archive: Run_Bosco

Short run to shake out gym soreness, so that I can go to the gym again! And drink another chocolate milk!

Jog to gym. Tried wearing headphones, didn't like it.

Additional warm-up at the gym.

Jumping Squats / Wall Ball / Box Jumps -- went well. I'm still taking a break between each set. I think if I didn't break that I wouldn't be able to make it on top of the box for the box jump. Ha.

Bench stepover -- did 10 (every-other = 1) x 2, each side. Hard at first, since I did it right after my squat/wall/jump routine (I forgot about the pull ups), but gained better balance for the second set. Doing these make me feel wobbly. Satisfying.

Pull ups -- felt a little sick, so I broke one of my sets in half. 10, 5, 5.

TRX Knees to chest -- Oh my gosh. This one makes me want to cry. Sooo harrrrd.



TRX Push ups -- yay, these are easy! Well, my arm muscles get fatigued doing it, but I don't feel maxed out and like I want to throw up like when I do during knees to chest.

Curtsy lunges -- yay! using my strong muscles makes this easy! But still makes my butt sore later! Probably should bump up the weight.

Got a little woozy after bending over to put down my weights. Think it was just a head rush.

When I have my next meeting with Allison, I'd like to ask for some ankle strengthening exercises. I think that would be good for orienteering.

Also, pre workout breakfast: oatmeal withs fruit and nuts. Post workout, I got a chocolate milk from BHC. Was nervous about that head rush.

Walked home because I was wobbly.

Rick's Open House course!

Head was not ready for orienteering, visited #2 twice, bumped into Kate, and once we got into the tricky nav-using-only-veg section, I decided to hang out with Kate. It was a good call, because I think I would have gotten extra confused on my own and we wouldn't have been able to communicate about how long we wanted to stay out.

Due to daylight, we did cut the course short. Felt nice to be in the woods, though.

Morning smoothie: mixed berries, plain greek yogurt, almond butter, big splash of coconut milk.

Did the full workout!

SECTION ONE

Jumping Squats - began to feel easy in comparison to the other 2 exercises.

Wall Ball - I went with a 12lb instead of 14lb ball; was struggling at the end, so I think this is fine.

Box Jumps - felt more even this time, less lopsided, and less scary.

...doing this really jacks up my heart rate! It wasn't really coming down much between sets, so I was like, "oh well," and did another. Also, not 100% sure if I was supposed to rest between sets, but seems like I should.


SECTION TWO

Instead of doing each once and repeating the circuit, I did each exercise twice as I did them. The gym wasn't crowded, but I figure it's easier to get the equipment you want if you just use it once.


Pull Ups @ "17" - struggled for the last few, so amt. of assistance is perfect.

Bench Stepover - right leg still sucks in comparison to left, but a noted improvement over last time. I couldn't remember if each side counted as "one" or if it was every-other side. So I counted every-other side and did 10, twice. Really felt it in the last few reps each time, and had to sit/collapse to recover. Fun!

Knees to chest - wore my running knickers and really began to feel overheated doing this. Could feel that morning smoothie coming back too!

Push ups - I might've made this too easy. Difficulty depends on my body angle.

Curtsy lunges 15lbs per hand - Spaced out and counted to 20, then was like, "did I just do 20?" So I did 10 more and focused on getting full range and not popping back up too early.

And, done! From the time I departed the locker room to the time I finished my workout, 35 minutes elapsed. I figure about 7 minutes of resting, so I recorded 28min of workout.

Run to/from the gym. Well, ran to the gym, waddled home.

Taking advantage of my Ballard Health Club membership, I made an appointment with their nutritionist.

Most of the meeting was a review of the basics that I already knew, or at least a paradigm that I was familiar with. And the takeaways I was given were very simple.

1. Eat when hungry
2. Be present while eating

After focusing on that for 2 weeks, add:

3. Stop eating when satisfied
4. Eat slower

Really, really basic stuff. But my hunch is that the angle is to start with basic stuff, so as to not scare clients off with drastic changes.

Also,

In my self report, I wrote that I drink between 1 and 3 beers a day. The nutritionist said that I didn't need to change this (yet). WHAT. No guilt trip for drinking up to 3 beers a day??! I can just keep doing it?!!

Yeah, I think she's playing the long game. Gaining my trust with easy, attainable goals. Then as the goals ramp up, I'll come to my own realization that I need to reduce beer intake, instead of the nutritionist telling me to do it.

I see what's going on.

Last cyclocross race on my calendar, and I finally stuffed my pockets full of candy and tossed it at spectators as I rode the course, which is the reverse of the tradition of spectators handing out whiskey shots/beer/dollar bills/french fries/donuts to the racers.

A special shout out to Fer Fun'k Sake, for the double-dare! I dared her to go to a track workout, and in return, I had to toss candy at Woodland Park.

She was even there in person to see it happen!

Hmm. Sorta bumbly, smallish-medium mistakes but nothing too major. Ran not too fast, not so slow. But 7th? Hmm. Finished at the bottom of the "Second Tier", where about 2.5 minutes separate 3rd from 7th.

Gotta run cleaner. Gotta run faster!

No further reflections until I see WinSplits. I'm curious to see if it's more my running pace or the mistakes I made. But I think I had around 2+ minutes of mistakes when you add it all up.

UPDATE:

Oh COME ON!! I was running in third at #14, fourth at #16, then blew it heading to #17 (I guess I forgot about that) and fell to seventh.

If everybody ran clean, I would've been fourth. In other words, that means that my running speed is fourth in this group, behind Heather, Celia, and Marissa, which seems about right.

Ok, time for splits:

1 - Straightforward beginning, 3rd split/overall

2 - Straightforward route, 2nd/2nd

3 - After hesitating, I went straight-ish, only to sort of regret it when I had to figure out where along the path I hit. Felt lucky when I found it. Not sure what I could have done different. It's a pure vegetation leg with no topo. I guess I could have actually shot a purposeful bearing. Huh... I didn't do any bearings today. 6th split / 3rd overall

4 - Just slow and hesitating-ish. With pavement and a fence as a catching feature, I should have run harder at it. 11th / 5th

5 - Was fine getting to the vicinity. I think my attack point was fine, too. But after the attackpoint, I think I kinda wandered. I did that a lot today. 10th / 5th

6 - something weird happened to this split

7 - also something weird with this split, but apparently I'm in second now.

8 - I think a straightforward running leg. Although I took the pavement route and didn't cut through the open area, maybe that cost a bit. 5th / 2nd

9 - Roundabout route choice. Stop being a chicken. 7th / 4th

10 - ERROR - Well, not that big an error. I think I went up the wrong path for a few steps, turned around. Checked out the wrong ruin, then kept going and found the right one. So, I think I did okay correcting myself. 15th / 5th

11 - Fine, and my split reflect that. 4th / 4th

12 - Was lucky I saw someone coming out of this one, it was a bit hidden. 5th / 4th

13 - Oh you know, trails and things. 4th / 3rd

14 - Shouldn'tve gone down the stairs (slow!), but this turned out alright. 4th / 3rd

15 - ERROR - Got spat out onto the wrong path, went to the wrong earth bank, then didn't realize that it was to be on top and not the bottom. DOH! Typically good about my control description, but not this time. 11th / 4th

16 - Fine. 5th / 4th

17 - ERROR - Here it is! I couldn't find the right trail. I ran a ways down one. It was wrong. Backtracked, looked around, eventually found it. I could have run closer to the veg. while looking for it, instead of running on the pavement and diving in last minute. Lost my race here. 18th / 7th

18 - Eh, okay. Was nervous about finding the right trail. I need to polish up my pace count. 4th / 6th

19 - "don't cut in early, don't cut in early..." Cuts in early. Wound up at #4 and had to go back. At least I got to re-orient myself and it wasn't worse!

F - Again with the not knowing exactly where it is.


Okay, so it was a sloppy race. Not catastrophic, but the results make sense in retrospect, which actually makes me feel a bit better. I know I can run cleaner, and I know I can run faster.

Ran the intermediate course with Linnea. I made sure she always had her compass tip on our location and had a plan for each control. She did great!

Was still sore from my half of a gym workout on Wednesday, so a very short run to shake it out.

Even though cycling is a more appealing recovery activity, I think that running is more effective at moving what needs to get moved, if that makes sense.

Short recovery spin.

I was wondering how to incorporate my gym routine into a weekly training plan. After a brief Googling session, it seems like doing my weight routine on the same day as running intervals is best, since I can use the next day to go on a recovery run/ride. If I run intervals one day, do my gym routine the next, and repeat– then I never have time to recover.

Work hard, recover hard!

So here's a sketch of what I'm thinking:

MON - gym + intervals
TUE - recovery
WED - gym + intervals
THU - recovery
FRI - off
SAT - Orienteering race or Team Ride
SUN - whatever

So basically, M/W hard days, T/Th easy days, F off, Sat race, Sun whatever. Though I should also listen to my body and trim the schedule back if I'm not recovering or sleeping well.

I got a Ballard Health Club gym membership and today I met with a trainer to get a workout tailored to me!

It's hard! And reasonably entertaining, which is good.

*Estimated time, I didn't have a watch on.

Here's my BHC workout:

Go for speed, 3x:
• 15 Jumping squats
• 15 wall ball squats w/ 14 lb medicine ball
• 15 Box jumps

Notes: Time how long it takes to complete a set, then see if I can improve my time. Or, try to complete more sets in the same amount of time.

Go for weight, 2x:
• 10 Assisted pull-ups on "# 17"
• 12 1-leg bench step-overs
• 10 TRX knees to chest plank
• 10 TRX push-ups
• 10 TRX curtsy lunges w/ 15 lb weights

Notes: I can either do each exercise twice before moving on to the next one, or do 1 of each and repeat the whole circuit.

Also, the trainer (Allison) suggested that I shorten my running intervals to 1 minute, with 20 seconds off. And that I should try it on hills too at Discovery.

C • Whoa. 5

Took the Snake to St.Ed's and rode singletrack in the rain! Good thing Tracy from the bike team was committed to going, otherwise I might have stayed in and played board games...

Felt sluggish first lap, then warmed and felt okay. Mostly it was just nice to remember how to ride my bike.

Ok, my HR monitor is just whack, so RPE it is.

This time did 3-minutes 'on' instead of 2-min. Interestingly, how I felt starting after 2 x 3 min was similar to how I felt after 3 x 2.

This time though, grand total was 9 minutes on, and I could feel the extra bit. Will have to keep the increases gradual.

10:39 - Warm up
3:02 - ON
3:35 - off
3:04 - ON
3:26 - off
3:03 - ON
9:14 - Cool down, with pit stop

It got colder! But it's still nice.

Someday will add a Magnolia loop onto my way into work. It's not even like I have to be there at a certain time. I'm livin' the dream! Time to start acting like it.

Ran with my Garmin and heart rate monitor today. The goal was to warm up, do some 2-minute efforts with rest between, then cool down.

I set some high and low HR alerts on my watch, but my HR readings were all over the map when I was warming up (sorry, my HR is not 220 when Just Jogging, thanks), so I turned the alerts off.

I was going to still use the timer function and just ignore the heart rate readings altogether, but the HR appears more accurate/believable when I'm working harder than when I'm just jogging around.

I aimed to be running in the mid to high 170s during my efforts, then walking until I've dropped to 120.

13:43 - warm up
2:20 - high effort - avg 167, max 188
1:31 - recover
2:03 - high effort - avg 171, max 189
1:17 - recover
2:02 - high effort - avg 182, max 210
1:18 - recover
6:57 - cool down

Intervals do seem to make solo neighborhood running less boring...

C • Nice work doing some interv... 5

Winter-O #1! Maguson Park. Route Gadget

Went into this wanting to run clean and focused. Though not fast, I accomplished just that. Of course, part of me wonders, "but if only I ran faster!" But if only I ran faster, I might've had a late mistake like Abra's that dropped me down a place. So consistency, and a thinner field (no Celia, Sue, Ali), got me third today.

#1 - I went in with what I thought was a navigationally conservative route, but then found the vegetation a bit tough to interpret. Ended up checking out the trail entrance before finding the correct entrance. Second thing I'm proud of: recovering from a wobbly first control, and not letting it set the tone for the rest of the race.

#2 - I headed for the road via the hill, since it was the easiest thing to sight from a distance. I decided to take this eastern route so that I could get a preview of 3, since the western route was not obviously better.

#3 - dog leg

#4 - aand, back the way we came.

#5 - I stopped taking routes through the tall grass by this point, because it was hella bumpier than I remember.

#6 - yep

#7 - I double-checked that the fence was crossable before taking the dog park route. The control description said inside corner, but I think the circle is actually centered on the outside corner, so I wasn't sure what to think. Should I trust the map more or control description more? Fortunately, part of the fence was wooden here, making it much more pleasant to hop than the chain link would have been.

#8 - I actually gained a little elevation and went to the south, since when I looked up the hill, it looked like barely any elevation gain at all, and I liked the idea of running straight down into it.

#9 - yep

#10 - do do doo

#11 - I SAW the trail shortcut (both on the map and in real life) and yet did not TAKE the trail shortcut. I guess I didn't trust that I could run faster on that tiny trail?

#12 - Got weird in here but found it quick enough.

#13 - Geez. Did not run this fast.

#14 - Saw Kate! Caught Kate.

#15 - Trail route

#16 - The indistinct parallel tracks threw me for a loop since they seemed to have some extra curves. Then I looked up and saw the hill and was like, where is that hill on my map? Then realized that the hill was my destination.

#17 - Trail

#18 - Went out back the way I came; couldn't decide if the southern trail would actually be any better, so opted to go with a trail I'd already seen.

#19 - Felt this one out from the more distinct/straight trail, and saw it from a distance

#20 - Run for the hill! Saw Heather. It doesn't LOOK like she's running fast, but she IS running fast.

Fin - COME ON, PEOPLE- don't loiter around the finish punch! Ran confusedly in because the punch was blocked by a scattered crowd.


General assessment:

•Other than hesitations and #1, pretty darn clean
•Pace was conservative, could dial it up a little next time. But not too much! I want to keep it clean.
•My route choices were sometimes too conservative (or lazy?) for my abilities, I should be less gun-shy. Instead of trying to run hard and risk making mistakes, I think I could make riskier route choices since I'm not running so hard.

C • map v. control descriptions 4

Felt remarkably fine for having not been as active as I'd like.

Also, it was less boring than anticipated. :)

Commuting is fun!

Well, that was better.

At my Magnuson race, I felt a bit disengaged with the race for a lot of it, and like I was riding and not racing. This time I felt much more engaged, even if I did have my lazy moments (aka Lap 3), and I need to train more to be able to ride hard the whole time.

...

I think that my recent backlash against wanting to move has a bit to do with how "losing weight" has become more and more attached to movement in the last few years, in a way that it never has before. Movement was always, "this is fun!!" Even when I lost weight in college, it was because riding my bike a ton was fun, not because I tried to lose weight.

So now, my desire to lose weight comes from a desire to be that fast person I was. And every time I see how far away I am from that fast person, it is frustrating. And instead of being motivated by the movement itself, I am laden with this constant self-induced guilt trip about not being fast. It kinda makes the movement less fun. Movement becomes a sad reminder that I'm not fast.

But what a funny catch-22. If I move because I want to and because it's fun, I probably will lose weight and probably will become faster... but as soon as the weight becomes the goal, it all becomes work again.

What a mind game. It's time to move for fun. Also, I'm not giving up beer.

C • There will be beer, Fer Fun... 2