You know how you sometimes just dive into a series and don't resurface until it's done (or, you've read the latest book)? Well, it's been quite a while since that has happened for me. I plowed through the Stephanie Plum/Janet Evanovich series a few years ago, then more recently did James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series and about half of the Alex Cross series. All of those books fall into the category of what I'd call popcorn or beach reading (or fireside reading, if done in winter). Page turners that you can polish off in a day if you're not careful. I've been really looking for another absorbing, can't wait until the next book comes out series, and boy, did I find a good one. It's on the short side, just four books to date, but what a great four books:
I'm currently on the fourth one, Revelation.
The series is set in 16th century England and features an unlikely protagonist, Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer and a hunchback who seems to generally find himself in the middle of some manner of politicial mess and mystery. Fascinating historical fiction (not an anglophile, I wasn't sure how spot on he was until I cross checked some aspects of the stories and came away impressed), I've seen the series referred to somewhere as CSI - Renaissance England and that's not a bad description, either. The books don't romanticize the time period, which is quite refreshing (or not, as the case may be). And the books, while highly readable, are also long and complex enough to be far more satisfying that popcorn.
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This morning was a five mile easy run, followed by training with sensei J. We did the usual kata run through and then worked a LOT on fighting technique. Basically, he has been completely tearing apart what I've learned and teaching me a far more effective style, particularly for someone my size. It is a crazy mix of fascinating and frustrating because I'm having to go against nearly six years worth of built in responses, things that, although not wrong or incorrect, really only work well in either point sparring (which I've always loathed) or a cooperative, structured sparring environment, but are not always best in a ring, or a real fight. I see progress every time we train, but damn, do these sessions scramble my brain. I have regular class tonight; hopefully we'll spar and I'll get to try some of these things after they've had time to marinate a bit.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Episode IV - A New Workout
As I think I mentioned, as of yesterday I had a total of five (now four) strength training workouts left on my half marathon training schedule, and I was due for a change in routine. Because I really haven't been in the mood for the usual exhaustive comb-through of programs, searching for something that looks appropriately challenging and different enough to be fresh, I went back to what I consider a golden oldie, a routine given to me by an old trainer. It's simple, hits all of the major muscle groups, and takes about 45 minutes in the gym (exclusive of warm-up/etc.) which is what I'd call about a perfect total body workout.
Or is it?
This is at least the fourth time I've used this basic workout with some tweak or other (hence, Episode IV), and the first time since I've done any Cosgrove-esque training. And I have to say, while this workout has historically challenged me, somehow today I don't feel worked out. I know I'll have some muscle soreness tomorrow by virtue of having done a few things I haven't in a while, but I came away feeling like something was completely missing from the workout. In retrospect, it should have been blatantly obvious to me (and actually was, but not to the extent that it raised warning flags) when I was drawing up the workout logs. Specifically:
1) There were no unilateral exercises. Everything was two hands on the wheel at all times.
2) There were no rotational exercises.
That may not sound like much, but damn! I worked each exercise to the logical max, used more weight overall than I have been using with either NROL/W or FBB, and yet came from the gym not in a huge sweat, but thinking, "That's it?" So I'm sort of left scratching my head. In a sense, I guess there's no real harm in doing a few easier workouts over the next two weeks: the running mileage will be peaking and a bit less effort spent in the gym may translate to a bit more juice for the road. I can rev back up, lesson learned, after the race. But it's also annoying to come away from the gym feeling less than worked out. Fudge. I had hoped this would be a plug-in, no brainer workout plan. Oh well. It'll be easy enough to make most of the exercises unilateral, so I guess that's what I'll try on Thursday.
Or is it?
This is at least the fourth time I've used this basic workout with some tweak or other (hence, Episode IV), and the first time since I've done any Cosgrove-esque training. And I have to say, while this workout has historically challenged me, somehow today I don't feel worked out. I know I'll have some muscle soreness tomorrow by virtue of having done a few things I haven't in a while, but I came away feeling like something was completely missing from the workout. In retrospect, it should have been blatantly obvious to me (and actually was, but not to the extent that it raised warning flags) when I was drawing up the workout logs. Specifically:
1) There were no unilateral exercises. Everything was two hands on the wheel at all times.
2) There were no rotational exercises.
That may not sound like much, but damn! I worked each exercise to the logical max, used more weight overall than I have been using with either NROL/W or FBB, and yet came from the gym not in a huge sweat, but thinking, "That's it?" So I'm sort of left scratching my head. In a sense, I guess there's no real harm in doing a few easier workouts over the next two weeks: the running mileage will be peaking and a bit less effort spent in the gym may translate to a bit more juice for the road. I can rev back up, lesson learned, after the race. But it's also annoying to come away from the gym feeling less than worked out. Fudge. I had hoped this would be a plug-in, no brainer workout plan. Oh well. It'll be easy enough to make most of the exercises unilateral, so I guess that's what I'll try on Thursday.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Rest, rest, crap!
Took two rest days in a row, first time I can recall doing that in quite a while, perhaps since my oral surgery days of this past winter. It wasn't planned, so technically, the second rest day was what some of us call a TURD (Totally Unplanned Rest Day), but also technically, my half marathon training schedule did in fact call for two rest days in a row. It does this a couple of times, but on the previous occasions I took karate classes on the second rest day so it really wasn't. Yesterday I had every intention of going to the dojo; had my bag packed and with me when I went to feed my pet sitees, but I had this really horrible feeling of dojo burnout, plus I was tired, so I just headed back home after doing pet duties (which, thankfully, have been routine so far).
I don't get dojo burnout often - in fact I can't recall the last time it happened. But Thursday was pretty much a zoo - I taught the newbie kids in what turned out to be a pretty good class, then was supposed to team teach the upper belt kids with two other people, one of whom had never taught there before (she's a teacher by profession). I really wanted to back down and just assist, but New Teacher seriously broke routine (which is fine, but it calls for a high degree of control and focus) and then kept deferring to me, and the kids sense lack of clear direction like a shark smells blood. So I wound up taking over the class and after a zillion push-ups, order was restored. (Second asst. teacher totally saw what was happening and just kept out of the way - good man.) Final class was adult class, and I really just wanted to DO, not direct, but the guy who was supposed to teach, a black belt who formerly ran his own school, ALSO kept deferring to me (WTFF??) so I finally broke the class in two and he took the white belt student and I took the upper belts. After a bit I just let them (and myself!) have an open dojo. Everyone there was testing this fall and has stuff to work on, so I figured we could all use the individual practise time.
I normally really enjoy teaching but that was more than I bargained for that night, and I just couldn't look at the place on Saturday. I did eventually pick up a kettlebell and toss it around for a bit, but not enough for what I'd call a workout.
So today was another one of those "race" days (Higdon has optional races building into the training schedule), supposedly a 15K. I just mapped my own course around town and did that instead of a race, planning to run and time myself as if it were a race. Well, I effed that up early on, forgetting an early turn and having to wend my way through some unfamiliar territory to try to get back on course. Oops. So much for knowing the distance... And also - you'd figure that after two rest days, I'd come out feeling pretty fresh and having a nice time. Wellllll, not so much. It seems that whatever pathetic little internal speedometer sense I do have goes away completely if I take even just two days away from running (I've noticed this before, so today wasn't special in that regard). I'm pretty sure I started way too fast and burned out early. The last third of the run absolutely sucked and I was not pleased with the time overall.
I know bad runs happen, and in the course of the training program so far that was probably really the only one that sucked grievously, but it still did suck grievously. It made me wish I'd never set anything other than a finishing goal for this half. And perhaps I should just make finishing the goal; complete the training as planned, go for best pace/time given the conditions of race day, and screw the rest. (Heh, I can't do much more than that, anyway.) And perhaps I'd just best not wallow in this, and instead figure out what I'm doing in the gym tomorrow!
I don't get dojo burnout often - in fact I can't recall the last time it happened. But Thursday was pretty much a zoo - I taught the newbie kids in what turned out to be a pretty good class, then was supposed to team teach the upper belt kids with two other people, one of whom had never taught there before (she's a teacher by profession). I really wanted to back down and just assist, but New Teacher seriously broke routine (which is fine, but it calls for a high degree of control and focus) and then kept deferring to me, and the kids sense lack of clear direction like a shark smells blood. So I wound up taking over the class and after a zillion push-ups, order was restored. (Second asst. teacher totally saw what was happening and just kept out of the way - good man.) Final class was adult class, and I really just wanted to DO, not direct, but the guy who was supposed to teach, a black belt who formerly ran his own school, ALSO kept deferring to me (WTFF??) so I finally broke the class in two and he took the white belt student and I took the upper belts. After a bit I just let them (and myself!) have an open dojo. Everyone there was testing this fall and has stuff to work on, so I figured we could all use the individual practise time.
I normally really enjoy teaching but that was more than I bargained for that night, and I just couldn't look at the place on Saturday. I did eventually pick up a kettlebell and toss it around for a bit, but not enough for what I'd call a workout.
So today was another one of those "race" days (Higdon has optional races building into the training schedule), supposedly a 15K. I just mapped my own course around town and did that instead of a race, planning to run and time myself as if it were a race. Well, I effed that up early on, forgetting an early turn and having to wend my way through some unfamiliar territory to try to get back on course. Oops. So much for knowing the distance... And also - you'd figure that after two rest days, I'd come out feeling pretty fresh and having a nice time. Wellllll, not so much. It seems that whatever pathetic little internal speedometer sense I do have goes away completely if I take even just two days away from running (I've noticed this before, so today wasn't special in that regard). I'm pretty sure I started way too fast and burned out early. The last third of the run absolutely sucked and I was not pleased with the time overall.
I know bad runs happen, and in the course of the training program so far that was probably really the only one that sucked grievously, but it still did suck grievously. It made me wish I'd never set anything other than a finishing goal for this half. And perhaps I should just make finishing the goal; complete the training as planned, go for best pace/time given the conditions of race day, and screw the rest. (Heh, I can't do much more than that, anyway.) And perhaps I'd just best not wallow in this, and instead figure out what I'm doing in the gym tomorrow!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Scouting mission
Headed over to the school today and purchased my books. To the tune of over $400.00 for TWO CLASSES. At least it looks as if the A&P text book, which alone cost $200, is good for both semesters of the class. Oh, and joy - for that class, we get to dissect cats. Somehow that seems nearly as off-putting as dissecting humans, which I will get to eventually - the humans, at least presumably, agreed to give their bodies to science, and I can pretty much figure out where the cats come from. But, it's not very helpful to get lost in that particular thought. So, on a brighter note - look what crawled into my bag o'books, just about as soon as I set it down?
The buildings where I have my classes are adjacent, and really are a short two blocks from the train station. The walk seems pretty safe, too (the city where the campus is located has twice been named most dangerous city in the US). Hopefully I won't have to drag my books to classes every time - when I got home I weighed my back pack, and it was a whopping 22 pounds. I don't recall dragging texts to class before, but maybe that's selective amnesia. So I guess I'm pretty much set.
The buildings where I have my classes are adjacent, and really are a short two blocks from the train station. The walk seems pretty safe, too (the city where the campus is located has twice been named most dangerous city in the US). Hopefully I won't have to drag my books to classes every time - when I got home I weighed my back pack, and it was a whopping 22 pounds. I don't recall dragging texts to class before, but maybe that's selective amnesia. So I guess I'm pretty much set.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
:o
School starts a week from today! Yowza. I’m heading over to the campus tomorrow to buy books (gulp) and scope out the building locations. I’ll be able to take the local commuter train there - it’s probably as easy for me to take the train as it is to drive, plus I don’t have to worry about parking (the lots aren’t free on this campus, and reportedly fill quickly - leaving meter parking in the city. No thanks.). I’m half really looking forward to it and half scared to death. I can’t even remember the simple stuff - do I usually take books to class? Is there homework BEFORE the first class (and how would I know)? I seem to remember coming into at least a few first classes where the prof expected we’ve have already read something. Do people still take notes the old fashioned way, or do they take laptops to class? (Not that I have a choice - I don’t have a working laptop and I’m not about to go out and buy one.) Anyway, it should be a big adventure - I figure if I make it to the right place for my first class on time, things will pretty much fall into place from there.
I hope.
My intermediate adventure - pet sitting. Not that the sitting itself is a particular adventure - I know the critters I have to manage and they’re a good lot - but two of them are cats pushing 20. In fact I’ve been left with a kitteh coffin and a burial cloth (per the respective burial wishes of their people) Just In Case. They’re both in apparent good health, but at that age, you just never know. I had stern talks with both kittehs in question this morning, giving them strict instructions not to kick off during the next week. Hopefully that did some good.
Workouts & runs are going according to schedule. I finished my last planned go of Female Body Breakthrough, Stage 2 Workout B, which is as far as I plan to go with those workouts for now. I liked Stage 2 much more than Stage 1, which (as written) was just too easy, coming right on the heels of NROL/W. I made it work but it took a ton of mods; in retrospect I probably should have started with Stage 2 and used that and Stage 3. Oh well, done is done.
I have five strength workouts left in my half marathon training plan, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. When I mapped out my plan I thought I might just continue with Stage 2, or perhaps play with Stage 3 at this point, but I’m mentally done with Stage 2 and don’t feel like fussing with Stage 3 for just 2 1/2 weeks of work. I might pull out an old workout I got from a trainer - it’s Something Completely Different, total body, 10 exercises, two sets each, mostly compound exercises with a couple of isolation exercises thrown in, or I might use Authentic Strength, an Art of Strength workout that I particularly enjoy. I’ll probably flip a coin on Sunday and roll with that.
Also, I’ve been thinking I might continue lifting through my Insanity rotation, assuming that happens. Nothing crazy, just two to three days per week to keep my hand in the weight room. Might use Authentic Strength then, if I don’t use it next, or something else entirely. I also expect to keep running to some extent during that rotation, because - woo! - the November trail run I’ve been eyeing is ON (link is to last year's website). It’s just a 15K (9.3 miles) but the terrain is supposedly pretty challenging. The race is Sunday after Thanksgiving, which (if all goes according to schedule) is a week after Insanity ends. I figure to take a full week off after that before I start rolling with Maximum Strength.
And somewhere in there, presumably, will be my belt exam.
I hope.
My intermediate adventure - pet sitting. Not that the sitting itself is a particular adventure - I know the critters I have to manage and they’re a good lot - but two of them are cats pushing 20. In fact I’ve been left with a kitteh coffin and a burial cloth (per the respective burial wishes of their people) Just In Case. They’re both in apparent good health, but at that age, you just never know. I had stern talks with both kittehs in question this morning, giving them strict instructions not to kick off during the next week. Hopefully that did some good.
Workouts & runs are going according to schedule. I finished my last planned go of Female Body Breakthrough, Stage 2 Workout B, which is as far as I plan to go with those workouts for now. I liked Stage 2 much more than Stage 1, which (as written) was just too easy, coming right on the heels of NROL/W. I made it work but it took a ton of mods; in retrospect I probably should have started with Stage 2 and used that and Stage 3. Oh well, done is done.
I have five strength workouts left in my half marathon training plan, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. When I mapped out my plan I thought I might just continue with Stage 2, or perhaps play with Stage 3 at this point, but I’m mentally done with Stage 2 and don’t feel like fussing with Stage 3 for just 2 1/2 weeks of work. I might pull out an old workout I got from a trainer - it’s Something Completely Different, total body, 10 exercises, two sets each, mostly compound exercises with a couple of isolation exercises thrown in, or I might use Authentic Strength, an Art of Strength workout that I particularly enjoy. I’ll probably flip a coin on Sunday and roll with that.
Also, I’ve been thinking I might continue lifting through my Insanity rotation, assuming that happens. Nothing crazy, just two to three days per week to keep my hand in the weight room. Might use Authentic Strength then, if I don’t use it next, or something else entirely. I also expect to keep running to some extent during that rotation, because - woo! - the November trail run I’ve been eyeing is ON (link is to last year's website). It’s just a 15K (9.3 miles) but the terrain is supposedly pretty challenging. The race is Sunday after Thanksgiving, which (if all goes according to schedule) is a week after Insanity ends. I figure to take a full week off after that before I start rolling with Maximum Strength.
And somewhere in there, presumably, will be my belt exam.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Fun House Mirrors, Ghost Stories
Being as I’m about to be a student again (twice over! I’ve decided to take a psych course this fall, too. It’s just before and on the same campus as my A&P class. I pretty much have to take it because a) it’s required and b) while I did take psych years ago, I got a not to stellar grade in it – why is it that the lone TWO courses in which I received less than stellar grades over 20 years ago are now highly relevant pre-reqs for my continued education? – so I thought I’d best take it over. But I digress), I decided to do some shopping for school clothes the other day. I wasn’t really looking for anything specific, other than short or no sleeved shirts that seemed appropriate and maybe some non-jeans pants, since I have exactly two pairs of them, one of which is part of my official karate travel uniform. (Yes, we have a travel uniform; grey trousers, white shirt, blue blazer, and red men’s tie – even for the women. Must be worn to all special trainings, unless special dispensation is given.)
I came home with two bras, a pair of running shorts, and three very non-descript tee shirts. Woo! I also came home with a renewed sense of WTF? when it comes to dressing room mirrors. I don’t really have serious body image hang-ups. I’ve been with this bod for a long time and I do have an actual mirror installed in my apt., so I do have a clue as to what I look like, generally. There are things I’ve always liked and things I’d love to change, except they’ve never changed and I’m cool with that, too. So imagine my surprise when I looked into the dressing room mirror, and had to do a double take. My shoulders looked about as broad as I do high, and the overall effect was that I looked about two feet tall. WTFF? I don’t look two feet tall at home, and IRL most people think I’m taller than I am (not quite 5’3”) – I’ve always had people several inches taller than me tell me they think I’m taller than they are. So I kinda had to wonder about that mirror…. I know this isn’t an original thought, but wouldn’t you think WOMEN’S dressing rooms would have the most flattering light, and the best mirrors, if there are such things? The point is to sell clothes, not give women complexes, no?
I’m happy with what I got (love, love, love the shorts, especially) and I’m kind of glad that the majority of the remaining clothes in the store were fugly enough that I didn’t feel as if I were missing out by just grabbing a few t’s. Spared the wallet, for sure. The money I didn’t spend can go to textbooks. (Just priced those out – jeezy creezy!)
OK, ghost story time. I think I might have mentioned in my previous blog (and I know I’ve mentioned in one forum) that my folk’s house, the house I grew up in, has a ghost. We don’t know who it is or why he hangs there; we just all seem to know it’s a he, and we all “experience” him in the same way. He’s not mean or destructive; we usually hear him walking around the first floor during the day and on the stairs at night. (I know. Sounds creepy. But after 40+ years of peaceful co-existence, it’s not.)
My folks recently had some work done to the house, an energy up-grade. New furnace, new central AC, new weatherproofing, the whole lot. They got a fantastic deal on it, plus a tax rebate. They were subsequently contacted by the state (which subsidized part of the upgrade under a green program that is about to go by the wayside) to arrange an energy audit, mostly to check up on the contractor’s work. The guy came out and spent a couple of hours there, doing an energy and safety audit. For some reason, he decided to go into the back yard and take some photos. My folks have a gated fence toward the middle of the yard; it separates the yard into two sections. This is an artifact of days LONG gone by when we had an above-ground pool in the back half of the yard. Well, the guy was standing by the gate (which has a trick latch, due to a clever cat’s figuring out how to open the regular latch), when the gate swung open and slammed shut. The guy jumped about a foot into the air. He then tried to take a picture of the back part of the yard, but couldn’t; he aimed out, but the photo was of the ground.
Freaked him the hell out, and he made some comment about a ghost. My mother replied that the ghost had never done anything like that before (he hasn’t). I’m not sure if the guy was trying to pull someone’s leg, or if he was in retrospect glad he didn’t find out about the ghost until after he’d been in the attic & basement.
I came home with two bras, a pair of running shorts, and three very non-descript tee shirts. Woo! I also came home with a renewed sense of WTF? when it comes to dressing room mirrors. I don’t really have serious body image hang-ups. I’ve been with this bod for a long time and I do have an actual mirror installed in my apt., so I do have a clue as to what I look like, generally. There are things I’ve always liked and things I’d love to change, except they’ve never changed and I’m cool with that, too. So imagine my surprise when I looked into the dressing room mirror, and had to do a double take. My shoulders looked about as broad as I do high, and the overall effect was that I looked about two feet tall. WTFF? I don’t look two feet tall at home, and IRL most people think I’m taller than I am (not quite 5’3”) – I’ve always had people several inches taller than me tell me they think I’m taller than they are. So I kinda had to wonder about that mirror…. I know this isn’t an original thought, but wouldn’t you think WOMEN’S dressing rooms would have the most flattering light, and the best mirrors, if there are such things? The point is to sell clothes, not give women complexes, no?
I’m happy with what I got (love, love, love the shorts, especially) and I’m kind of glad that the majority of the remaining clothes in the store were fugly enough that I didn’t feel as if I were missing out by just grabbing a few t’s. Spared the wallet, for sure. The money I didn’t spend can go to textbooks. (Just priced those out – jeezy creezy!)
OK, ghost story time. I think I might have mentioned in my previous blog (and I know I’ve mentioned in one forum) that my folk’s house, the house I grew up in, has a ghost. We don’t know who it is or why he hangs there; we just all seem to know it’s a he, and we all “experience” him in the same way. He’s not mean or destructive; we usually hear him walking around the first floor during the day and on the stairs at night. (I know. Sounds creepy. But after 40+ years of peaceful co-existence, it’s not.)
My folks recently had some work done to the house, an energy up-grade. New furnace, new central AC, new weatherproofing, the whole lot. They got a fantastic deal on it, plus a tax rebate. They were subsequently contacted by the state (which subsidized part of the upgrade under a green program that is about to go by the wayside) to arrange an energy audit, mostly to check up on the contractor’s work. The guy came out and spent a couple of hours there, doing an energy and safety audit. For some reason, he decided to go into the back yard and take some photos. My folks have a gated fence toward the middle of the yard; it separates the yard into two sections. This is an artifact of days LONG gone by when we had an above-ground pool in the back half of the yard. Well, the guy was standing by the gate (which has a trick latch, due to a clever cat’s figuring out how to open the regular latch), when the gate swung open and slammed shut. The guy jumped about a foot into the air. He then tried to take a picture of the back part of the yard, but couldn’t; he aimed out, but the photo was of the ground.
Freaked him the hell out, and he made some comment about a ghost. My mother replied that the ghost had never done anything like that before (he hasn’t). I’m not sure if the guy was trying to pull someone’s leg, or if he was in retrospect glad he didn’t find out about the ghost until after he’d been in the attic & basement.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Dare I say - it's cooler?
I'm starting to appreciate how much the heat was really knocking the shit out of me and probably just about everyone else. It's been cooler this week, and I've found I have notably more energy all around, and probably the only thing that has changed is the temperatures. And it's not even THAT much cooler - but it's enough to make a difference. I'm sure it all starts with sleep, and I sure as hell do sleep better when it's cooler. But my runs have been a bit faster, and my recovery has been quicker and better from each one. I'd chalk that up to conditioning, except the runs keep getting longer, too, as well as being a bit faster, so the workload this past week was still on the upward curve. (This coming week is an easier week, with one fewer scheduled run and a shorter but faster long run.)
Today was a pace run, and because I have really been wanting to do the route for a while, I did a very slight variation on an old classic hill run. (The hard part remained the same; the gettin' there part was adjusted to make the run the appropriate length.) I've been doing this general route since about 1980, give or take a year. (No, that's not a typo.) It's lasted because it's a great run, obviously, and to me it's become a bit of a measuring stick. Being able to complete the run without feeling like I'm going to die means I have what I consider to be a good base of running fitness. Today I wanted to do it as a pace run (one of those things again), because what the hell? I've more or less given up trying to "regulate" pace, and it was a nice morning, so I figured I'd just go at what felt like a good pace and see if I came in around/below half pace. I figured if I came in around the magic 9 minute mark, and the run felt decent, that my training was pretty much going well, despite whatever wrenches the heat was throwing into the system.
To my pleasant surprise, I did much better than that, coming in with about an 8 1/2 MPM pace (AND not feeling wiped out). I know in the world of competitive running that's not much of a pace, but for me that's pretty darn good and I think bodes well for actually making my goal with the half, provided the weather cooperates. Tomorrow is a 10 miler, and I'm looking forward to doing the course I've mapped out, a mostly trail run through three adjacent parks. I've run them all separately but have never strung them together like this.
The weight work is going well. I've been enjoying this stage of FBB much more than the first stage; I suspect if I ever do this program, I won't bother with that first stage unless I'm coming off a very long layoff. But I'm not in danger of that any time soon. It very much looks as if Insanity is a go RIGHT after the half (slight bummer there - I sort of wanted a short break, but I'm not controlling the schedule for this one). I believe that's a two month program. Afterwards I want to get into Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength program, which runs four months. And yes, I do have some vague plans for After That...
Today was a pace run, and because I have really been wanting to do the route for a while, I did a very slight variation on an old classic hill run. (The hard part remained the same; the gettin' there part was adjusted to make the run the appropriate length.) I've been doing this general route since about 1980, give or take a year. (No, that's not a typo.) It's lasted because it's a great run, obviously, and to me it's become a bit of a measuring stick. Being able to complete the run without feeling like I'm going to die means I have what I consider to be a good base of running fitness. Today I wanted to do it as a pace run (one of those things again), because what the hell? I've more or less given up trying to "regulate" pace, and it was a nice morning, so I figured I'd just go at what felt like a good pace and see if I came in around/below half pace. I figured if I came in around the magic 9 minute mark, and the run felt decent, that my training was pretty much going well, despite whatever wrenches the heat was throwing into the system.
To my pleasant surprise, I did much better than that, coming in with about an 8 1/2 MPM pace (AND not feeling wiped out). I know in the world of competitive running that's not much of a pace, but for me that's pretty darn good and I think bodes well for actually making my goal with the half, provided the weather cooperates. Tomorrow is a 10 miler, and I'm looking forward to doing the course I've mapped out, a mostly trail run through three adjacent parks. I've run them all separately but have never strung them together like this.
The weight work is going well. I've been enjoying this stage of FBB much more than the first stage; I suspect if I ever do this program, I won't bother with that first stage unless I'm coming off a very long layoff. But I'm not in danger of that any time soon. It very much looks as if Insanity is a go RIGHT after the half (slight bummer there - I sort of wanted a short break, but I'm not controlling the schedule for this one). I believe that's a two month program. Afterwards I want to get into Eric Cressey's Maximum Strength program, which runs four months. And yes, I do have some vague plans for After That...
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