Getting right in the head...

Friday, January 11, 2013

I would like to say I returned to the trainer re-inspired to ride inside and watch ‘Friday Night Lights’ on my iMac as I pedaled…but that would be a lie, which I only do when I think it’ll get me out of something.  No…I didn’t like it, but I did it.  I’m starting to get my head around what I’m going to do this summer during ‘Tour Ohio’ and realizing that I’m running out of tomorrows for training already.  And that’s not entirely true, either.  I mean, I could be ready for that trip by putting in three good months of training and if I’m not going to go until August, I’ve got until May to get totally serious.  In reality though, I need to get in the proper frame of mind.  I’m not kidding myself into thinking that I’m still in my thirties.  I need to be doing something every day (well…almost) and have my body whittled down to mostly well-conditioned muscle before beginning this thing if I am to come out the other side in one piece.  More importantly, I need to have my mind right.  I need to start this thing thinking there is nothing I can’t do so that when things get really tough, as I know they will, I’ll have the mental fortitude to keep going.  

So I rode 75 minutes on the trainer and followed that with a delicious smoothie for dinner.  I’d like to say that was all I had for the evening…but then that would be a lie, as well.  There was Breyer’s ice cream in the freezer, peanut butter in the cabinet and chocolate milk in the frig.  I’ll leave it at that.

Bike duration:  75 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  1050.

Slip, sliding away...

Thursday, January 10, 2013

I just couldn’t do another day on the trainer, so I went to the park to either do a Survival Workout or a run.  My rib cage is still a little sore so I used my big brain and decided to just run.  I drove through the park looking over the trails as I went and could see they were full of ice and mud.  It was not going to be a fast run and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to run at all.  I did notice the paved all-purpose trails were clean, but I really don’t like running on pavement.  I certainly have a lot of exercise-related issues.

I started on a bridle trail and found the edges to have melted down to the earth and had decent footing there.  This petered out shortly though, and I was forced to run on the ice.  I had to slow my pace about a minute a mile, but was able to get reasonably good footing.  I went off-trail for part of the run and between the snow I found there and trying to maintain my balance once back on the ice, I was getting a much better workout than I would have on a clean surface.  By the time I returned to the car, I’d run 35 minutes but felt like it had been an hour.  I noticed that the muscles of my legs and hips were much more fatigued than they would have been normally for such a short run, which I attribute to the need for the muscles to be constantly adjusting in the maintenance of balance.  It may have been slower than usual, but I’d burned a lot more calories than I would have normally in 35 minutes.

I returned home and started pulling ingredients from the freezer to make my smoothie.  Jack was watching and quite grossed out by my use of frozen spinach and bananas.

“Why did you freeze them in the first place?” he wanted to know.

“As soon as they start to spoil or get rotten, I throw them in the freezer so I can still use them,” I said.

“You should have thrown them in the garbage…they look gross,” he said.

And he didn’t take me up on my offer to share it with him once I had it blended.

Run duration:  35 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.

Calories burned:  650.

Clemens and Bonds are shut out of the Hall...

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Roger Clemens: ninth on the all-time win with 354 list and only pitcher to win 7 Cy Young awards as baseball’s top pitcher for the year.  Barry Bonds:  All-time home run king with 762 and only man to win 7 MVP awards as the best player in baseball…both would normally be first ballot hall of famers and both were shut out on their first year of eligibility to the Hall.  The results of the steroid era in baseball are in full bloom.

Like Lance Armstrong, neither man ever tested positive for or admitted to steroid use.  Both have been implicated by others and by association with the wrong kinds of people.  Both have denied using, though Bonds only denies ‘knowingly’ using.

As in the case of Lance, I have a problem with the ‘guilty until proven innocent’ attitude taken against athletes as it relates to performance enhancing drugs.  America is supposed to be one of those places where, since the invention of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, things like ‘innocent until proven guilty’ have been rock solid foundations of our society.  I don’t know if they used or not, I only know they’ve said they didn’t.  Both were absolutely amazing athletes and ball players and their accomplishments, without the steroid taint, would easily put them in the Hall of Fame.  Those folks who hold the vote have chosen to believe the rumors and, without evidence to convict them, have decided they were very likely guilty, and are punishing them anyway.  Well…I just don’t like it.

I rode the trainer for an hour and then ate some leftover lasagna while taking down the Christmas tree.  I hate taking down the tree.  It is the single most defining act that the holidays are over and since I enjoy them so much, it pains me to bring them to a close.  The coming year will hold some amazing things for me and I’m hoping to have recorded some huge changes by the time we go to find a tree and trim it next Christmas.

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.

Calories Burned: 850.

Adirondacks verse Upper Penisula...

Tuesday, January 8, 2013
I was pretty sure it was too soon to return to the Survival Workout, buy I seldom let good sense stand in the way of a workout decision.  I went to the park and began with my push-ups, which went well.  I then sat on the ice and began my abdominal work before proceeding to the dips…the cause of my current rib problem.  I’d completed about five when the pain began, albeit slight.  I stopped immediately because I’m smart that way and decided I’d head down the trail and try some other lifts and skip further dips.

The temperature was in the low forties and the melt had begun.  This was good and bad.  The trails were even more slippery now and there was little unpacked snow left…something a shoe could use to keep from slipping.  Ice skates would have been more appropriate but I don’t have any and after a quarter mile of slipping and nearly falling several times, I concluded it would be healthier to return to the car and save the workout for another day.  I drove home and hopped on the trainer for another boring 1-hour ride.

My nephew Nathan was in town and so I went to my sister’s to have dinner and chew the fat.  He works in the engine room on large freighters as they navigate the Great Lakes and is currently stationed in Duluth where it’s usually about 200 degrees below zero this time of year.  He’s becoming the complete outdoors man, having bought a good bike, camera and the beginnings of some camping gear.  We discussed the benefits and value of Michigan’s UP, where he's done some exploring, as it compares to the Adirondacks and, of course, the Adirondacks won out.  There are many wonderful camping, hiking, kayaking and biking opportunities in the UP and other ports of call that he visits in his travels, but nothing rivals the Adirondacks for diversity.  For me, there are the added values of ease of access, high peaks, family, and a limitless wilderness to explore.  He sees that and wants to join me next summer for a short excursion. 

Next summer is shaping up to be a busy one and my conditioning will need to be at a high level heading in.  So much of what I hope to achieve will require endurance and repetition.  Endurance is no issue.  I’ll have it going in and will get stronger as the treks move to their conclusion.  Repetition, on the other hand, can be problematic.  I’m talking about repetitive motions, such as pedaling a bike for eight hours a day, and the accompanying maladies that can develop.  There is little that can be done to prepare for this and to a certain degree, luck is involved.  I may find myself four days into Tour Ohio and dealing with some issue that I’ll just have to ride through.  I’ve got plenty of kayaking, hiking and jogging scheduled too so we’ll just have to see how the old body holds up. 

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  850.

BCS Football Championship...boring.

Monday, January 7, 2013
I spent the day probing my rib injury and wondering whether I should attempt the Survival Workout.  I tend to dig pretty deeply when probing and may have bruised myself checking for the injury.  In any event, it hurt all day and I decided it would be foolish to do the workout…which almost caused me to do it.  Instead, I went home and visited with my neighbor assuring him I would return after dinner to watch the BCS college football championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama.  I wasn’t expecting much of a game and when I arrived 20 minutes after it had started, was not completely surprised to find Alabama already up 21-0.  The pattern continued in this mismatch with the Alabama winning 42-14.  Though I’m not  a big college football fan, I am intrigued by the discussion over the years in the determination of the National Champion.  Unlike the other major professional and college sports which determine a winner by some kind of playoff system, college football has resisted this forever.  Bowl games have always been a large part of the landscape and are likely the reason the NCAA has never been able to agree on a playoff system.  Instead, fans bitch about the system in place and its flaws and offer solutions that would clearly be better than what’s in place.  I know there will be a four team playoff in the next couple of years, but that will only be a slightly smaller disaster.  As in other college sports and even in football in the other divisions…they need a decent playoff system.  It really isn’t rocket science, so why can’t they fix it?  I suppose it really doesn’t matter all that much.

A running/football double...

Sunday, June 6, 2013
Holly was going to stay with Heidi for the evening, which meant I’d have the night free to work out and if I could manage a run in the morning, would have the perfect chance for another double.  I went to the park to try out my running legs.  It had been some time since my last run and with the trails covered in a packed, icy snow, footing would be treacherous.  I thought I’d knock off only 30-35 minutes and I knew I could put up with any conditions for that amount of time.

To say I haven’t been doing any running would be a miss-statement.  I’ve been incorporating sprints into the Survival Workout for the past several weeks, so when I started jogging my safe, slow pace over the icy trails, my legs and hips didn’t recognize the gait.  Whenever you do something unusual in your routine, your muscles…regardless of conditioning…react poorly.  Normally, this would mean next-day soreness and that’s no big deal, but I was starting to feel sore DURING the run and didn’t like it.  When I arrived back at the car, it occurred to me that I didn’t want my body to remember running slow as its last act, so I decided a set of sprints were in order.  I performed five, but felt so much better after the fifth.  This shouldn’t surprise me since it is the advice I offer to all runners I coach that are attempting to run fast…your body has memory…make it remember speed.  It was working for me.

I went home and finished work on the cabinet I was building for Heidi so Holly could deliver it.  She pulled out a little after four, which coincided nicely with the beginning of the NFL playoff games.  I’d arranged to watch with my neighbor, Pat, on his humongous 54”, HD TV, so I made a smoothie to help me avoid his junk food and went over.  I didn’t return home until after nine and was not in the mood for the trainer, so my dreams of a two-workout day became a great run/watch football double.  Sometimes I can really mix up my priorities.

Run duration:  40 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.
Calories burned:  700.

Okay...that REALLY hurts.

Saturday, January 5, 2013
I wasn’t feeling particularly frisky as I began my Survival Workout in the horse trailer parking lot in the North Chagrin Reservation, but as my push-up count reached 90, I thought I had a chance.  I struggled mightily for the next four reps and had to settle for my second highest total ever.  Pleased, I sat on the icy surface of the gravel parking lot and did my bicycle crunches for the next sixty seconds before moving to my dip station.  I felt the twinge in the left rib cage after about 20 dips and then a sharp, piercing pain at 28, which took my breath away and told me to stop…now.

Something was wrong and it’s hard to figure why.  I’ve been doing the same dip exercises for over two years and to suddenly have it causing such pain is puzzling.  Never the less, it is.  I moved on to doing some uphill karaoke and high knees until I reached my log lifting station.  I could feel the pain in my rib, but grabbed the log and heaved it overhead anyways.  Mistake.  I quickly returned it to the ground and moved on again.  I wanted to reach the cabins and see if I’d be able to do push-ups now.  Once there, I began…and completed…another 81without pain.  I went to my rock, frozen to the ground and covered in snow, broke it loose and heaved it overhead…again without pain.

After completing another abdominal exercise, I moved to a picnic table to attempt some dips and after doing only three, knew it wasn’t a good idea.  I completed the workout, but didn’t try to do anymore dips, substituting instead more sprints through the snow.  I managed to hit big numbers in each of my remaining push-up sets and achieved a new 4-set pr of 310…a whopping 25 more than I’d ever done before.

Obviously, I don’t know what the problem is and clearly it doesn’t affect some of the lifts I perform.  I’ll give it a couple of days and hopefully I’ll be back in full swing.  If not, I think I’ll need to visit the doc again.  I’m already limited by the tennis elbow and this would be a major setback into what I can do in the Survival Workout.  I don’t like succumbing to these nagging injuries dictating what I can and can’t do.  I returned home and took out my frustration on the trainer for 60 minutes.

Holly and I went to a holiday party hosted by one of her clients that evening.  It was at Pickle Bills in Grand River and offered and extensive, fatty menu.  I chose the Lake Perch, breaded and with tartar sauce but passed on the potato, dessert and everything else with nasty calories.  I’d had a smoothie before leaving the house, which helped my ability to say ‘no’ when it mattered most.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes.  Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for  SW and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  600 for SW and 850 on the bike.