Stage 4 complete! ... and a word on pulleys

Stage 4 of New Rules of Lifting for Women is complete!
I did only 2 sets of the last four exercises and I'm saving the intervals for another day.

Here are my weights:
Wide Grip Deadlift: 2@110#, 1@115# - not from box, since I'm already at a deficit
Bulgarian Split Squat: 3@30# - did I really do the second set??
Underhand Lat Pulldown: 2@5x105#/3x100#, 1@4x105#/3+1x100#
Rev Lunge from Box: 3@25#ea
DB Prone Cuban Snatch: 3@15#ea - tried 20# and it wasn't gonna happen
Swiss Ball Crunch: 2@28# overhead
Reverse Crunch: 2@30deg bench
Lateral Flexion: 2xHanna3
Prone Cobra: 2@2min

Now I'm due for a week or so break, then I'll be on to Stage 5!

Cable Stations and Pulleys
There was some question about the cable systems and what you are actually lifting, so I'm going to attempt to explain here. Pulleys can be used to create mechanical advantage (remember that?? levers and the like?). But the way they are set up changes how you pull the weight. The setup affects the amount of tension in the cable (i.e., the weight you pull) and the distance you pull the cable relative to how far the weight stack moves.

If you are using a simple one-pulley system, e.g., my lat pulldown station, the weight you pull is the same as the weight selected in the stack. In this setup, the weights will travel the same distance that the lat pulldown bar travels. See the diagram below.

Single Pulley Setup Diagram

In a two-pulley system, e.g., the cable station I use for woodchops and rows, the extra pulley creates a mechanical advantage, much in the same way using a lever would. The tension in the cable is half of the amount of weights I have selected. In return for having to lift less weight, I have to pull the cable twice as far. This actually works well for weightlifting because you want more pulling distance on some exercises. For example, when I do cable woodchops, I move about 5 or 6 feet from one side to the other. But, the weight stack only needs 2.5 to 3 feet of moving room to accommodate this exercise. I've seen people move a lot more distance than that for other exercises on this machine. See the diagram below.

Double Pulley Setup Diagram

Although, there are other ways of setting up pulley systems, you should be able to tell what you are using by examining the cable machine. I was the only one in the weight area today, so I snapped a few quick pictures of the cable machines I use. Note how the top of the weight stack differs as well as how the weights are reported on the sign on the machine. Sorry for the horrible quality of the pictures. I was using my cell phone, which has no flash!

Single Pulley Setup
Note: No pulley attached to weight stack

Single Pulley Weights

Double Pulley Setup
Note: Pulley attached to weight stack

Double Pulley Weights

Darn sidewalk! And a beautiful bike ride...

To start the day, I got up for a "long" run of 4.5 miles. It was one of those days, when things just don't seem to be easy. The good thing was that nature didn't call this time. But, I was going down one sidewalk where there is a slight unevenness. I almost always trip here, but I've never fallen... until today. Luckily I caught myself without doing any real damage. I didn't fall on my legs and I didn't land wrong on my hands. Just a little scratched up skin on my palms, which, as I write this, is already unnoticeable. A couple years ago, I tripped on an uneven sidewalk. When I fell, I caught myself poorly on my wrist and hurt it pretty bad. It took several weeks to heal and if I remember correctly, it was the reason I quit C25K the first time.

A lot of people were out walking their dogs this morning. Maybe that's why it seemed like the bunny density was down a bit. I've started making it a point to greet every one I pass. That was fun today, since I passed so many people.

Since I wasn't "feeling it" and since we were planning on going for a bike ride, I kept it to the 4.5 miles that I had on the plan. My average pace was about 11:30, so I guess I sped up a tad. But, I didn't go as far, so maybe it doesn't count. My knee was feeling a bit funky, but not weird enough to stop. I stretched fairly well when I got home. My hear rate stayed between 170 and 180 bpm, so I'm happy with my exertion level.

It was a beautiful morning. 60-62F, with a light 5-6mph wind. Sunshine! Simply wonderful.

Bunny count - 12

The beautiful morning turned into a beautiful day. After a not-so-nice beginning with my daughter (not her fault) we got on the road and drove to Saylorville Lake. We parked and got out our bikes. We started up the fun, hilly, and twisty trail for a wonderful 10 mile ride. The trail is the Neal Smith Trail. It's a very nice, well-used trail. Highly recommended for a family outing.

The ride was a little warmer, with the record saying 73.5F to 78F. Really nice. A light 1-2 mph with (with some higher puffs) kept us cool, too. Most of the trail was mostly shady. There is a beautiful prairie area, which isn't shaded, but that was fine. Thanks to the flowers, birds, and butterflies, it was a nice nature ride.

While at a park during a break, I practiced a few chin-ups on the play equipment. I still can't get all the way up from a dead hang, but I did several jump-up chin-ups.

Darn biology

I almost talked myself out of running today. I moved my knee and hear the click. "Oh, I shouldn't run when it clicks!" Duh, it clicks whenever I do that. The catch was it didn't hurt. I iced it last night, when it was a little sore, probably from weight lifting yesterday. Also, I wanted to get a long run in this weekend without back-to-back running days.

So, I got out the door around 5:15 or 5:30 (my Garmin won't connect right now so I can tell the truth). I ended up warming up with a really slow run then running eight 30sec/60sec intervals. Well, I ran an extra fast section on accident, but that is ok.

Yet again, I had to stop for a bio-break at about 20 minutes. I didn't get back out since I did the intervals.

Update: 1.73 miles in 20 minutes.

Last round of Stage 4!

Today I got up for 4A4. I think I hit snooze once or twice because my dream was telling me it was important to finish whatever I was dreaming about. But, I still managed to start my workout at 4:40.

I managed to increase my weights on the front squat push press, but I almost didn't get the last press done. I chose to do the push-ups on the floor this time. I can do them on the floor with my elbows out. I think I'll do them on the floor and work on moving my arms in rather than always trying them with elbows in but at an angle. Today was a grip strength challenge!

Front Squat Push Press: 2@50#, 1@55#
Step-ups: 3@30# ea I feel very heavy with these, squished into the ground. Odd.
1-Pt Row: 3@40# ea These are a huge grip-strength challenge. I barely got the last rep out. I had to pause some to get through the 8 reps. Some balance issues.
Static lunge, rear foot elevated: 35# ea Still struggling to get proper depth. Maybe I should have dropped back in weight.
Push-ups: 3x on the floor with elbows out. Need to work on getting elbows in for triceps strength.
Planks: 3@2min Struggled with negative thoughts during the first minute of the first set.
Horiz. Cable Woodchops: 3@37# pulled (73# on cable) These feel powerful, and I have the "badge-of-honor" bruises on the backs of my arms to show I'm working hard!

I'm pretty wiped from the workout today. I have a feeling that my forearms are going to be sore thanks to the 35# and 40# dumbbells.

The Eco-ball seems to be working ok. I have to be careful not to use too much, otherwise I breath the dust in and that is not pleasant.

The air is thick

Even though I tried to talk myself out of it, I managed to make it out the door for my 30 minute run this morning. It was HUMID! 100% humidity, foggy.

About 18 minutes into the run, the annoying happened and I had to head home to take a bio-break. So, I took care of things and headed back out to finish the 8 minutes I had left. I'm proud of myself for finishing them up.

I totaled 2.5 miles today.

How annoying. My husband, who doesn't run very often, went out for a run last night and his first running portion was 5.25 miles, about what I ran for a PB distance on Sunday. And, he ran that at a little under 10 minutes per mile compared to my approx. 12 minutes per mile. Argh.

Otherwise, the run went well. I didn't use a podcast today. Man, hearing myself breathe is annoying.

Bunny count: 11

Update: The cool thing about it being humid in the morning is that you can see the spider webs very well. They are all over the grass, big and small.

4B3 is done!

This morning, I did 4B3. This was after running 5.2 miles yesterday, then biking about 5.5 miles pulling a kid trailer, then playing kickball, then staying up late and getting up at 4:15am. Phew!

I reduced the weights on the Bulgarian Split Squats back to one dumbbell and was able to get fully down. I'm not sure when I stopped using one dumbbell and went to two. I wonder if the holding position effects the squat. No matter what, I feel much better about what I did on them today, even if the total weight was a lot less.

Otherwise, the day was rather uneventful. My legs are tired and sore today, but that might be from running yesterday.

Long run!

So, even though we haven't formally signed up for the 10k at the end of September, I'm training for it just so I have some goal. I decided to train as follows. I'm going to run three times a week. Two days will be 30 minutes. At least one of those will have intervals, maybe both. One day will be a long run, with a distance goal that increases every week by 0.5 miles.

So, I started the long run today with a goal of 4 miles. However, I found myself farther away from home at 4 miles than I wanted to be, so I just finished the run by running home. It ends up that I ran for 5.2 miles!! I ran for 1:02, which puts the run at about 12:00 min/mile. That isn't too crazy. That would put me finishing the 10k in an hour and 14 minutes. I certainly wouldn't be the last one across the finish line! I'd even beat the marathoners!

I think I set a pretty good pace for myself. Most of the run showed a heart rate of 170-175 bpm. That seems like a good endurance-type heart rate for me. Toward the end, my ankles were feeling a bit worn out, so it is good I didn't have farther to go.


I think this is the farthest I've ever run! There might have been one other run on a treadmill during the winter that was about the same, but this is pretty good for me! Woo hoo!
Update: That hour run was actually only 4.75 miles. So, here's a new PR!

It was an absolutely beautiful day. The slightest of breezes, 57F-62F and partly cloudy skies. Nice.

I ran to a 149bpm Podrunner mix called Runnerfunker. This might have been the first time I used the whole podcast then started with the next one!! Haa haa... So, I did listen to a few minutes of a 150bpm podcast called Square One.

Mixing it up...

... not by choice, but thanks to a guy who was using the power cage for an hour! It's not that he was using it in a bad way. He actually was done sets of several different barbell exercises. I didn't ask to work in because that would mean removing lots of weight from his bar to put on my wimpy 2.5# weights. (Thank you push press!) Soooooo, the squat/push press got done at the end, only a few minutes after the guy finished the barbell portion of his workout. The positive side was that I was really warmed up, which is something that I sometimes struggle with when the squat/push press is the first thing on my plate. The end was a good place, since the planks and woodchops , which were the exercises that should have been last, worked different muscles. So, I was relatively rested from the step-ups and static lunges.

Step-up: 1@25#ea, 1@20#&25#,1@30#ea I realized after the second set that I had picked up a 20# (left) and a 25#(right). Doh! I hope I didn't do that for the first set, too. If I had had them in the other hands I might have noticed. I did NOT fall off the bench this time. Although, once my balance shifted to the outside, which would have been really bad if I had not been able to bring myself back into control. (I step-up on a padded weight bench, ~18" tall.)

DB 1-pt row: 2@35#ea, 1@40#ea Wow, I'm in the big girl rack now! The 35# weights used to be on the big girl rack, but now they are on the lighter weight rack.

Static lunge rear foot elevated: 3@ 35# Felt I couldn't keep depth with a heavier weight, yet.

Push-up: In addition to barbell guy, the Smith machine/leg press guy was there. So, I did these 3 sets on the side of a bench.

Plank: 3@2min Huffing and puffing, didn't think I would complete these, but I did!

Cable Horiz. Woodchop: 3@37# lifted (73# on cable) I wish I could increase these!!

Front Squat Push Press: 3@50# The push press is still the liming factor on this.

Did I work hard? I think so. I think the HRM agrees:

Intervals!

I've been mulling over which run to participate in next. But, while I decide, I should actually be running. So, I got out this morning and did intervals. Rather than the 60sec high/120sec low intervals in NRoLfW, I did double the number of 30s/60s intervals. From what I've read, it seems like this is more of a true high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. I think I agree. I can go all out for 30 seconds, but I can't hold that for a minute. So, when I do 60/120 intervals, I have to scale back my high intensity sections.

I ran 27:36 today for 2.42miles. That calculates out to an average pace of 11:24. I did get down to almost 7:30 for some of the intervals, though. It looks like one of the rest periods clocked out at over 17:00min/mile. Believe it or not, I was jogging during that time! Very slowly, but still...

My heart rate monitor must have lost contact during the fast periods, because the graph below shows my HR dropping precipitously as soon as those 30seconds start, then popping back up when I slow down. I think some of the intervals probably got up to about 185-190bpm, judging from the rate of decrease during the slow periods. That little dropoff with the blip at the bottom is typical of the HRM loosing contact. *sigh*


Today's choice of music was a 152 bpm Podrunner podcast called Power Trip. Nice.

Working on form

Today was 4B2 of NRoLfW

I was feeling a decent amount of knee clicking today.

On the BSS, I went down in weight so that I could go deeper. I felt with the higher weights, I wasn't getting a full squat. Otherwise things went well. I increased weights on a few of the exercises, on others I held constant.

I skipped the intervals due to time. I'll try to get them in tomorrow.

Full body workout

Boy, my whole body feels worked-out today. That's a good thing!

Today, I did 4A2 of NRoLfW. During one of the step-ups, as I was decending, I landed on my non-working foot wrong, twisted my ankle and fell down, losing one of my 25# dumbbells. I was worried that I had done some damage, but after a couple minutes of rest, things improved to the point that I continued with the workout. I have weak ankles, so this isn't new. Falling after coming off of a ~18inch step holding 50# of weights was a bit different of a feeling, though! Rather scary, especially since I was all alone in the gym. There was a funny coincidence, though. VH1 was on the gym TV and a song by Kelly Clarkson was playing. As I was sitting there seeing if my ankle would get better, she's dancing on a bar and ends up falling off in much the same manner that I did!

I definitely got a good workout if you reference my heart rate graph from my Garmin:

Heart rate from today's workout. Resting ankle at about 25min mark.

The only problem I have with a heart rate chart is that I don't get credit for activities that are prone. I'm working really hard during those 2 minute planks, sweating and puffing, but since I'm not standing up, my heart rate doesn't get very high. It does show me getting up to 130bpm, though. I guess that is pretty high for a prone position.

I didn't hear as many clicks from my knee today. Also, the ones I heard weren't as extreme as normal. Before the workout, my knee wasn't as sore as it has been. Improvement? I hope!

Last night I did a yoga session from YogaToday.com. I needed that. The kids were being terrors last night and I was so worn out from dealing with them that I could have gone to bed at 8:30pm. Hubby encouraged me to do the yoga, though. Thanks, hon!

New Rules of Lifting 4A2:
FSPP - 3x50# (got sloppy towards end)
Step-up - 3x25#ea (twisted ankle)
DB 1-pt row - 3x35#ea
Static lunge - 3x35#ea (should probably get lower on these??)
Push-up - 2xsetting 4 on Smith Machine, 1xsetting 5
Plank - 3x2min
Horiz woodchop - 3x37#

Another day at the gym

Today was 4B1 of New Rules of Lifting for Women. I held or increased weights from when I did Stage 2, which had the same workouts, just two extra reps but 2 rather than 3 sets. I guess they say 2-3 sets for Stage 4, but I did 3 of everything. I left off the intervals, though, since I didn't have time.

Things went well. The underhand lat pulldowns were strong again. I managed 100# for all but the last three reps. I made sure I was releasing tension when I let the bar up so that I would be more closely mimicking the chin-up.

I started reading Starting Strength:Basic Barbell Training 2nd edition by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. Wow! Great book. Well written and illustrated. Very interesting. I need to get my dictionary out for a few words, I think! I'm not sure it would be the best book for the absolute beginner. But maybe it would be fine. I probably get different nuggets of information out of it, though.

4k on the Fourth

I just got back from my second 4k race. The first one was when I was about 4 weeks into the C25K program. This time I cut around 4.5 minutes off that first time. It was rainy and (of course) overcast. The rain was light, however, and it was rather cool for a July day. It was a cool 64F (18C) with about a 10mph (16kph) breeze.

This year, the course was an out and back. During the first mile, we spread out and I was again pretty much running by myself. Although, there were people within a few yards ahead of me to keep me going. Afterward, I'm always thinking I could have run faster, but looking back at my heart rate record, it's rather clear that I couldn't have pushed it much harder without burning out. After the first mile, my heart rate got above 180 and stayed there for the rest of the race. During my final 0.1 mile when I kicked it up a notch to almost a 7min/mile pace, my heart rate got up to 193. My overall average pace was 10min/mile.

It took me 10-15 seconds to cross the starting line (it's a medium sized race with a wide starting line, so I was relatively close to the start), so my official time will be a bit slower. My Garmin shows 24:32 and 2.45 miles. That's pretty accurate, since 4k is 2.49 miles. I'd say 0.04miles is within the margin of error, considering it depends on which side of the path you run on! I set my Virtual Partner to my last 4k time. That didn't help, since I was so much faster this time. At about 0.5 miles, I checked and was 345ft ahead of my VP. So, I forgot about VP and switched to a different screen, one with time, speed, and distance.

I ran with an old favorite Podrunner podcast, Definitive at 154bpm.

Overall, I'm glad I got up and out of the door today, despite the rain. Now, on to the July 4th festivities!

On to Stage 4

Of course, NRoLfW Stage 4 has the same workouts as Stage 2. You have the option of 2 or 3 sets of each. Today I did 3 of everything and still got out in under an hour. I didn't do all the 90s waiting periods, though. I was thinking about only doing 2 sets of the plank/woodchop combo, but I did 3. That 3rd 2minute plank was VERY tough. Going into it, I didn't think I could make 2 minutes at a plank at all! So, I'm pretty pleased with myself. I did get some knee clicks on some of the squats and some of the step-ups. I only went to horizontal on the squats.

Overall, I'm happy with my performance. I didn't back off on the weights and even increased some. I ended with a relatively strong feeling.

It was rather busy today in the gym. About half way through, others started showing up. Two women were also using the weight area then a guy showed up, too. That kind of surprised me since it's summer.

Tomorrow is my last PT appointment. Now I'll have to do the exercises on my own. I don't know if I'll be able to keep those stability ball ones up. I don't like them much, but I did improve a lot over the last few weeks. I'm still getting knee clicks, but my muscles are developing.

Monday, I ran 2.18 miles and had no problems with my knee. I'll slowly increase mileage and see what happens.