Running Log: January 18 - January 24

Total Miles for the Week: 29.5

01/18 Ran 10 miles at Munson Hills with the Steph, Neil and Steve. It was hard. I keep saying that but I'm not back to that place where its hard but whatever. I'm really fighting for my miles these days. And my back was out. It forced me to keep my upper body steady and my pace even.

Steph says it went well and I'm inclined to believe her since she saw my run and I'm sure I am biased from the fatigue driven pain I felt.

01/19 Worked out in the Park.
Thai Planks (right, middle and left, 6 reps of each) to 10 PU's x 5 *
100 Mountain Climbers (50 on each side
10 Inverted Rows to 1 minute Wall Sit (10 total) ** x 5
50 Mountain Climbers (25 on each side)
100 Suitcase Carry (on each side) to 20 Squats x 5 ***

* This was a bit of a cluster fuck. I get why Mike and L.A from Train.Fight.Win had us practice exercises first. You get to sort out how a thing will work and adjust. I did a series of Thai planks, hold plank and then knee to elbow on the open side which takes hella-balnance, mixed with 10 push-ups - side plank, standard plank otherr side plank and then 10 push ups. I did them on the mountain climber bar though so instead of my elbows resting on the ground, making my abs do all the work, I was up on my arm holding the bar like a T-up which is a much harder variation so I only got 50 push ups total and the planks only worked my back, chest and arms never really touching my abs.

** The inverted rows were brutal at that point and I ended up doing a wall sit every time I had to stop which ended up giving me 10 Wall Sits.

*** The FC's were freaking brutal. The last two sets were half ad halfs were I had to switch hands right before failure. My arms and shoulders got worked alright but I need to rethink my non-back wrenching abs workout.

NOTE TO SELF: Correct form is critical and don't do anything that isn't done under control. If it isn't under control, stop wait and then go or just end that series. Correct form doesn't just activate the most muscle. It protects the muscle form strain.

01/20 Ran 6.5 with Steph at the Greenway. She actaully rode her bike which was fine because she kept my pace. I ran some good hills and felt like my pace was steady - not too much drop back or bursting. I feel like I work harder when I train with Steph or Steve but I'm not sure I like that. I want to be able to train that hard onmy own. I need to sort that out

01/21 Worked out at the Park.
SB Bear Hug for 200m
10 Inverted Rows/30 Lateral Squats x 6
5 Inverted Rows/30 Lateral Squats x 8
Farmer's Carry 20m x 10
20 Bent-over Rows x 6
10 Deep Lunges (10 second hold) x 2

It was harder than I thought. It was supposed to be standing skull crushers to walking lunges to curls but after the inverted rows, my arms were fucked. Normally, my farmer's Carry is 3x that distance. This might be a keeper.

I need to figure out and settle on how lateral squats should work. Its hard to go fast enough for a burn stepping side to side but dodging the bar doesn't seem big enough either.

01/23 Ran 13 miles at the Greenway. I rolled my ankle in the first five minutes. I pushed through. The thing about long runs is there's a lot of time to think. There was the split tree, maybe lightning, maybe something less exotic but it was growing in two dirrections and I could see how eventually, it would either grow back together and survive or continue groing apart and destroy itself. I need more time to process the idea but its in there, its in me. The second is that biblical quote, "The stone that the builder reject has become the cornerstone. Thats me. That's the way I've always felt, abandoned by my birth father, outcast, alone but here I am heathly and tough. You know to Christians, the great paradox is that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God and that, regardless of what you believe about God and Mary, Jesus grew up in a world were he was 100% bastard in the eyes of his neighbors. So when he said, the stone that the builder rejected, in his world, he was the stone. More to process.

Training Idea: Tornando Training

I'd heard about Tornado Training and it seemed kind of fad-y using hurricane balls and, just another take on the same GPP stuff that's hot right now but the article in On Fitness broke it down into five principles make a nice formula for building any bodyweight or lo-fi (couple of dumbbells, a kettle bell or sandbag) workout:

1. A twist exercise like bicycles
2. An up/down like a squat
3. a plyometric exercise like clapping push-ups or box jumps
4. Keep it fresh and mixed up, even timed versus rep based workout
5. Can be whole workout or just part of a workout.

Once I've reduced my injuries to nil I'm going to use it as a my template for a month. It looks like fun.

Finishers

These are nice ways to end a gym workout. They're like drop sets to get that last burn in and they help ramp up your metabolism and burn a little extra fat.

1) Five minutes of burpees or swings
2) Squat Progression (30 seconds for each exercise 6 to 10 minutes)
      Jump Squats (for height)
      Speed Squats
      Squats with a 3 Second Hold
      Wall-less Squat Sit for 30 Seconds
3) Knee to Elbow Variant (Hanging from the bar, legs slightly bent, raise them at the waist move them horizontally and bring them down. No rocking or swinging. 5 sets for 60 seconds.)

Go-to Workouts

These are a few ideas I put together for workouts that hit all the major groups. I like to either pick a set amount of reps and sets or you could do the sets for time. Both would probably hurt real nice.


Med Ball
Sumo Squat with Overhead Med Ball Chop
Med Ball AB Roll-out
Russian Step-up (arms extended holding med ball)
Med Ball Chop with Lunge

Dumbbell (DB)
Lunge to DB Press
Push up to forward DB Arm Raise
Walking Push-up
Split Squat with DB

DB
Jump Lunge with DB
Push-up to Row
Lunge with DB Push Press
Burpee

Heavy DB
Heavy weight DB Swing
Squat to Press
One-Arm Row with Twist
Woodchop to Twist Squat

DB
Punch-out with DB (shadowboxing)
DB Squat
Push-up to Row or Lateral Raise
Jump Squat to Curl
Bodyweight
Mountain Climbers
Sit-ups
Push-ups