Training in Montana

Drove 2 hours to the mountains to perform a wedding, then changed in the Suburban and ran 6 miles on one of my favorite mountain trails which I've never run before. I've hiked it, backpacked it, snowshoed it, cross-country skiied it, but never run it until today. I didn't have time to do more, but I don't have the legs for more right now and it's very very frustrating. Hard to enjoy the sport I love when I don't enjoy it right now. Argh.

Beautiful trail, though, and even though the weather was pretty warm it was a great run. I wanted to jump in the river next to the trail but I didn't. Got done, cranked up the AC and drove back to Billings. Busy day afterwards, just getting to bed at 1 am. I kind of like these full days.

I didn't get out for a run or head to the Y, but I did take my family boating and I waterskiied for the first time in a long while. What a workout! I have a double-boot Connelly slalom ski and after about 10 turns my quads were burning. When slalom used to be a big deal I'd see tournaments with guys touching their elbows as they went through a bouy course. They must have been brutes. Perfect night at the lake, warm temps, no wind, few boats = great water. It was a rare treat and I loved it.

4 TM miles. I'm kind of addicted to Longmire, but only a few episodes remaining then I'll probably venture outside.

Weighed myself last night and I'm the heaviest I've been in quite a few years. I've not been eating well for the last 12 months or so and it's starting to show. I used to eat healthy because that's what sounded good. Now other foods and lots of it sound good. I'm fairly confident the middle age bulge isn't caused by getting older, it's more caused by our wallets getting fatter and being able to afford more food. We buy crap because we can, then we eat crap. When we were young we couldn't afford much so we didn't eat much. I should write a book about it but I'd be lambasted for not giving people a crutch. But I digress.

Ran outside at lunchtime. It was only 79 degrees so wasn't bad. I felt pretty good and it was nice to be outside as TM running is harder when the legs aren't feeling great. I planned to run 5 but the route was a bit short so I got back to work sooner. Drat.

Spin class at Noon. The muscles used for biking are NOT the same as the ones used for running. This was much harder than I remember it being so I took it easy and left a few minutes early. A good sweat but not much dripping because I couldn't work that hard. I've got a ways to go to fully recover but I think my key will be cross training. Too much sports specific stuff is hurting me.

6 in the morning from my house.

2 unplanned miles in the afternoon. Went on a camping trip with church youth from the stake and I was supposed to give them the rope for the 3 legged walk but I took a wrong trail. I ran down the trail to be in the right spot and enjoyed the run.

No miles being on the campout with tight timelines, but I did get to help build a forest service trail for a few hours and that was fun. Using a pulaski is hard work though. My hands still aren't recovered two days later. I can barely grip anything. Having a desk job is hard work.

6 miles outside at lunch. Sluggish. Hot. Sweaty. Sluggish. Wimpy.

Everybody sing with me, "I've lost that running feeling, whoa oh that running feeling. I've lost that running feeling, now it's gone, gone, gone, oh oh whoa oh oh." I tried to run on the TM today at the Y but it was a huge struggle so I mainly walked while watching an episode of Longmire. 15% at 3 mph is a decent walk in the park. Not sure what my long term plans are to get back my running feeling, but it ain't gonna be through running. Thinking about figuring out the swim thing. I can swim just fine to recreate, but I can't swim laps to save my life. Like, I honestly couldn't do 10 laps in a lap pool. I would drown (even in a 4 foot pool). Boot Camp is good and maybe a good option but it frequently incorporates running. Not enough to be fatigued and enough other muscle groups to probably help the legs. Spin class is all legs and although different muscles, same muscle groups and they are tired. Who wants to teach me how to swim laps?

Jacob's Ladder is hard. I decided to switch things up and not run, so tried Jacob's Ladder at the Y and made it 5 minutes before dying. I then did the stair stepper for 15 minutes, followed by another 15 minutes or so on the elliptical. A pretty decent workout.

Noon Boot Camp. It was brutal but awesome. We partnered up and had to run the gym for 30 seconds each while our partner pulled on a resistance band behind us. We then switched, then did some sort of exercise - pushups, etc. Did that for 40 minutes. I was able to run pretty hard for most of it, so it has me wondering about my legs - are they ready for more? Maybe.

Noon Boot Camp. Different stations, and we had to do 20 of the station exercises, then do 20 burpees. I hate burpees. Since the year is 2015 I did exercises and 15 burpees. Worked for me. In between we ran around the building (1/3 mile or so) and I did fine the first time, worse the second, and jogged the third. I really want my legs back.

Noon Water Boot Camp. I suck at swimming and nearly drowned which is pretty impressive in 3 feet of water.... I've literally never tried to swim laps before, and I tried today and it was not pretty. I sure liked swimming with my head down as I wore goggles (which I never do) but I had a hard time figuring out how to breath without inhaling copious amounts of water. I was plenty hydrated afterwards. Anyhow, the gig was that regular Boot Camp-like exercises were on each end of the pool, and we'd swim a certain number of laps per lane, get out, do the exercise, then pick the next lane and swim laps, do exercises, etc. I struggled with my laps. The hardest part of all it though was an in between calf raise exercise. Two days later my calves are still sore to the touch and they hurt whenever I stand up to walk. It's awesome.

Not sure when I'll be back, but at least I started the foray into swimming laps. I'll figure this puppy out then start doing Ironmans... in about 10 years when I can figure out how to swim 2.4 miles.

I actually woke up before work and ran. Amazing how quickly I got out of that habit.

The plan appears to be working. I did 4 today with no problem. I got up early to run outside, and as soon as I started on my run I stopped. It is so smoky right now from the Washington & Idaho fires that it would be stupid to run out there. I headed inside to run on the treadmill but to my chagrin my oldest son and his cousin were asleep on the couch (with the TV still on). Sonuva... I had to take my 2nd oldest to football practice by 8 so I couldn't hit the gym early, so I decided to come to work late. It's Friday.

Warmed up at 6.0, 1% for 1/2 mile then ran at 7.0 for a couple miles, then 7.5 until the end. Although I felt like quitting and walking a few times the urge wasn't strong like it has been the past month+, it was pretty normal.

Hopefully this will continue and I can get back to mileage. My gut is growing and I cannot lie.

Double digits! Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap! (I can hear the cheer in my head). My plan is working - whew! Son had football practice this morning at 7 am so I dropped him off then drove to the Y. It was cold this morning, 43 degrees (crazy cold front came through last night) and I was in no hurry to get out there. Finally left around 8 wearing a long sleeve shirt and gloves and headed into a 20 mph NNW wind. I ran through neighborhoods which helped with the wind and I ran slowly and felt great the entire time. Not once did I feel like stopping, which was a huge win.

The net net is I started back to running too soon after the 50 miler, and I didn't cross train. Once I took a break and cross trained I got back to normal.

After finishing the run I cleaned up and switched to a swimming suit to try and figure out this swimming thing. I used one of those foam deals that fit between the thighs and that helped a lot but I still didn't figure out the breathing thing. One, two, three, breathe, inhale water, one, two, three, inhale water, try to breathe, one, two, three, spit out water, try to breathe, lose rhythm, stop swimming. Try again, repeat. I'll get it eventually.

Noon Boot Camp. Teacher turned 30, so she (Attila the Hun) had us do successive groupings of 30 pushups, 30 burpees, 30 deep squats, 30 frog jumps, then 3 laps around the indoor track (3/17 of a mile). I hate burpees. On the 2nd time around I was "cheating" on my burpees and not going all the way down into a pushup and I hurt myself - I went down into position and my lower back kept travelling while the rest of my body stayed put. It hurt.

I quit while I was behind and went and stretched out my back. A couple days later it's still sore but recovering. I seem to do this every now and then. I really should take better care of that lower back area. It's always been good to me, I should be good to it.

3 TM miles at lunch. My lower back was still hurting so I ran slowly and didn't run the whole 3 miles. The back isn't awful but it's impacting the running so I'll take it easy then hopefully run this weekend. Getting old is fun.

Ran a 10K at the gym because it was too smoky outside. I probably could've handled it but why try?