The STADIUMS strike back!

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Triathlon Club – First Meeting Tonight and the Keg and Barrel - 6PM -  HattiesburgMultisport.com- follow us on Twitter - Click Here

There is a buzz in the air about the first ever triathlon club meeting. Once again, it will be more of a meet and greet to understand what people want in a club and what they are willing to do for the club. I have I been in a number of clubs and organizations and it almost always the 20 / 80 rule (or even less). 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. I would like for our club to me much more of a community! I am going to bring my ideas and I hope that everyone brings their ideas. We have a special group here in Hattiesburg and I think great things can happen!

Exercise:

On Wednesday I rode into work and ran into a number of people on the ride. It was a comfortable pace and I enjoyed the conversation. I jumped in the pool for a few laps. And it was just a few – I was running late. In addition, I have not been in the pool much and my swim fitness is all but gone. I am excited about Master’s Swim starting up next month. Butch has been giving a group of us grief about our lack of swim fitness and is telling us to get back in the water now so that we don’t have to spend a month getting up to speed. He is right – it is like having to straighten up the house before the maid shows up!

At lunch the STADIUMS loomed overhead. I was tempted to skip the workout but I got the best of me. I cranked down the interval time. My previous best was intervals on 1 minute 30. That makes 20 reps in 30 minutes. I only dropped of 5 seconds but that coupled with the heat – mid 90’s and heat index of 104, it was grueling. After about 12 reps I really started to feel it. I thought I was going to throw up several times. However, I was able to keep the intensity and I completed 21 reps! This was by far the hardest STADIUMS that I have ever done!

After work I was planning on doing the Wednesday Night Ride Race. My legs were dead from all of the intensity the past few days. And then I got a call from my buddy Charles. He wanted to know if I wanted to go mountain bike riding. I jumped at the chance. I still needed to ride my road bike home and I stop at Jackson Station. I caught some grief from the Wednesday night group but I continued home. Charles got to my house just after I got home and we hit the trials. It was a lot of fun. We wore ourselves out going up and down the trails and then enjoyed a beer on the back porch. Next week I will hit the intense Wednesday Night Ride Race but I enjoyed the break.

The return of the STADIUMS

I slept in just a little bit this morning. I got up at 5:30AM instead of the usual 5:00AM. It felt pretty good getting the extra sleep. I have a cup of coffee (no sweetener or anything – not on the diet) and prepared my meals for the day. The structure of the meals has been good for me. I like many concepts and had previously adopted them – so conforming to this diet has been easy. I like numerous small means. I like healthy food. This has simply refined the process. I made myself breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. I will report after the first week on what has worked and what I need to improve on.  But so far it has helped me redefine some of my habits! 

I then hopped on the bike. I took it easy this morning and just rode the bike to work.

English muffin, two eggs, tomato, and avacodo - yum

Well, I’m still playing and not training. But I am having good time. I was planning on swimming at lunch but I got to the gym and noticed that my goggles were at my desk. Well, the race was last weekend so I guess I could go ahead and kill it for lunch. It was supposed to be 98 degrees outside and it felt like it.

We made our way to the STADIUMS. It was hot. I have not done the STADIUMS in several months. I will be sore tomorrow from the stairs. I like to run up every other stair as fast as I can and control the recovery. There is no lollygagging. Every rep is intense! The fastest that we have done this is 15 seconds up and 1:15 recovery – the amount of time it takes for you to get back down the stairs and ready for the next set. If you run down the steps you will have about 40 seconds to recover. As will all intervals the first few are no problem. It is only with the building work load that you start to suffer. I ended up doing 21 sets! I was pleases with the result considering that I have not done the in so long and the intense heat!

One of the early reps - Vic right on my tail.

I really had second thoughts about the Wednesday night race ride. My legs were fatigued from the STADIUMS. As I left campus Steven (the guy visiting from Purdue) joined me at the stop light. We rode out to Jackson Station together for the ride. When we arrived I was surprised at how many people had come out considering the heat. There were 8 or 10 of us and we picked up a couple more while on the trace. As soon as we left the trace Sam sprinted ahead. There was a huge gap opening up and I gave it a hard effort to bridge it. So, there I was, only a minute or two into the real ride and I was blowing up. My heart rate reached 181 BPM – it is not often that my heart beats that fast during cycling. I was happy to have some riders join me. I quickly grabbed a wheel. I would spend most of the rest of the ride holding on to the end of the train. I never got dropped but I sure didn’t pull much during the ride. With my commute I again got about 39 miles on a Wednesday. You add that to the 30 I get on each of the Tuesday / Thursday rides (including commute) and my weekday mileage is adding up – I am getting about 100 miles a week Monday – Friday. The weekends are just gravy! I really should be logging this stuff better – no training equals no longing. I guess I still have the Garmin website!

FAST and STRONG

I have been having success after being away during spring break. After the high volume cycling over the weekend I did a recovery trainer ride Monday morning and then biked to work. It was cold in the morning but the temperature climbed into the 70’s later in the day. At lunch I swam with Sam and he pushed and gave me form tips. I always swim better and faster when someone is watching. It an easy 500 warm up followed by 10 x 100 on 1:45. I never do them that fast – I always give myself more time to recover than necessary. These were some of the best 100’s that I have ever swum! I did some abs after the swim.
The commute home was nice. The sun was out but it was straight into the wind. I needed the ride home – it cleared my head. I have been having a little bit of apprehension with my sister and her family moving to Australia – maybe even some jealousy thrown in. I am going to miss them but on the bright side I will be travelling to Sydney in the very near future!
Tuesday brought about an interval session on the bike trainer. I have been struggling with the tempo trainer rides so I dialed in a moderately hard interval session – and I nailed it. I felt strong! The legs were recovered from the volume over the weekend and had bounced back. The cycling is coming along.
STADIUMS were on hand at lunch and we took 10 seconds off of the recovery. Once again the working set was 15 seconds but the time to get across and back down was now 1:25. The first 3 or 4 reps were hard on the legs but they some came back and the session was maintainable. We were all successful. My heart rate was much lower than the same session last year. After the STADIUMS we did 2 reps at the back of the Cochran building. This is very demanding. I would like to add a rep of these each week until it just kills us! That might only be 3 reps – we will have to see.
Back at the gym there was the bench press. I have actually been enjoying the strength training. I loaded up the same weight as last Tuesday – just 2 45’s – approximately 87% of my body weight. Last week I did 4 sets with very little recovery as 15 / 15 / 15 / 12. I was determined to improve upon this!

I started off and felt strong again. I owned this workout and was able to put up the following: 16 / 16 / 16 / 14 / 15! I am not sure where the strength is coming from but I will definitely take it.

Success and Failures

Getting back to the routine brought my weight down. I lost 3 pounds from the previous day. I know that the weight is not real but I am glad to be getting back into the swing of things.
I jumped on the bike again on Tuesday morning. I dialed in a tempo workout which consisted of a 10 minute warm up followed by 3 x 10 minutes at intensity with 2 minutes of recovery and then a 10 minute cool down.

I failed again. I only completed the first 10 minute interval and a couple minutes of the second interval. However, I did not end the workout there. I reloaded and completed another 20 minutes at a little less intensity. I have never really trained like this before – at set intensities. Most of my previous cycling has just been volume with some aggressive group riding thrown into the mix. I think I am just getting caught up in the numbers and wanting more than I can accomplish. I only rode for 40 minutes.

At lunch we did the STADIUMS. I lopped off 10 seconds from the recovery and then had to add two additional reps to the session for a total of 17. The round trip was 1:50 – 15 seconds up and 1:35 recovery. Next time I will deduct another 10 seconds from the recovery. My legs were screaming at me for the first three reps but then they settled down. Fortunately, the repeats never got harder – I was able to just churn them out. It felt good to succeed!

I checked the last time that I did this workout (October 22, 2009) and my average heart rate was 149 BPM with a MAX of 178. This week, with the same workout my average heart was 128 BPM with a MAX of only 165. I do not remember what the temperature was and everything but I will take it (but my blog says that the day was beautiful)!

After the STADIUMS we did just one rep of the stairs at the back of the Cochran Center. These steps are about 50 percent longer than the stairs at the STADIUM. My heart was racing much harder doing just the one rep!

Back at the gym I continued to work on the chest for the “pump and run” challenge. I had some intel come through and I believe that Robin is able to squeeze out about the same number of reps that I can – somewhere in the 30’s. And being that Robin has a good minute or two on me in the 5k I need to get to work. So I did four sets of flat bench press. I only put the 45’s on the bar so that equated to about 87% of my body weight – well my hope to be body weight. I am counting on 155 on competition day. For some reason I felt strong and was able to increase my reps by a couple. I did not doing any max outs but I did get 3 sets X 15 with a fourth set X 12. I was only working out with one other person and we purposely kept the recovery short. To win this competition I believe endurance is the name of the game.

Spring time STADIUMS

I have gone back to basics in the swim. Being self taught (you can read that as slow) I have never been huge on drills. I understand the importance but it always seemed like I was sinking when I attempted them. I did do the finger tip drag for almost every swim for about 6 months – this was because I was wind milling wildly.

Well, someone recently suggested that I start doing the zipper drill because of this windmill problem. I had thought that I had that one licked a long time ago. Granted I took a bit of time away from the pool last year but I did not realize that my swim would break down as much as it has. On that note I have started to do the drills again. Mostly I have started with high elbow recovery, either finger tip drag or zipper. That is going well – no problems.

But in addition, I have started to count my strokes on every length. This is something that I have gotten away from. The same someone also noticed that I was in the 20 stroke range and then on of non-breath strokes I was shortening them and not rotating. This is a high stroke count and not efficient.

I have worked on these skills. Swimming being such a skill sport has been tough on me. It seems like there is always something that you have to remember. My mind simply cannot remember the 15 or so things that need to happen for good, fast swimming. After about two things I start to break down – most of the time I stop breathing. Oh well – it is getting better.

I have had two high quality swim sessions this week and not a length has been swum with more than 17 strokes! I am starting to feel the water better and the rotating is more even. The swimming is coming along!

On Wednesday, for the first time since late November, we did the STADIUMS. Due to the weather and marathon training I had suspended the STADIUMS. While I believe that these ‘hill repeats’ are a valuable strength training exercise I was not sure how they would fit into my higher volume marathon training. Therefore they were nixed. I was careful pulling these back in – in the past when I have started them back up after a break the recovery was brutal. Brutal recovery - like not being able to walk up stairs for a couple of days. I am trying to be better in all of my training and not just look at the individual sessions but actually looking ahead. Yes, a reoccurring theme – training smarter. I do not want any one session to have such an impact that I cannot successfully complete the next session. I guess I have never fully understood this mentality. I only want to break myself down enough that I get the adaptation but not so much that I cannot do it again in a short amount of time. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe in smashing it sometimes – breakthrough sessions if you will – but I have to have the recovery scheduled. In the long run it does not do me very much good to cripple myself in the short term.

That being said, I took the STADIUMS easy. In the past I had worked up to a 0:15 / 1:15 interval. That is all out for 15 seconds up the bleachers and then a minute and 15 seconds run across the top of the stairs and back down to get ready to do it again. This is a challenging workout out. My heart rate drops great for about the first 5 repeats but then it starts to fail to recover as much. I was successful in the workout several times – by successful I mean I was able to do the last set in the same amount of time as the first set and I think I did this 22 times.

This time I increased the recovery interval to 1:45. This was maintainable – almost easy. My heart rate recovered after each repeat. Next time I will trim some time off of the recovery. I got 15 repeats for a total of 30 minutes.

After the STADIUMS I took off my socks and shoes and ran around the football field 4 times. This field is turf. I am not a big fan of the bare foot running – I have seen a lot of people hurt themselves – but I do believe it can provide some foot strength. I am already a fore foot runner and this bare foot running felt good. It actually felt almost the same as running in shoes.

Marathon Training - throwing down the gauntlet

After last weekend’s PR half marathon run on less than idea training and race conditions I have decide to try and put together a fast half and full marathon run. Maybe I can actually run a full-all-out half run this next weekend – I have signed up for the Ole Man River Half in New Orleans. This race is Sunday, December 20th. That is only two weeks since the last half in Baton Rouge and I do not expect to make great gains in running speed but I have more speed in me. I only hope to be able to run the entire race with race intensity (not lollygag and talk and stuff) and see where the time falls. Looking at the race calculators, according to my fastest ever 5K time I should be running these half’s nearly 10 minutes faster than I am. I think that calculator is pushing it but I would like to see how close I can get.


So the goals for the first quarter of the year are set – they will be running goals with cycling base building in between. Yes I still want to push the pace on the bike. I have read many articles that state a fall marathon will not help an ironman time. And I can only image that a spring marathon will in no way whatsoever help sprint and Olympic triathlons. That being said I am finally pumped about my training!

Jim and I met up at campus on Wednesday morning for mile repeats. The weather was warm and humid. We did a campus run with a 1 mile warm-up and cool down with the 4 one mile runs in the middle. We were not killing ourselves but clicked off the following – the rest interval was 3 minutes:

1. 6:42
2. 6:54
3. 7:05
4. 6:52

This was a good effort but the times will be dropping in the coming weeks. At lunch I did the STADIUMS. It was getting cooler and there was a strong wind. Having done the mile repeats I decided to be a follower and just kind of go through the motions. I still felt strong and performed well but I was not giving it everything I had. We pulled up short on the STADIUMS (10 X on 1:45) because I had a new challenge in mind. There is a LARGE staircase on the back of the Thad Cochran building. No one uses this stair case – it is like 3-4 flights of stairs – this is longer than the STADIUMS. So after 10 sets of STADIUMS we went to the back of the Coch. I had wanted to try out 5 sets on 2 minutes. The first set took 22 seconds up and a full 40 seconds to run down/recover. This was a damn hard workout – at the bottom we rested 1 minute. Vic and Richard were with me for the next two but were sucking wind at that point. I did just one more set at intensity and called it a day with 4 x the back of the Coch. This is tough stuff - when the heat hits it will be EPIC.

I had an exam on Thursday morning so I studied instead of exercising. I would have rather rode the trainer and watch a movie but… priorities. At lunch I played around in the racquetball courts to let the legs rest a bit. But after work it was back on the bike trainer. I got a good 45 minutes in a sweat-fest.

On Friday morning Jim was supposed to meet me at the campus for a tempo run. Something came up and I ran alone. It was a good run in the cold. It showed that I am not in position to meet my running goals at this point. I am going to need some solid training to run the paces that I want. I love a challenge.

TEMPO run:

1. 8:29 Warm up
2. 6:41
3. 7:02
4. 6:51
5. 6:57
6. 7:48 Cool down

I have been working on which races I will do next year and I have put together a list.  This is not set in stone (except for the races up to the Mardi Gras Marathon).

Tentative Race Schedule (first half of 2010):

12/20-Ole Man River Half – New Orleans
01/01-Stream Whistle 12k – Hattiesburg (on the trace)
01/17-Louisiana State 25K Championship – New Orleans
01/31-"The WALL" Louisiana State 30K Championship – New Orleans
02/XX-Run for Love 5K
02/28-Mardi Gras Marathon – New Orleans
03/19-St Thomas 5K
04/18-Ironman 70.3 New Orleans
06/05-Heatwave Classic Triathlon
07/XX-Sunfish Summer Triathlon
07/24-Heart O’Dixie Triathlon

STADIUMS - cancelled...

Cool weather and wet eliminated the STADIUMS for the week. That was probably a good thing. It has been about a month since I tackled that obstacle. I am sure that my legs would be sore for several days after another EPIC day at the STADIUM. So this brought us indoors to the coliseum. This is the basketball arena. Since the staircases are shorter this is much easier. We alternated doing single steps and double steps on 1 minute. Doing the single steps takes less than 15 seconds and doing the doubles takes just under 10 seconds. Then you run back down the stairs and recover for about 30 seconds. We got 40 sets in 40 minutes. This was a good work out but not like the STADIUMS. We were wondering with the much cooler weather if even the STADIUMS are not the STADIUMS any more. We will have to see next week.  We did about 15 minutes of abs after the stair climbing.


On the bike front - it has been cool/cold and raining this week.  So, I have been riding the trainer at home. My father upgraded and gave me his old 32 inch CRT (big and heavy) television. I brought it back home from the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I hooked this up in front of my trainer. I have been watching a lot of television on DVD. I read a book recently about cycling base building and I am trying to put some of this to practice. I have been riding a lot of steady state workouts – mostly about 45 minutes long (an hour of television on DVD just happens to be 42 minutes). My trainer hooks up to the computer and I have been setting a constant workout by time and watts. It has been interesting to compare the different workouts – it records watts (constant) and heart rate, cadence, etc. This week I have logged over 3 hours on the trainer. That is more than I have used it for the last 6 months. Granted I ride a lot more outside in the summer but I think that this is a good start.

I am heading to Baton Rouge for the ½ marathon on Friday for a fun race weekend.

Morning ride returns with the time change - Plus STADIUMS

I have been in autopilot mode lately but I thought that I would provide an update. I did a quick 20 mile bike ride with the group on Sunday. I had just arrived back in town from New Orleans and caught up with the group as they went by my stretch of the trace. It was a good time – I had a couple of hard pulls. The pulls really put the burn in the legs – there was some fatigue from the weekend’s ½ marathon.


That fatigue was even more evident at lunch on Monday. We went out for an easy 4 mile run and the legs were just hurting. We started slow and the pace crept up a little but not much. We averaged 8:30 minutes per mile for the run but it felt like it should have been so much faster.

Tuesday got me back into the P90X groove again with the Chest and Back DVD. This is still a solid workout and I have seen some progress. In the later pull up sets I am getting a few more reps – I don’t think that my total number of pull ups in 1 set has increased much but my endurance is a little better. At lunch we hit the pool for some easy 100 yard sets – I got a total of about 1500 yards. After the swim we went upstairs to do our regular chest workout. Damn, I felt weak after the P90X and the swim. My lifts were off.

My chest and upper body was lit up on Wednesday after the chest workouts from the previous day. I would give the upper body a break. I did the Plyometrics P90X workout (jump training) in the morning. For what it is worth I am definitely getting better at jumping around. And then there were the STADIUMS.

We had a good turnout – 8 people came out for the STADIUMS! This session would be a 15 second working set (I can’t really get much faster running up the stairs) but the rest interval was cut down to 1:15. This would be a total set time of 1:30. To fill the 30 minutes we would to 20 reps. This is what we started at a month ago and FAILED – I did all of the set in the prescribed time but many of my working sets suffered – it got hard. Although the weather is cooler this would still be a challenging workout. There was quite a bit of trepidation from some of the group but we all persevered. By the end of the session only Chad and I completed the session in the designated time. Chad said that a couple of his work sessions ended up being a little too long – but he was right there with me for the duration. Much of the group had to take a few breaks and such – yes – this workout is that challenging. That being said, I cannot cut the working set down by much and the rest is getting pretty low. I may simply have to start increasing the reps. I will have to evaluate the workout for next week. I did analyze my heart rate following the completion of this workout and it did take a significant jump over the previous week. It was hard. After the STADIUMS I took off my shoes and ran around the football field on the turf. I just wanted to get a feel for this bare foot running that the internet is chatting about. Since I am already a fore-foot runner I really did not fell anything different – My feet felt pretty good on the turf.

With the time change the sun is out earlier than it has been. The morning cycling group met up at 6AM at Jackson Station. There were the usual guys – Lance, Keith, Dan and I. From the get go Keith was pushing the pace and Dan was chopping at the bit. They really pushed the pace. I had thought I was doing well with pulls in the 21’s and 22’s and then one of these guys would put the hammer down and start killing 23’s and 24’s. It was all I had to just hang on during some of the pulls. Lance and I had enough and let them go down the hill to Sumrall by themselves. We regrouped and had a good out of the saddle climb towards Epley Road. This was a fun spirited ride. I got 30 miles in an hour and half. My legs were toast after the ride.

STADIUMS - faster, stronger, better

The STADIUMS returned again this week. I am not sure if it is the cooler weather or adaptations but we are continuing to have success. I dropped the recovery interval by another 10 seconds this week. If you remember, about a month ago we mixed it up and decided to do the STADIUMS more like hill repeats and intervals instead of just running up and down them. The fatigue factor of just running up and down was just that – only producing fatigue. In an attempt to help increase strength and possibly VO2MAX I decided to make every working set ALL OUT. I set my GPS wrist computer to 15 second intervals followed by an appropriate rest interval. The first attempt was for a total set (working + recovery) at 2 minutes. After the first set or two, Chad and Richard decided that the rest interval was just too long – they wanted to go faster. So, against my better judgment we cut 30 seconds off the rest – 90 seconds total for the set. After about 10 sets we all started to get sloppy – the work set was not as fast anymore. In fact, Chad and Richard had to change the workout up – they were failing. I completed the workout but my last few sets were slow.

I did not like that workout – it was unattainable. So the next time we did STADIUMS I stuck to the original game plan. 2 minutes total – 15 seconds working set followed my 1:45 rest. We had success. The next time we cut 10 seconds off of the rest. I was still able to maintain the intensity of the working set just with less recovery. So this week another 10 seconds was chopped of the recovery – and guess what – success again. I am excited about taking 10 more seconds off and trying the 1:30 total set again. That would SHOW progress! (Although to be fair the temperature has turned cooler).

Looking at the chart below would indicate that the heart rate ramps up quicker with less rest but I am able to maintain the same level of exertions without blowing up! The chart shows my max heart rate recorded for each interval – notice with faster intervals we do more sets – the total workout is 30 minutes regardless of number of reps.

On another success front – I have noticed that I can do more reps of various types of chin ups with doing the P90X sessions. The first few times that I did the sessions, towards the end of the workout there just would not be much left. Now I am able to perform a few more reps = still hard – still tired – but more reps!

STADIUMS - DIET - SUCCESS

I was able to stick to the diet on Tuesday! I logged 1,746 calories for the day with distribution as follows:


Fat: 26% Carbs: 45% Protein: 29%

I’m still trying to work out the best distribution for me and trying to work more raw fruits and vegetables into my diet. I only ate ½ pound of carrots yesterday and one peach. If I have them around I eat them but the bulk of my diet is breads and grains. I’m looking for substitutions.

On the exercise front I did the P90X arms and shoulders DVD before work. This is a good workout but once again, due to the smaller muscle groups it is easier. I started to do some drop sets during the session. Starting with a weight that I can only complete 8 – 10 reps and then immediately selecting a lighter weight and finishing the set. This is challenging but once again I walk away from this workout not completely soaked with sweat (the other sessions I am SOAKED).

Lunch brought the STADIUMS again. It has been two weeks since the last session – last week was the coliseum which brought its own challenges but not like the STADIUMS. Having been successful on our last outing with 15 seconds working set followed by 1 minute 45 seconds recovery (this includes the down portion of the stadiums) it was time to up the ante. Since the working portion of the set is already ALL-OUT I could only cut some time off of the recovery. I loped 10 seconds off for a recovery of 1 minute 35 seconds. The total set would now be 1 minute 50 seconds. The previous successful session fit nicely with 15 reps in 30 minutes. This time it would be 17 reps in 31:10. Several people dropped off of the challenge this week due to various reasons – ill, forgot their workout shoes, scared, weak, etc. But for the ones that took on the challenge there was victory. We were able to successfully achieve our goals. All of my working sets were within the allotted 15 seconds – some were close but all were successful and the recovery proved manageable. Now, I am not one to believe that all of this success comes from cardio or strength gains – but more of the success is due to the change in weather. It was a beautiful day on Tuesday and, like the arms and shoulders session of the morning, I was not as soaked in sweat as I can be. However, all said and done my heart rate average for the session was nearly 10 percent higher than 2 weeks ago. The 10 seconds less recovery time equates to 9 percent less recovery – a little bit less time for the heart rate to drop. It is hard to qualify with the available data but my heart rate dropped about 2 beats more per rep with the additional 10 seconds of recovery. I am not a statistician but I do find it interesting. I can’t wait until next week to carve a little bit more time off.

Oh STADIUMS

Sorry I have not been my usual diligent self with my posting. Without a clear cut workout plan I am having trouble. I am not having any trouble working out – just working out with direction. However, to add to that I am having fun with the workouts.

For the past week I have been doing the P90X workouts in the morning. I was actually a fan of the format from the original Power90 series a few years ago. I used the Power90 series of DVD’s for a few months and they were challenging. The Power90 series did get rather monotonous – there are only 2 DVD’s with 4 full workouts plus 2 really short abdominal workouts (about 5 minutes each). I believe the plan was to alternate each of the first two workouts (the series 1 /2 – beginner) for about 6 weeks and then do the same with the last two workouts (the series 3 / 4 advanced) for the last 6 weeks. I am pretty sure that I just jumped into the second series and did those off and on for a couple of months. They were fun to supplement running and outdoor activities when the weather was rough – I lived in the Midwest for a dozen or so years and being from Texas – I did not do well in the winters.

That being said – I started up the original Power90 videos again last week. They were still good just not as fresh – I still like the format. I was going to take it slow since I had not done much strength training for the past 6 – 8 months. I was able to complete the advanced videos. They were challenging but manageable. Unfortunately, manageable means that I would probably get bored with them pretty quick. I found a friend that had the P90X DVD’s (the X stands for Xpensive) and he let me borrow them. Tony Horton looks a lot different in the new series – his hair is much darker, his face is leaner but he looks a little bit like gaunt. I know that he is a little older but he looked better before he went Xtreme.

So this week I started the P90X program. Now, from the get go, I am not following the plan. I am not usually willing to cut out the things that I enjoy for one purpose. I know that I would see better results if I was able to concentrate on one or two objectives – and believe it or not I am working on these goals. I would like to drop some body fat, I would like to put on some lean mass and I would like to get faster at endurance based activities (racing). So with this P90X program I am going to continue to run / bike / swim and probably some fun activities as well.

In one area that I am pretty good at being smart is not letting my ego get in the way in the weight room – and I am continuing this with the videos. I have no problem picking a weight that is appropriate for my strength and my build. So for the first video, which was mostly body weight anyway, I stuck to 20 pound hex dumbbells (I later pulled out some 10’s and 30’s – depending on the exercise). They were using higher weights in the video but they were quick to point out that proper form is more important than weight. They were also very diligent about writing down your weights and reps – something that I used to do religiously but have gotten slack. I am going to pull out a workout log and start charting the progression again. That is something that always used to keep me motivated – I enjoyed seeing the improvement – even if it took weeks to go up just a rep or two. I will keep you guys posted on my progression with the P90X videos – and just to be fair, I think almost all of these video series will produce results if you follow them. I am such a proponent of working the ‘PLAN’ that give me sweating to the oldies and I think I could see results.

The workouts this week involved 4 P90X workouts – Chest and Back, Plyometrics, Shoulders and Arms and Legs and Back. I skipped the YogaX workout – I think that I am too type A for a 90 minute yoga routine in the morning. I think that the workout really could benefit me with coordination and balance but I don’t have the time in the morning during the week and – simply – it put me back to sleep. So on that day I did about 10 minutes of the yoga video and then did two rounds of abdominals – 1 Power90 and 1 P90X. I also skipped the Kenpo (TYBO) workout. I will pick this workout up this weekend because it looks like fun. I will give further, more extensive reviews of each of the workouts once I get the routine established.

On top of the P90X workouts I continued the Tabata treadmills (good, quick, hard workouts) plus the stadium, plus a couple of endurance runs, plus a quick swim.

Regarding the STADIUMS – I really got them dialed in this week. I added a little more time to the recovery (30 seconds) to allow full force for the working set. I programmed my watch for 15 seconds of work followed by 1:45 seconds of recovery. Once again for the first 10 reps this seemed too easy but it got more challenging. I was able to complete each work set with intensity in the 15 seconds – many sets were successful by split seconds. The total amount of work during the 30 minutes was less than last week (or the week before for that matter) but I was able to maintain the intensity. In the weeks prior, doing more reps lead to more work / fatigue but the intensity was not there – I was dragging on the last half of the session. I am not sure which is better but I have always thought that when doing repeats you want to maintain the same intensity throughout the workout – 1). To help prevent injury due to fatigue and bad form and 2). To really push the upper limits of your VO2max. If you are overly fatigued then it may feel like you are giving everything but your speed has dropped off and you limit your adaptation. My bad analogy is like when you are doing the bench press – you go through your workout, then the working sets and then after you are completely spent you decide to do a burnout and try to do as many reps with just the weight of the bar. This is hard – it hurts – but are you really lifting very much weight? Are more muscle fibers really being recruited? Or are you just doing work? Anyway – I am going to try and continue this method for the foreseeable future and try to know a few seconds off of the recovery while trying to keep the intensity.

I will also keep a close eye on recovery – that is something that will dictate success or failure!

STADIUM intervals

I have continued with the Power 90 - I did the abs-whatever-thing instead of the ab - BOSU- lutly class. The Power 90 abs thing is more like what I do on my own and it is gruelling even though it is only 5 minutes. Next I did the advanced cardio DVD - 40 minute of a ton of leg lifts and kick boxing stuff followed by - damn - the same abs-whatever-thing. I was pretty beat by the end of the session - I would say that this was also comfortably hard. It was manageable. A few more of these and I might need to kick it up a notch.

Last week the STADIUM was tough. IT was hot and the workout was grueling. If you remember, each set involved single steps, double steps and then the bleacher lunges. As many as possible in 30 minutes. I was able to bust out 9 sets (27 times I climbed the stadium). I think about half of the sets were solid. The rest, well the fatigue had set in and it was just hard. I know that when I do intervals on the bike or on the run that I try to make the last sets as strong as the first sets. Keep the intensity up! So, this time at the stadium we mixed it up a bit. I wanted to bring the intensity and keep the intensity. I decided to only run the double steps - they tend to be a good compromise between speed and strength - but give myself a little bit of time to recover so that I could hopefully keep the same pace (intensity). I decided to have each set last 2 minutes.

As soon as we ran up the first set - it only took about 14 or 15 seconds- Chad and Richard thought that 2 minutes was took long (the rest would be 1:45 seconds if we could keep pace). I let them get the best of me and I changed the game plan. Okay, now it was 1:30 per set - and the working sets had now increased from 15 in 30 minutes to 20 in 30 minutes.

The intensity was maintained for a little more than half of the duration. It got hard and I started to drag after the 12th climb. Chad and Richard were slowing even more and decided to break from the task at hand and do lunges instead. I kept of the game plan but I slowed down a second or two - which is significant in such a short sprint. All in all I felt that this was a more satisfing workout even if it was not as fatiguing. I probably did not burn as many calories but I think that my fitness improved more. Next time I will try the 2 minute sets and see if the intensity can be maintained for the duration. Once that benchmark is set then we can chip away at the rest!

EPIC DAY – WEEK 2

EPIC DAY – WEEK 2

Tuesday night it was thundering and lightening and the rain was fierce. Being proactive and not willing to chance missing an early morning ride I hooked the race bike up to the trainer (or drainer as some might call it). The trainer is not fun. I applauded people that can ride the device for hours on end. I do not care what you are watching – the trainer gets old quick.

Anyway, that being said, I do believe that the trainer has a place in my workout routine. You can take all of the variables out of the bike and just look at the cold hard data – are you improving or not? That was not my early morning workout this week. I jumped on the trainer with the only objective of doing a nice 20 mile recovery ride. The legs have been tired and an easy spin would do them well. Two and a half episodes of The Simpsons later and I was done (wow – this show is getting a little stale). It did not matter that I had a fan inches from me – the sweat was pouring off. The bike portion of the day was done.

Lunch would bring another EPIC DAY. Word has spread like wildfire! We had 3 new members show up for the festivities. In addition to the ‘REGULARS – Vic, Chad, Richard (sometimes) and me’ – first week Adam, Ryan (from across campus) and Keith (Thursday group ride) showed up. Not to mix it up too much and I was not very organized we headed towards the stadium (THE ROCK). Today would be 20 sets of stadium bleacher lunges (stepping on each seat and walking the entire height of the stadium (forty something bleaches) superset with alternating sets of 10 pushups / 10 squats. This would be more of a strength time exercise with endurance thrown in for good measure. The heat and humidity of Southern Mississippi was upon us – so much humidity that there was a misting rain at times. This was hard work – not insurmountable but hard work.

Once complete with the first leg we hit the field for a round of 250 crunches (anyway / anyhow) as fast as you can. This will have to be changed up for the next EPIC DAY – this has already become too easy!

Several 100 yard dashed with left / right grapevines with little to no rest were next – there were some more dashes with skipping and then we ran the length of the field backwards. We were exhausted at this point and headed back to the gym. This EPIC DAY stuff is becoming viral – Lance already said that he was sorry that he missed it and Jim is showing interest – I said BRING IT next week.

After work would be the Open Water Swimming. The water has become warm enough that wetsuits are definitely not needed. I hooked up with Jen and she came out to test the waters. She will be doing her first triathlon this weekend and was anxious for the open water swimming experience. Terry also came back after a challenging swim last week. Both Jen and Terry swam out to the farthest buoy and did great! Jen downright loved the lake swim. As far as my swimming, not much racing this week – we would concentrate a little more on endurance. I felt good in the lake – a little slower without the wetsuit but comfortable. There were no water demons on this day. I was not pushing the pace but swimming and just breathing every stroke per normal. At this slower pace I thought I might be ready to practice breathing every other stroke and bilaterally – not yet. Just a few strokes and I switched back to my normal breathing. It is coming but it needs more work.

EPIC DAY – WEEK 2 is in the books!

The commute – The best part of the day

Tackled the stadium yesterday at lunch. I did 15 bleacher lunges followed by some 50 yard dashes. It was hot and it was challenging. Did some work on the abs to finish out the workout.

On the ride home I saw Chris hanging with his kids at the playground at Jackson Station. He said he has 3 triathlons in Florida for the next 3 weekends. Damn.

This morning the group ride was resurrected for spring. I set the alarm for 5AM (I usually get up at 5:30AM – without the alarm most days). Had my 2 cups of coffee and then hit the trace. I left the house at 5:45 and the morning light was sufficient – I did turn on my pathetic headlamp and rear blinky light just in case. I got to Jackson Station and the guys (JD, Keith and Lance) were unloading their bikes. Everyone was here except for Jim – he has said that he will be back in the groove in just a couple of weeks.

This is the time of the year that I enjoy the most. When my 6 mile bike commute looks like closer to 30 miles. We saddled up and headed towards Sumrall. Lance and JD had been at New Orleans with me and we swapped some race stories. There would be no warm up today. JD, Keith and Lance seemed like they had something to prove. I was on my road bike, Lance and JD were on their tri bikes and Keith was on his road bike – he has a new one that will be in any day now.

Everyone was faster! I was sucking the back wheel of everyone today. There was no way that I could have maintained a 2 4, 25, or 26 MPH pull. I nearly got dropped twice. The second time I almost got dropped was when I pulled aside (okay I did do a little pull coming back into Clyde Station) and the train kept going. There was a huge gap created and I really had to hunker down. I started counting one one thousand, two one thousand. I knew that I had to close that gap and then I would be cool. The exertion level would drop once I got that wheel. This is a fast section of the trace. They were really hauling. I looked at my cyclometer and I was 27.5 MPH. I would top out at 28 MPH (max speed measured today on my bike computer). I thought that I could keep this pace for maybe 15 seconds. I caught them at thirteen one thousand. Once on the wheel it still took a high effort to hang with them. A couple of minutes later and I was recovered again and all was well. This was a tough ride for me. LOVED IT!

Stadium lunges

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison

I have been getting to work early this week. No exercising in the morning and it seems like I have an extra hour. Not sure what to do with myself.

At lunch I went to the football stadium and did lunges up the bleacher seats. Not over doing it but a pretty demanding leg workout. And, I know that I should be in complete taper mode, but, I ran some 50 yard and 100 yard dashes at about 90 percent effort. It felt good. After the leg workout it was back to the gym for abs. I worked my abs a little bit on Tuesday but really hit them hard again. My midsection was sore. I try to work on functional strength as much as possible and swinging the bat in softball has really brought that to light. My left obliques are getting really sore after batting practice. I guess the side planks are just not up to the task. I have been investigating better oblique workouts. I have some old POWER 90 DVD's (the pre-cursor to the P90X) that have some killer ab workouts. I might need to dust those off. What is the point of doing these exercises if they do not translate to real world strength?

We did end up winning our second softball game by default again. The other team just did not show up - pathetic but we might make the playoffs!

Back to the routine.

First week back after the holidays is in the books. Tuesday there was a slip on the diet but the training has been in check and followed pretty close. Except there has been no swimming. The pool is still closed for the drain modification. I was also supposed to do a LT time trial run on Wednesday but I was under the weather. Instead I ran the football stadium steps albeit much slower than last year. Today I got in a five mile run.

I have a long run and a long ride (4.5 hours) planned for the weekend. I also hope to get out to a lake for an OWS in the wetsuit.

Stength training for the new year.

Hitting the weights for the first time in weeks is really killing me - so sore...

Getting back into the routine is enjoyable. Ran the stadium yesterday - the best hill repeats in Southern Mississippi by far - and the calves are killing me. Hit the push-up and chin-ups and my back is killing me. Hit the medicine ball and Swiss ball and my abs are killing me. I am sure that I will not be able to lift my arms tomorrow after the chest today.

Good times - but still missing the swim.

Panic

Ended up riding the bike home on Tuesday. Nice cool weather. Jodie and I enjoyed the ride.

I had planned on getting up and running to work again. Jodie had to drive so I would not have to run home. We went to bed a normal time, however, we were both awaken by the door bell ringing non-stop. It was after midnight. I jumped out of bed and put on a pair of jeans and a shirt. The ringing had turned to banging on the front door. We live in a quite neighborhood. This was very odd.

I went to the front door and it was Phil from across the street. We have been over to Phil's house for a cookout and we are very neighborly.

Phil was very pale and not breathing well. He had his blackberry out and was talking to someone. I told Phil to come into the house. He was having problems breathing. He was trying to speak with his son on the phone. I took the phone and spoke with Scott - Scott does not live in town.

Scott said that this has happened to Phil before and that we has acid reflux and has trouble breathing. Phil was also in full blown panic. I tried to decide whether to call an ambulance or take Phil to the hospital.

I am ashamed to say that if it were more serious Phil would have died in my house. Eventually I went with Phil to his house and we talk and he felt better.

I got back to sleep at around 3AM.

I drove in to work with Jodie. I was dead to the world. When my schedule gets interrupted it is hard for me to get started. So no morning workout.

Wednesdays are "Stadium Days." Ran the steps with Vic, Chad and Richard. The weather was cool and I felt strong. I post a 5:37, 5:22 and a 5:23 on the stadium sessions. We then went out on the field to attempt a few field goals. Chad, a former soccer player, had made Vic a wager that we could nail 9 out of 10 from 23 yards. The same distance that the Mississippi State kicker had recently missed.

It turned out that Chad probably could not hit 1 out of 10 much less 9. We all made a few attempts at the field goal. I was the only one to hit one. Did abs and shoulders in the gym.

Ended up driving home with Jodie.

As a side note - I did not do the Dot Race on Tuesday but Vic clocked a 6:4x! He is getting fast.

The stadium ate my lunch

Drove in yesterday morning due to needing to run some errands in the AM and PM. This would only be a one-a-day exercise day and a small break from the grind.

Ran out to 'The Rock' to run the stadium stairs with Vic, Chad and Richard. This was a tough day. I wore a pair of old running shoes and it was very apparent. Cardio wise I was doing well but my legs and feet hurt. Not hitting the stadium for a couple weeks was noticeable.

Successfully completed three sessions and then back to the gym. Gym felt better then the stadium and we did several bouts of abs with the medicine ball. Good times. Felt strong.

Today I rode the bike in and at lunch decided to try the treadmill with the 'Alpine Trail'. This is a challenging workout. I set the max speed at 8.5 MPH and the max incline at 12 for 30 minutes. I can complete this session but it is definitely a work out that is felt in the calves.

Did chest workout with Vic and Chad for first time in a couple of weeks. Started at a higher weight (205) and then dropped down each set. This is the first time in a very long time that I gone to failure on each set. I will be sore in tomorrow.

On a side note I will be working all night again and bad food will be present.

Stadium Days

No exercise this morning. Was originally supposed to go swimming at Lake Serene with Jim. However, I stayed up late doing the Mystery Beer Tasting. I think that everyone had a really good time.

I woke up later than usual (at about 6AM) and heard my phone beeping. It was a message from Jim stating that we was not able to make the swim. This was a relief. I have not done any swimming in a couple of weeks, much less OWS.

Hit the stadium with Vic and Chad. Vic is having a great week. Chad trailed him most of the way. (Chad is still struggling with the quad.)

I ran the steps out in front of both of them and ran the transitions - no recovery at all! It was a good work out. I doubt I will be sore tomorrow at all - this work out is starting to build strength.

Hit the weights after the stadium. A little shoulders and a lot of abs. The core is also getting stronger.

Special thanks to Julie (Vic's wife) for the awesome banner!