Sunday, March 22, 2009

Trails and Hills

Today after church I decided to run on location. It's a beautiful part of the island with lots of trails, hills, mountains, etc.

Only went 6.5 miles...I got tired very quickly!
First mile: all trail, mostly uphill, 11:57
2nd mile: some trail, downhill road, 8:02
3rd mile: uphill road, back on trail: 11:58
4th mile: left the trails, downhill road: 7:32
5th mile: hills in cemetery, 7:38
6th mile: exit cemetery, uphill road to church, 7:24
last half mile: uphill road to church: 4:22
Total time: 59:03

I had planned on a long run, but those first three miles killed me!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Friday Magic

Today, Taylor was the only regular. Meredith, another girl in the rock band, came out today. Good for her! I remember at A-school in Virginia, she'd bum out of PT days by faking sickness, and now she's willing to try the A-Team. (I decided to steal that name for our group).

We did pyramids. It seems as though all the new people start on pyramid or super set days. I guess it weeds out those that don't really want to push that hard. She did okay...has an interesting pullup technique: using a shorter bar, jump up and briefly hold the up position, drop all the way down, push off with the feet to jump up again. She kind of did half of the workout...skimped on pushups and situps, but I was proud of her first effort.

Taylor is really improving, as am I. He's faster at pullups since our techniques differ as well. Actually, he does them like I used to: controlling the fall so as to not lock out, but sacrificing full range of motion. For some reason, when I started doing these again, I made a point to do a full rep each time, so when I lock out, I take a second to pull back up again. But the marked improvement in both of us over the past month is incredible! (Arbitrary, but cool, he's comfortable taking his shirt off in public now. ;-) )

Pushups and situps easy as always.

Taylor really enjoyed feeling like crap after the run on Wednesday, knowing that he'd put forth that kind of effort. Today, we did a negative-split 4 miler. Two miles out in 17:32, back in 15:45. He's getting there.

Hey Abby! I think I saw your brother today! We passed on the trail, had a kind of "I recognize you" moment, as I guess he's seen my picture, and his face resembled yours. But alas, I couldn't remember his name, so I'll yell at him another day. ;-)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Various

Taylor and I were the only ones to PT today. We did the various pushups thing Charles showed me online.

11 various (explosive, explosive staggered, one-armed, dive-bombers, hand-tap, side-tap, rotational, alligator, elevated, shuffle, spidermans)

During breaks, I was telling Taylor about a couple other variations I used to do. So we tossed in two more sets. Tigers, and core. For Tigers, try and get your hands as close to your hips as possible in doing pushups. Core, raise alternate legs on each pushup.

Finished with 10, 5 Pullups, and 20, 10 Dips

Totals: 130 Pushups
15 Pullups
30 Dips

Karl came out for the running workout. I just kind of made it up since our track is weird (about 740m)

half mile warmup
then four laps of sprinting straights and jogging curves.

Taylor has the heart of a Lion! He's mentally tougher than many runners I've trained with through high school and college. He's not naturally talented, and isn't in competitive shape, but he never gives up. I actually had to slow down and hold back so that he'd stop giving effort trying to catch me. What a guy!

Karl is trying. I can tell he hates running fast. He's in it more for the base level of fitness than competitive improvement. Outstanding musician, but bull-headed. Doesn't listen to my advice. ;-) Adjusting his stride would help him with efficiency, as would giving the workout a chance. Oh well.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Waiting

Still waiting for interviews to be scheduled. That's all I have left of the application process.

Today, it was just Taylor, Karl, and I. We hadn't done a running workout for a while, so I pulled out a relic. Back in the day when I used to read Runner's World, I found a fun workout that would be awesome in theory, but never works.

The run is for a group of different paces, thus everyone can run at their own tempo. We're supposed to run out for a set period of time, then once that time is up, everyone turns around and heads back. In theory, everyone should arrive back at the same time. The workout: whoever is the farthest out when time is up tries to catch the others. The slowest runner (closest home) tries to beat them back. Fun!

So Taylor and Karl didn't have watches, but based on their normal paces I gave them turn around points. I was fairly close, but forgot to account for my own fatigue (haven't run since Thursday. I was just over two miles at 15 minutes, and had planned on 4.5. Thus, when I turned around, Taylor came at me for another 20 seconds. I couldn't see Karl, but he probably ran an extra 30-40 seconds out. Thus, I caught them after about half a mile. They were kind of puttering along (Taylor slowed down to talk to Karl who is a dedicated trainee, but won't pick his knees up). So to inspire them, I slowed briefly to encourage/command, then picked it back up. That did the trick because even though I came in 2 minutes ahead of Taylor, he raced in panting and sweating up a storm. Karl came in 2 minutes later, breathing hard and saying it sucked.

Good! The only way to get better is to find your comfort zone, then destroy it.

For PT, we did supersets. 10 sets each, Taylor and I did 10s, Karl did 7s. They both did very well, and, should I say it?, are actually starting to enjoy pushing themselves!

Followed with some pullups. Max out, then 2/3, then 1/3.

Totals:
Run: 4.2? miles 6:46, 7:14, 1:56, 6:49, 7:13 (29:59.99)
Pushups: 300
Situps: 300
Pullups: 15, 10, 5 (30)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Ocho

Ran a nice steady 8 miles today. Felt pretty good. I needed to clear my mind, so I just kept running until time was up.

My right knee has been bugging me a bit. Time to rehab.

7:56, 7:29, 7:27, 7:29, 7:17, 7:18, 7:20, 7:09 (59:30)

It was awesome...I ended up over by the F-15 hangars. Can't wait!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pyramid, blisters

Today we did a pyramid again. Another new member! Kristen, used to play trumpet in the rock band, now in the brass quintet. Taylor, Bryan, Karl joined us, as well as Ed and Colleen for the 2nd time.
The workout:
1-10-1 Pullups
x2 Pushups
x3 Situps

Totals: 100 Pullups, 200 Pullups, 300 Situps

Everyone did awesome! I got blood blisters under my palm calluses. Fun stuff!

I had planned a running workout, but everyone was too tired. So Taylor and Karl ran a warmup mile, then Taylor felt dizzy, so I made him quit. Karl and I did two 400m dashes x 400m jog.

Monday, March 9, 2009

2nd time is easier

Have you noticed the 2nd time is always easier? The learned response of tissues I suppose, whether it be physical, mental, etc.

Today, we did a bit more than last Thursday's workout, and although it was tough, it wasn't as bad.
Taylor, Bryan, and Neff joined me for the PT, then Taylor and I went on an easy 3 mile run to the Missing Man Memorial and back. We had a lively discussion about martial arts and hard body training. The funniest part of the run was when Taylor's midsection got in a stitch from working the abs so hard, then running and trying to talk.
Bryan finally listened to me and started ice massaging.

PT:
2x7 all Pullups (regular, wide, close, reverse, mountain) 70 total
2x15 Pushups (diamond, regular, wide, dive bombers) 120 total
2x15 Dips
3x30 Arm Haulers
2x25 each neck 100 total
Monster Situp Workout 660 total

The only thing that really sucked was the diver bombers. Not cool. My deltoids and triceps were so traumatized that the dips were tough.