Training in Montana

My 2 weeks of no running started today so I hit the Spin class that I've avoided for 3-4 years. It was pretty good. The last time I went to it I pushed myself too hard and about passed out as I could barely breathe. This time I took my HR monitor and that helped me regulate what I was doing. It's my cheap one and it only works correctly for 30 minutes it seems so I'll take my Garmin next time. I got the HR up to 170 during one of the "hill climbs" and that was a bit much. Felt a little heart flutter so I backed off for a while. I probably need to start doing more of the spin class as it works out totally different muscles. The guy leading the class does it Mondays & Thursdays and I've noticed how his classes are packed while other classes have 4 people in them. I think I'll go when he teaches. Great workout, sweat fest for 50 minutes, and my calves are good and sore. I guess I'll hit the elliptical tomorrow plus some upper body.

After finishing I did 10 pullups. I need a pullup bar at home. And not the toddler underwear type. 

2 elliptical miles. Man, those things are slow! I worked my butt off and did 50 minutes on the machine from hell, but thankfully had some interesting shows to watch. And I don't recall anything I watched, but it passed the time. I wore my Garmin HR monitor and kept the HR above 130 most of the time, got it up to 158 or so on the toughest parts. Good enough I guess. The elliptical HR monitor was always 10-20 bpm faster than my Garmin. I'll trust my watch.

Went to Bozeman Saturday & Sunday for a 7th grade basketball tournament. Did the elliptical for 30 minutes, worked up a great sweat. Kept the HR around 155 most of the time. Would've liked to do more but wasted away the afternoon chatting with other parents instead of doing something valuable. What was I thinking? "Ah...this feels nice to sit around and do nothing." Was a fun weekend. Really miss my long runs. Was thinking about hitting the rec room again at 10:15 pm after putting the kids to bed as we didn't get a suite so nowhere to hang out. My wife said the dreaded words: "You're obsessed." No, I'm not, I said in my defense. I haven't done my long run for 3 weeks in a row now and I'm losing all that I've worked on. I also lost the argument so went to Wal-Mart after gassing up the car....

60 minute sweat fest at spinning class. The instructor took a video of his ride yesterday out towards Molt and projected it on the wall for us - that was cool. I don't know why there aren't fans going like crazy in that room. Aren't we simulating bike riding where you - um - ride bikes outside and it's windy by nature of the speed you go? Yeah, don't understand that. Someone did turn on one fan but it was in the back of the room and I only got whiffs of breeze. It was so sweaty...that when I rung out my bandanna in the sink I had to ring it out four times before I didn't get a solid stream of sweat. Yummy. I remembered my biking shorts this time and my body was thankful for the protection.

No workout yesterday. Didn't wake up early, didn't think about it at night, but I did play Modern Warfare 3 with my boys & that was fun.

Today I got up and hit the elliptical at home. I need to wake up earlier to get a full hour in. I got in a 31:30 workout, 1.5 miles, and I was sweatin' with the oldies. I like that the elliptical has a built in fan but I could use a tornado from front & behind to stop sweating. My tech tank top was soaked.

The foot is still there but not hurting like it was. I'm pretty sure that if I start running, though, it will be back to square one. It's a bummer just waiting to learn more. 

Spin class today. The normal guy had the day off and the replacement isn't near as good so it wasn't as fun, but I still got a good workout in. About 15 minutes in I had to swap bikes as mine was squeaking with every turn. 

This not running thing stinks! I'm not nearly as motivated to workout, and after reading Camille Heron's bit about SFs maybe doing all my cardio isn't that important, although I don't want to lose what I've gained. Hopefully I can get this fixed and keep on running this year.

3X10 curls, tricep dips. 1X60 plank, 10 pullups.

Spin class today after a 3 day layoff because I was being lazy. This instructor is tough but fun. We did a big 'ol simulated hill climb and it kept going and going and going. 50 total minutes and all but a few of those minutes we were climbing. I have to wear my HR monitor so that I control myself otherwise I'll die from going too hard. I kept it mostly in the 155 range but the last 2 minutes pushed it pretty hard and sprinted to the top of the hill, HR at 173. That's up there and my breathing was ragged. Great workout - should be a nice sleep elixir tonight.

10 pullups, 3X10 curls & triceps, 1X60 plank, 10 pushups. I guess 10 was the number of the day?

50 minutes on the elliptical (names I'd like to call it are not appropriate for this blog). It wasn't too bad, really. This one was a new fangled one with a touch screen and I didn't like it. Give me the basic red LED lights that tell me the intensity that's coming up and how long I should expect the intensity to last. And let me set the level myself. This one I set the "average" level so it would adjust up or down based on the average. Bull! I want to know exactly what I'm doing and what to expect. Especially when I'm stationary. Grrr. Anyhow, I powered through for 50 minutes of it, even thought at times it felt like an eternity.

2X60 planks, some bicycles and toe touches; 3X10 curls, triceps; 5 pullups. 25 pushups this morning while waiting for the shower to get hot.

Mileage! Woot woot. It's been 2 weeks since I saw the Dr. and my foot's feeling great so I hit the TM for a few miles. I noticed that others when starting back up have done high inclines so the first 10 minutes or so I did a 4% with only a 5.0 speed. I bumped up to a 5.5 then dropped to 3% and 6.0 speed for the rest. I think the foot feels good, but I won't know until tomorrow I guess. I think I felt a twinge of something walking down the stairs to the locker room but I don't know if it was in the same spot or just my feet saying Hello. My fitness felt great and it was odd not to be a sweaty mess like I have been on the spin bike or elliptical.

2X60 plank, 1X60 side planks, 50 crunches, 3X10 curls & triceps, 7 pullups (couldn't make it to 10 after everything else). 

No watch as battery was dead but it was about 3 miles. Not sure of pacing but it was probably around 9 minute miles. My foot felt fine, my groin injury was present. Hours later my foot is fine, but I can feel it where it was sore so I'm going to lay off running for another while. I'm thinking I should find a sports doctor to check my groin (insert jokes here). It seems to be a sports-related groin pull and I think a sports medicine group would be more likely to have seen these types of injuries before and hopefully prescribe some sort of non-invasive treatment. I can run with the groin problem but I don't want it to keep getting worse to where it affects my running.

Anyway, back to more cycling and elliptical. Should I go get a foot xray to see if it is a stress fracture? Or is that just a waste of money and if I give it 2 more weeks off will the pain be done? I'd hate to keep laying off for a short time and re-injure the foot when I should be laying off 6-8 weeks for something more serious. However, I am able to hop on one foot just fine so I don't think it's a SF - maybe just a stress reaction? I don't know, but I wish I did. I just want to run and improve. 

30 minutes on the elliptical at home this morning. A shorter time than I wanted but I struggled to roll out of bed sooner. Still, got in a good sweat fest while watching Sportscenter.

3X60 planks, 3X25 pushups. 

I miss running. Had a crazy day yesterday so no time to workout. This morning while driving I saw our local Marathon Olympic trial qualifier on her long run and I was so envious. 

While watching March Madness today I challenged my 8 yr old to 100 situps & pushups. He took me up on it so we did 10 pushups then 10 situps then would pause and then continue. After 30 he gave up but I kept on. I then did the "kid sit on you and do a pushup" challenge. I could do it for all but my oldest. He's about 95 pounds, 10 lbs more than #2, and that was my breaking point. 

I followed up the 100/100 by doing 3X60 planks. Those were the toughest planks I've ever done. At 10 seconds into it I was shaking on each one but I held it and loved the shake. I might be sore tomorrow. Looking forward to spin class & getting a great sweat fest.

Sweat fest at spinning class. I really need my own personal fan. Don't people cycle so that they're always air conditioned? That's part of the allure for me, but being stuck in a sweaty gym with no air when we're simulating air is just messed up. That's part of the treadmill problem also. Running outside with no wind generates a breeze. Anyhow, good class today. Nothing too exciting but I kept my HR between 150-155 most of the time and got a good cardio workout.

Afterwards did 10 pullups, 3X10 curls & tricep dips, and 5 more pullups. Did 25 pushups this morning at home.

I planned to workout at lunch today but a friend twisted my arm to go to lunch with him at our new Cafe Rio and I chose lunch over workout. It was a tough choice but he's a good friend. Taco Tuesday so got the coconut shrimp tacos. Yum.

This morning I did 40 pushups while waiting for the shower. 40! I am a beast. Haha. 30 in a row was my previous best and I just kept going. I could've done 41 but I stopped at 40. That was about it. I've come a long way!

I also made an appointment to see the Ortho on Friday to look at my foot & groin. All the docs at this clinic are sports medicine physicians so hopefully she can get me some answers. 

Wife's birthday today plus I'm in charge of Scout court of honor tonight so no chance for a workout. I got in 30 pushups this morning. That will probably be it. Maybe I'll do some in my office. 

Spin class today for this lazy butt. Good aerobics only twice a week just isn't cutting it! It's been a busy week. Great sweat fest today and kept the HR close to or above 160 most of the time - high for me. She pushed us really well. I failed to mention originally how varied/crappy her music choices were. We started off with Justin Bieber's "Baby" - really? REALLY? Yuck. Then went to better choices, but weird. From Rolling Stones "Jumping Jack Flash" to some country ballad crap where I almost shot my dog, truck, and wife. Weird weird eclecticism. I like variety, but crap is crap. I think I was sweating just from the worry we'd hear Bieber again.

3X10 curls & triceps with 25 lb weights. 5 pullups palms facing, 3 pullups palms away. 1X65 plank. 30 pushups. 

20 minutes on the elliptical as I just couldn't pull my butt out of bed sooner. Nearly started a sweatfest but then had to quit. 

30 pushups before showering. Seeing the Dr. today for my foot & adductor problems. 

Did 3 miles this morning. Chilly 36 with a pretty decent East wind. I felt the groin/adductor the whole way but not the foot. I'm guessing the foot will start to hurt again in a few days.

Came home & did elliptical for about 25 minutes, followed by 1X60 plank and 45 pushups. A new record for me. I'm happy to be running again. Hopefully my foot will be fine now and I can ramp up my training for the 50K that's only 10-11 weeks away. 

3 miles this morning. Foot feels good. Sad that due to my long layoff my pace heading up hill felt a minute faster than it really was. No worries. I'm not going to focus on pace for the next X # of weeks - just getting in some good slowish miles so I can build back up. It's weird having my legs be a little bit sore in the "new to running" type feeling. I haven't felt that in many moons.

3X60 planks, 30 pushups. 

3.5 miles this morning. I love wearing shorts again. I really bumped up the mileage this morning - gave it an entire extra 1/2 mile. I was feeling it. I think I'm ready for my 50K now.... Surprisingly the foot feels fine. I've been running almost exclusively on the shoulder and maybe that's helping. On the way back I ran on the road for a mile and I started feeling something so I switched back to the shoulder. I'll keep that up and maybe I can boost my miles back to normal soon.

1X60 plank, 30 pushups. 

3 miles this morning. 37 degrees with almost no breeze = shorts. Ah. I said it earlier this week but I'll say it again - I've lost about 1 minute per mile! Crazy how fast it goes. My effort up a little hill just before the 1 mile mark felt like it did before the injury, but is a solid minute per mile slower. Same on the way back home. Before I'd be flying on the dirt road in the low 7s or faster and now it's the low 8s. Don't get me wrong - I want to take it slower for a while, but the perceived effort is similar and the speed is much lower. I knew it would happen and anticipated it but it still is very weird.

1X90 plank, 30 pushups. 

4 easy  miles this morning. 41 with a wind so wore tights, and it was a good choice. Needed to go to work early so got up an hour earlier than normal for my run and the stars were out! Gorgeous. As much as I dislike running in pitch black with a not-so-bright headlamp, running in a cloudless night with stars all around is enchanting. I love it. By the time I got home the sunrise was ramping up and had chased away most of the stars.

AP: 8:45 (finally looked - didn't want to know). I hope to not get much faster for a while. I could sort of feel my left foot doing "something" during the run but hours later I don't feel much so that's a good sign.

1X90 plank, 30 pushups. I almost bought me a Perfect Pullup bar at Wal-Mart last night as I want to be like Jake. I might do it. I also looked at the Perfect Pushups but I think I'll just stick with the normal no-equipment-needed kind of pushups. 

3 easy miles, AP 9:05. Had some crazy dreams last night. All I know is I'm staying away from Subway and Hospitals as bad things happened. Then again, I was playing Modern Warfare 2 just before going to bed, but having crazy dreams after that is probably just a coincidence not a portent of things to come. Right?

1X110 seconds plank, 30 pushups. Planks are much easier when not looking at the seconds tick by, like I normally do. Lately I've been doing them during family scripture reading and I just wait for the clock on my iPod to change to the next minute, or wait until my kids read a certain verse. And they are not the fastest readers in the world when trying to pronounce Book of Mormon names like Morianton or Amalickiah. Makes for good planks. 

Squeezed in 3 miles in between the all-day Scout show and a basketball team party at our house. 80 degrees out and windy at 5 PM, and I was hustling as my wife was heading home with the kids and I really wanted to time it so I'd meet her at the start of our road on my way back. I timed it perfectly and I forgot my watch at home. A good run - I was hoping to try 6 today but had a campout last night and didn't feel like getting up at 5 AM as we went to bed a lot later than planned. The leaders I camped with had some hilarious stories. It was a good night.

Good run, no foot problems (knock on wood). It seems like running on the soft stuff is making a big difference. As soon as the grasses and weeds start growing the shoulder that I run on will be buried in weeds so maybe I'll have to drive the mower on the shoulder for a couple miles...that should be fun.