Presses galore

Today seemed to have lots of presses.  Well, ok, two types.  I guess that's not a lot.

One thing I have noted during the mobility section was that my glutes aren't as active as they should be, especially my left one.  I need to work on that.  The single leg supine bridges are what point it out to me.

Since it was a Saturday, the kids joined me part way through.  They even did some weight work!

Phase 1, Week 1
1:15
Foam rolling
Mobility work
Close-grip bench press - (warm up 1x10@45#, 1x3@65#) 1x3@75#, 1x3@80#, 3x3@85# (last rep barely happened!)
Negative pull-ups - 5x3 (pronated grip - much harder than negative chin-ups)
Low incline DB press - 1x6@25#ea, 1x6@27.5#ea, 2x6@30#ea
Chest-supported DB row - 3x10@25#ea
Prone bridge arm march - 3x10ea side
Side-lying external rotation - arm propped at 30 deg abduction - 3x10ea side@5#
Elbow-wrist flexors stretch - 2x30s ea side
2-way band hamstrings stretch - 2x15s each position each side

Lovely soreness

So, I'm still sore from Monday and I just keep adding more sore muscles to the bunch!  So good :)

I thought my sore quads would get in the way of my deadlifts today, but they calmed down just enough not to be too bad.  I think I hit a PR on deadlifts.  There were a couple really hard and awkward moves today.  I did my best and improved, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.  Hopefully over the next 3 weeks I'll be happier with my performance on them.

Phase1, Week 1, Thursday
1:10
Foam rolling
Mobility moves
Conventional deadlift - (warm up 5@135#) 1x5@145#, 1x5@155#, 1x5@160#, 1x4@165# (subbed - no trap bar available)
Wall ankle mobility - 3x8/side

Walking DB lunges - 1x6ea@15#ea, 3x6ea@20#ea
Quadruped chin tucks - 3x5

Side bridge wall slides - 3x10 (very hard, main weakness at supporting leg)
Natural glute-ham raises - 3x6 (very hard, bad form, getting a bit better)
Stability ball adductor stretch on wall - 2x30s
Kneeling heel-to-butt stretch - 2x30s/side

Where is my ego? At the door.

Yes, I checked it at the door.  I can do big girl push-ups, but they aren't very pretty.  Today's program called for feet elevated push-ups.  I thought I'd just do regular push-ups.  But, I didn't even like my form on those, so I switched to elevating my arms.  I just wasn't getting proper depth, as is often my problem.  But, doing not so deep push-ups won't help me get deeper.  So, I did them on the Oly bar in my power cage.  I got great depth, though!  Great form.  I'm glad I checked the ego and did it right.

The other ego check was for the bent over trap raise, which I subbed for the crossover reverse fly, since my cable station only has one cable.  The barbie-bells come out for this one. Five pounds.  I tried 8 pounds and wasn't able to finish the motion at the top.  So, 5 pounds it is.

I was glad it was a upper body day. My legs are still sore from Monday!

Phase 1, week 1, Wednesday (4x per week)
1:11
Foam rolling and mobility work
Alternating DB bench press - 1x35#ea, 3x32.5#ea
Neutral grip pull-downs - 4x5@100#
Push-ups - 1x10 on floor, 2x10 w/ bar elevated 15.5"
Seated cable row - pronated grip - 3x10@80#
DB hammer curls - 3x8@20#ea (done alternating, oops)
Bent over trap raise - 3x10@5#ea
Bar roll out - 3x8
Walking spiderman w/overhead reach - 3x5

Starting Show and Go

I'm off!  I took pictures, measurements and weights today.  This is a 16 week workout program.  I'm excited!  Front squats were the major lifts today.  Later on were deficit reverse lunges... the squats had tired my quads so much, my legs failed at the bottom of the lunge a few times.  Then, all of a sudden they worked again.

The Pallof press iso holds were hard!  Phew!  I'm not sure if doing them at an angle is a problem.  I wasn't totally sure what to use as a weight for the speed deadlifts.  What I ended up with was pretty easy, which I guess was the point.  I don't know if I was at 50% because I doubt I could 1RM 210#.

Here we go:

S&G Week 1 (4x per week) Monday
Foam rolling
Mobility moves
Front squats - 1x3 @75#, 4x3 @80#
Scapular wall slides - 4x8
Speed deadlifts (50% load) - 1x2 @95#, 5x2 @105#
DB reverse lunges with deficit - 3x8 @10# each hand
Pallof press iso holds - 3x3 @15#
Split-stance kneeling adductor stretch - forward position - 2x30s per side
1-arm doorway pec stretch - 2x30s per side

Doin' my own thing - kinda

Today I went over the Show and Go foam rolling and warm up again after watching the associated videos again. It went a lot better.  I do need to see the "wall hip flexor mobility drill" again.  I don't think I got that right.  Also, I need to find a ball for some of the foam rolling section.  Otherwise, it went a lot better this time.  I think I'll have that down before the first full session on Monday.

After the warm up I did a metabolic circuit from Female Body Breakthrough.  You pick two exercises from four groups.  I did 30s on, 15s off, timed with my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305! I think next time I should do 45s-15s and maybe 3 rounds.

All together, not a very long workout, but still beneficial.

Here are the moves I chose:
1A - Hopscotch
1B - Cross behind stepup and over
1C - Pushups
1D - KB swings
2A - Jump rope
2B - Dynamic lunge with overhead reach holding 5#
2C - Prone step-off on Swiss ball
2D - Squat thrust

Getting back from resting

Two days of rest after the half marathon were definitely needed.  I'm not ready to run again, yet, but today I got a workout in.  I decided it would be a good day to try out the foam rolling and warm up from the Show and Go program I will be starting next week.  I know some of the moves are very new.  I realized, I will have to do some more work to remember what some of the moves are!

The foam rolling was not too comfortable on my still-sore leg muscles.

After those, I did a 50-10 ladder of kettlebell swings followed by 3 Turkish Getups on each side.  This was using my lonely 20# kettlebell.  At first, I tried jumping rope between the sets, but my calf told me that was too close to running, so stop it.  I did.  I could tell on my left side that 3 TGUs was all I was supposed to do.  Any more and my form would have suffered. 

After the kettlebell work, I tried some stir-the-pots supporting myself on my toes rather than my knees.  Hard!  Then I did some static hangs focusing on pulling my arms down into the shoulder sockets.  So, nothing really impressive, but a good first step back into the workout world.

My first half marathon is in the bag!

It was beautiful day. Perfect for a race.  It was around 40F at the start and warmed to around 55F.  Perfect.  Low winds.  Clear sky.  Wow.

When I got to Des Moines, I realized quickly that the parking garage I was aiming for was full and I would have to park a lot farther away than I had anticipated.  I still had plently of time, so no worries.  I couldn't dilly dally, though.

I made my way to the starting area, found a porta potty, got my stuff ready and dropped off a bag with my warm gear in it.  It was pretty chilly once I took off the pants and jacket.  I had tube socks with me for my hands, but I got rid of them pretty quickly.  I was wearing mid-thigh shorts and a singlet.  Luckily, in the starting crowd, it was warm!

I didn't have a lot of time to spare, so I made my way to the crowd.  Wow.  It was packed FULL.  I managed to find an opening right at about my pace area.  I had checked out the pace groups ahead of time.  There was one at 2:20 and one at 2:30.  I thought 2:25 would be about right, so I figured I'd try to keep around the 2:20 group and see if I could keep the 2:30 group from passing me.  Surprisingly, I didn't have much problem keeping up with the 2:20 group.  It was tough, but doable.  They were ahead of me at the start (no way to squeeze through the group to get to them) and toward the end, they also got ahead of me.  That turned out to be fine.  Most of the race, I was right with them.

The last two miles were hard.  There was a decent but not very long hill at that point that was not easy.  I had to start an inner dialog to keep myself going.  The last stretch with the finish line in sight was wonderful.

I had several Gu gels.  One 15 minutes prior, then at 45 minutes in, 90 minutes in, and 2 hours in.  Seemed to work great!  I didn't take the free gel because I hadn't tried the flavor before.

In the end, my chip time was 1:19:14!  So, the pace group thing worked wonderfully!

My Garmin says I ran 13.3 miles, which sounds about right.  It's always a little more than actual, thanks to turns and weaving.  According to the splits in SportTracks, my first two 10ks were 1:05:00 and 1:05:07. That's pretty consistent!

All around a great race.  Great organization, besides that my printed singlet had a different color than the number tags.  I think the numbers were the wrong color, because the medal matched my singlet.  Or both the medals and the singlet were wrong.  Otherwise, a very well run race for something approaching 8,000 runners!

Orion's belt

Friday morning, I was enjoying the stars.  Whenever I ran south, I had a nice view of Orion, which has long been my favorite constellation.  Maybe because it's the only one I can easily pick out.  I picked it out long before I knew what it was.  I used to think it was a hot air balloon.  Anyway, I ran 2.5 miles Friday, about 2.5 on Wednesday and 4 on Monday.

Friday evening, I was feeling sluggish and tired and was running a low fever, so I went to bed at about 7:30.  I read a little then went to sleep.  I slept for about 10.5 hours and was in bed for 12.  That is sooo not me.  So, I know something was up. Today, I had a headache, at least partly because I was in bed for so long.  A couple ibuprofen is keeping it under control, though.  Tomorrow is the big day.  Half-marathon day.  I guess I'm ready enough to give it a try.  It'll be harder, I think, without my brother to run with.  It's a pretty flat course, though, so it should be rather easy... at least as easy as half marathons go!  Ha!

Lots to report

I didn't get my final run in before the 10k.  But, the 10k at SeaWorld San Antonio went great.  It was the first annual "Run for the Fund" and benefits the Busch Gardens and SeaWorld Conservation fund.  I took the bus from downtown to SeaWorld.  That went well, and only cost $2.50 each way.  There was a 20 minute wait at one of the park and rides, but that was ok.  The trip was about an hour.  When we got to SeaWorld, the bus wouldn't actually go up to the park entrance because the gates don't really open until noon.  So, I got out waaaaay down at where the park's street begins.  Right as I got out of the bus, they opened the gates to let a long line of cars in.  I started walking up the drive and noted the cones on the road, meaning I would likely be seeing this road again!  I even had a guy offer to give me a ride up.  But, I declined and we agreed I'd probably beat him, since they hadn't yet actually opened the parking lot.  I arrived at the front gate on foot with the very first car in the parking lot.  Perfect timing!  I think I was the only one without a car.  The run had maybe 200 entries per race.  They capped entries.  There was a 10k, a 5k, and a family walk.  The 10k started first with Shamu (the plush kind with human guts) there. The beginning of the race was in the parking lot with some double-backs to take up length.  Then we went into the back parts of the park.  That was cool because we soon started seeing animals.  We ran by some tanks that people normally don't see.  Also, we ran by the tanks for the belugas I would meet later in the day.  They stationed several animals along the way with their trainers.  That was so fun.  It helped energize me. 

SeaWorld is not flat.  I don't know why I thought it would be, but it wasn't.  It was an interesting run, though and I finished strong.  The clock said 1:03+, but my GPS said that I only ran 6 miles.  So, I might have shaved a minute or so off of my previous 10k time.  At first, I was excited that I took 3 minutes off, but generally the GPS reports more length, not less.  A great run.  Very well managed.  It didn't get overly hot.  Since I didn't have car to go to, I had a mini-backpack that I wore for the race.  I had to pick up the packet that day, so I knew I'd have a shirt and some other stuff to carry with me.  They didn't have any lockers available.  I also wore my iFitness belt.  I took one Gu gel 15 minutes before the race and one at about 45 minutes in.  I had a granola bar on the bus on the way over.  I listed to a 160 bpm podcast which switched to a 162 bpm podcast right at the end.

Afterward, I had fruit and a cookie and got a free massage.  Then, we headed over to Shamu's stadium for the awards.  It was sealed with a performance by the orcas (killer whales) they call the Shamu family.  They are amazing!

The rest of that day, I went around SeaWorld and also participated in their Beluga Interaction Program where I put on a wet suit and hopped in the tank with three belugas.  The trainer showed us lots of hand signals for tricks and we got to touch and feed the belugas quite a bit.  Very awesome.

Later on the trip, I did Spartacus again in a cramped hotel gym.  I also barely managed to snag a treadmill another day for a 3 mile run.

Yesterday, I ran for 30 minutes.  My GPS was complaining because I had moved more than 100 miles since my last usage and I was half a mile in before it realized where it was.

This morning, I made up my own weight lifting program.  I think I'll leave programming to the pros.  I kinda sucked at it, but I got a halfway decent workout in.  This is what I did:

Warm-up -  alternating 1 minute of jump rope with 10 BW lunges each side, 30 KB swings, 20 band walks each side

3 sets of 8 reps, alternating 2 exercises each 
Bench press - 65#, 70#, 75#
Inverted row -  (not full extension due to height of bar)

Hip thrust - 45#, 55#, 65#
Hanging leg raise - shoulders down, trying to keep legs straight, but failing some

Overhead press - 45#, 50#, 55#
Overhead band pulls - hard to find challenging setup

Core work
1x stir the pot for one minute, 1x one minute plank with arms on Swiss ball

Spartacus

I got in a couple good rounds of Spartacus this morning.  Then I tacked on some negative pull-ups and some dumbbell bench presses.  Great workout!