I'm not a slacker, I swear...

I haven't posted a thing for more than a month. That doesn't mean that I haven't been exercising, although the weather has been colder than I like to run in around here. I'm really glad I spent all that money on warm clothing last fall because if I hadn't, I'd be really fat and lazy right about now.

My little bro got me some Yak Trax for Christmas this year (I asked for them). Here in the frozen desert of Idaho Falls, Idaho, we tend to get only a little snow in the winter, but with the low temperatures, it sticks around for three months. I don't know how I ever ran in the snow without these traction devices. Oh yeah, I didn't. They're great on solid packed snow or ice, but I can hardly feel them through the soles of my shoes. They seem sturdily built and the traction coils cover pretty much any part of your feet that you would want to run on so they would work well no matter what type of gait you have. The only problem I've had is that they don't give any improvement on loose, thick or slushy snow, although I can't imagine anything that really would. It still feels like I'm running in sand. I would wholeheartedly recommend Yak Trax to anyone who lives in a snowy climate that wants to continue to run outside in the winter. It's not supposed to hit 30 degrees Fahrenheit until at least February around here, so I'll definitely be getting plenty of use out of them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.