Monday, December 10, 2007

Runnin' like Michael Jackson

Over the past few days, I've experienced the whole gamut of emotions. Getting ready for the Jingle Bell Run on Saturday, I foolishly tucked one of my gloves under my arm so that I could set up my phone to record the run. These gloves were a Christmas gift from my brother and I absolutely love them. I always used to have ice cube hands when I ran in the morning, fall or winter. Since these gloves and I have become running partners, frosty fingers have not been a problem.

Before starting a run, I usually place one glove safely in the pocket of my jacket while I press the tiny phone buttons, but before this one, I was talking to another runner and wasn't paying much attention to what I was doing. After the run got started, I reached into the pocket looking for the glove, and it wasn't there! I had dropped it as soon as I started to stride into the run. I assumed that one of the other runners or more likely one of the walkers would pick it up and turn it in at the finish (no one wants a single glove), so I didn't go back for it and continued the race with one glove and one frigid hand.

After everyone had finished the race and we'd done a little raffle, the guy running everything asked if anyone had found a glove. No one said that they had, but one guy said that he had seen one right at the beginning of the race. I must have looked for my wayward glove in the biting wind and snow for thirty minutes to no avail. It had completely deserted me.

While I was in the gym, the race organizer called me and left a voice mail that he had found a glove after I had left. Some good Samaritan had left it on the crank to his trailer and he noticed it there when he hooked it to his truck. When I got the message, I was ecstatic. My glove would be recovered. I gratefully picked up a stray glove from his house later that day.

After work today, I came home and got all suited up for a short run, excited to run with my lost-and-found glove. It was very cold and there was about two inches of fluffy, white snow on the ground. I took special care to put my reclaimed glove in my pocket so that I could start the phone recording without fear of losing it again. I started running and reached into the pocket to get the glove and put it over my already freezing hand. It wouldn't go on my right hand; it was a left-handed glove! The glove I had picked up, thinking it was my own, is a nearly identical women's Manzella Windstopper glove. A woman had also lost a glove at the beginning of the race and it just happened to be the same brand and model as mine. Since there were only about 20-25 runners/walkers, this coincidence is almost too much to believe. I'm going to have to call the race organizer back and see if he can assist in reuniting two wayward gloves with their cold-fingered owners.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

A Day Off

I've been lifting pretty regularly and heavily for the last several weeks. I'm seeing a lot of the muscle mass that I lost in the last three years come back pretty quickly, although it's hard to both run and lift and keep up with all the other stuff I like or have to do. A coworker told me about the Jingle Bell Run on Thursday this week. I decided to go ahead and run it on Saturday. I felt slow and heavy for the last two miles and finished a lot slower than I think I should have. I don't know if that's because of all the lifting or because it was snowy, windy and cold out or what. It was still fun to get out and run with other people. We all had to wear bells on our shoes and they had hot chocolate at the aid stations.

I went to the gym right after running and further wore myself out. Thus, I figured that doing nothing was in order for today, and it was wonderful. Next week is the third week of the hypertrophy phase, which is supposed to be a very intense week. I don't know if I can do more than I did last week, but I'll give it a go. The following week is an easy week, so I'll have plenty of time to recover.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

I hate it when a plan doesn't come together

I made it to the gym again on Thursday morning for another hypertrophy workout. I saw another co-worker there. This time it was a guy who had pneumonia about two weeks ago and is also near the age of 50. It's a real sign of the benefits of keeping in shape that he was able to be back in the gym so soon. I hope I'll be in that kind of condition in twenty years.

Friday was my day off. When I say day off, I mean it. I spent pretty much the whole day in bed and playing video games. Sometimes being lazy just feels too good.

I had kind of a gut ache all morning today, so I couldn't get to the gym early like I had intended. Somehow I got into my head that my club was open till 7 pm on Saturdays, so I did some things around the house and then went to the grocery store. I got to the gym at 4:30, all excited for a couple hours of working out. Just as I was putting my stuff in a locker, they made an announcement that the club would be closing in thirty minutes. Sometimes I can be a real bonehead. I really miss the 24-hour Fitness I used to work out at in Spokane.

So, instead of the weights, I hit the road. Not the best weather for it, unfortunately, but I'd better get used to that. The wind-proof clothes I spent all that money kick some major butt! I don't know what I ever did without them. Oh yeah, I took most of the cold weather months off.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Re-Rack Your Weights!

So I went to the gym this morning (4:30) for a good hypertrophy workout. I was supposed to head in yesterday morning, but couldn't sleep all night after that stupid long run. It probably wouldn't have been good anyway since it was leg day and my legs were pretty worn out. At least that's what I tell myself so I don't feel too guilty.

Anyway, after my normal fifteen minute warm-up on the bike, I headed over to the weights. The gym I have a membership to has several barbell bench press setups in the central area of the weight room and a bunch of different types of Olympic plate-loaded machines around to the side of them. I noticed as I entered the area that every one of the bench press bars had at least 45 pound plates on each side of them and that most of the machines were fully loaded as well. This struck me as a bit strange because at that point in the morning, I was the only one in the weight lifting area. Evidently some lifters had ignored the signs posted around the area and had left their weights loaded at the end of their workouts the previous night. No doubt, they thought that it would be convenient for the next person to have weights pre-loaded for them. This theory would have held up if I was the first person to use one of these stations. However, I was working legs and arms this morning and had no reason to even approach those benches or machines. About the time my workout was done (and I was tired), a friend of mine from work, a 40-something woman who probably weighs about 120 pounds came into the weight room. From across the room I could see her struggling to remove the weights and put them away so that she could actually use the machines. She had to drop the 45 pound olympic plates to the floor and roll them to the weight tree, where she could only lean them up against it. I went over and helped her clear off the rest of them so that she could work out.

I don't think I'll ever understand the people who don't realize that their lack of common courtesy seriously hampers other people's ability to work out. Just about everyone I have known that lifts weights, really enjoys it and tries to convince their friends that they need to take up this form of exercise. I certainly do. So why are there so many (I assume) men who can't figure out that having to remove other people's weights (among other reasons) ruins strength training for so many people (esp. women) to the point that several I've talked to just avoid the weight room? That's really a shame, because strength training can have benefits for everyone. Like I said, the signs are clearly posted and even threaten membership revocation if a staff member catches you ditching your weights three times. What's so hard about lifting the weights one more time to put them back where they belong? Just one of my pet peeves.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Turkey Day --> Whoops

I haven't really been as lazy as it looks. I've just been lazy about posting about what I've been doing. I went through my anatomical adaptation circuit again at the gym on Wednesday morning last week. My hamstrings were still sore from the wind running on Monday, so I substituted a couple different exercises for the leg exercises I usually do. Instead of doing two groups of four lifts, I did one group of six and then a group of three since there weren't as many people as usual in the gym (it was 4:30 am). I don't think I'm making any progress with AA thing and I'm getting tired of it anyway.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, which meant the third annual Simmonster-Ketfish Thanksgiving Football Challenge (we don't really call it that). We headed to Blackfoot to play some six-a-side touch football in the 10 degree weather. It was a whole lot of fun, although it was a whole lot of basically wind sprints which meant I had sore quads, calves and hip-flexors for a couple days afterwards.

Saturday, I decided to start the hypertrophy phase at the gym. This is a six-week phase during which the goal is to constantly stress my creatine phosphate/adenosine triphosphate energy system, which will cause my muscles to grow. To do this, the load is increased to the point where I end up failing to be able to lift the last (couple) rep(s) of any set. The first week or two, this doesn't usually happen to me as I generally underestimate my 1 rep max, but I'll get there. Saturday, I hit legs, arms and abs and Sunday, was chest, shoulders, back and abs.

Today, my goal was to do a long, slow, easy run after work. The weather was pretty good, with calm winds and it wasn't too cold when I left. By the time I got to Sunnyside, however, the traffic was very heavy (must have been about 4 pm) and I could no longer hear the mile marker beeps from my phone. It had also cooled off a bunch as I found out when I had to wait for the walk signal on a traffic light for a couple minutes. I ended up doing seven miles, which was about a mile more than I wanted to. The pavement I was running on was pretty brutal on my joints. I was feeling great after 3.5 miles. Wish it had been less than 3.5 miles back to my house from that point. On the bright side, I broke 250 miles on the year with this run and am now sitting at 252.6 miles.

Monday, November 19, 2007

This is too hard.

So the little cold turned out to be a nasty head cold. Fortunately it didn't migrate to my chest as those things usually like to do, but it still put me down for most of the weekend. I went to the gym on Sunday afternoon and did my circuit, but could only make three sets for each group of exercises and I was ridiculously tired by the end. And I'm sore again, which is weird because I thought I was past that.



I'm not a huge fan of running in the wind. However, because I live on the Snake River Plain, I get to run in strong winds if I want to run in the spring or fall (which I do). My legs were tired from lifting the day before, which just made it all the more difficult on the way out. The return trip kinda felt like I was flying. I guess that makes up for it.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Arrrrr-[cough][hack]-gggghhh!

So I did end up getting a stupid cold and have been kind of stuffed up and hoarse for the last few days. I've been trying to kick it really fast by drinking lots of fluids, eating all my vitamins and getting way too much sleep at night. Hopefully, I'll be able to run or lift after work tomorrow night without fearing a relapse. Anyone ever notice how you don't really miss something until it's gone; or am I the first?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

What a tiring week...

Since I was pretty lazy on Wednesday and Thursday this week (although I did play a bunch of disc golf), I started out Friday with pretty aggressive goals for the weekend (which is always three days for me). I ran three miles in the morning which were a real chore. I guess they can't all be great runs. I don't know if it was the cold or still being tired from lifting or from climbing trees to retrieve discs but my legs just didn't want to go. My pace wasn't much slower than it's been of late, so maybe it was just a problem of perception.

Then I got cleaned up, ate a second breakfast and headed out to run errands and hit the gym. For strength training, I try to follow a periodized system such as the one set out in the book Serious Strength Training. I really like the information in that book, although it can be kind of difficult to get past the pictures of ridiculously huge meat heads that adorn many of the pages. It's really targeted at people who want to compete in body building, but it has lots of basic info that can be understood and used by even beginners.

Right now, I'm in a phase called "Anatomical Adaptation" (AA), during which the goal is to gradually wake up all of my muscles, ligaments and tendons from their recent period of inactivity and get them ready for heavier weights that will be used in later periods of training. I hate this phase. It's when I experience the most soreness and am tired for the longest time after a workout. It's also the phase when I'm lifting the smallest amount of weight on many different exercises, so I look like a complete weakling to anyone else in the weight room. I challenge any of the muscle-bound guys in the weight room to do four sets of 15 reps of four different lifts, with no rest in between them and tell me it's not a more intense workout than what most of them do. It doesn't matter that the weights are light, I'm tired after two groups of four exercises.

Anyway, on Friday I decided to test for my max on several lifts, which is tiring in a different way. The book I mentioned above contains a chart that allows me to extrapolate my max from the number of reps of a sub-max load, which really saves my joints. I worked out pretty hard and am now paying for it with some soreness, but I found that my maxes aren't as low as I thought they would be after a couple three years of not lifting regularly. I have two more weeks of AA phase, and then I can move on to the Hypertrophy phase, where I look like less of a weenie.

Saturday, I went fly-fishing for steelhead on the Salmon River with Walkley. We left IF at about 4 am and got to the first hole sometime around 7. It was cold. I spent half the day with either numb hands or toes and we didn't find any proof that there are even fish in that river. It started absolutely pouring rain an hour or so before we packed up and left and our clothes were soaked when we got back to the car. Steelheading is everything I'd heard that it was. And I'm crazy enough about fishing to want to try it again.

So after all of that, I woke up this morning feeling like I have a cold coming on. I think I'll just hang around and clean the house today. I might go run later if I really feel up to it. We'll see.

Monday, November 5, 2007

The End of Daylight Saving Time

This is always a tough time of year for me. The end of DST means that I will now be going to work in the dark and be getting home at or after sundown for several months. It's always hard the first couple weeks to feel like going out and starting a run in the dark and dealing with traffic in the dark can be an adventure.

Contrary to the above, tonight's run was one of those runs that reminds me why I like running. Starting out, I felt like I could do anything and all my body parts were playing well together. Most of the run was in pretty heavy traffic, so the adrenaline from running in front of so many people may have had something to do with it, but I just love it when I'm not just running to get home so I can quit running.

This route also goes past a McDonald's restaurant between miles three and four. Seeing all those people lining up to shove high-calorie, low nutritional value food into their bodies always blows my mind. I mean, seriously, there must have been fifteen cars in line. Everyone knows that stuff is not good for you and the restaurant is right next to an Albertson's grocery store where one can even buy pre-prepared food that might not clog one's arteries at such a rapid rate. The added nutrition they put into real food is worth the extra dollar or two that it costs. If a single guy like me can find the time to make home-cooked meals that taste good, I have a hard time believing that anyone needs to eat Mickey D's for dinner. I'll never understand it.

Friday, November 2, 2007

3.22 Mile Morning Run

Beautiful morning for a run! Wish my body had been feeling as great as the weather. I just felt tired the whole time and my lungs were really struggling to keep up.

Would have been pretty cold this morning if it wasn't for my new jacket. I always thought that buying the expensive, technical running clothes was a waste of money and that my cotton t-shirts, shorts and sweats were every bit as good. I'd just wear several layers if it got cold. I'm finally figuring out that some of the expensive garb is worth the money. The jacket is extremely lightweight, but it has enough pockets for my phone, mp3 player and gloves or hat when I've warmed up and don't want to be wearing them anymore. It's reflective for running in the dark after work and is comfortable and unrestrictive without any annoying, ill-placed tags or seams. It also keeps the wind from cutting through me and is supposed to be waterproof too (although I haven't tested that property yet). So far, I love it and it'll definitely keep me running through the winter.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Back to running

I'm not sure exactly why I thought it was a good idea to have my last two wisdom teeth removed at the beginning of October. After the recovery from that and the resulting dry socket, I ended up not having run for about a month. It always amazes me how fast you lose your training when you take time off. Why does it feel so good to be lazy?

My first couple runs after the surgery and recovery, I thought I was going to die. My lungs were killing me, my legs felt heavy and even my arms felt out of sync with everything else. And the spot where I'm now missing two teeth felt really funny in my mouth. I'm able to only go about two miles at this point before I crash and my pace is about nine minutes per mile. My only motivation while running right now is to get the run over with. And my only motivation to lace 'em up is to get past the point where running is more of a chore than a pleasure. I swear I'll never take a month off again (yeah, right!).