Jason's Fitness Blatherings

Back to life

2011-09-24T23:27:00.002-05:00

After a very long break from a really hot summer, I could not take being away from running any more. I promised myself that when it first started to cool down, that I would get back to the trails.

That time has arrived, and I have slowly eked back into running. It has been mostly very good to be back but there have been difficult elements.

The good part is that is feels good just to be out out there moving again and getting some fresh air. I have never spent these kinds of hours sitting, reading and writing as I have the past copule of months. My body feels awful from it. It's nice that its not so hot that I can actually go out (for short miles) with a couple of water bottles instead of a 2 liter guzzlesack strapped to my back.

Another aspect I especially missed about running is that it really reconnected me with my body and let me experience life outside of my head. I have had to 'live in my head' so-to-speak with the hours of study that I have put in. Combine that with a lack of activity, and it is a recipe for disconnect for me. So - the experience of being out there is nice.

My body seems not to have forgotten the art of how to recover, and I have only been really sore maybe once that I can remember. I've been impressed with how quickly I feel rebuilt after what seems like a brutal workout. (realistically - a total wuss workout.)

However......

I have taken little 'breaks' before and these breaks were just short 'my-body-needs-a-break' breaks rather than the extended break that I just took. This is the first extended break I have taken, and it has been substantial enough for me to lose essentially all of my base.

It feels pretty crummy to struggle through 5k right now. There were recent times where I probably wouldn't even run less than 5-6 miles for most workouts. I will say that in the cool of the morning I have done far better than in the heat of the afternoons.

I can see definite progress, and I certainly feel better. It is very hard to be patient and get even a small base back. At this point my goal is to get comfortable with 6 miles again. Once I am there and we are done with all afternoon heat for the season, I am re-joining my training group. Bandera 25k is the goal this time.

It's good to be back. I will be glad when it's better to be back and when it's all running and not running and having to take the occasional breather. I know that I can get my base back but I have to find a way to be patient about that and not tell myself what pace, what comfort level what I *should* be doing because I always find myself comparing that to when I was in my best shape, which is stupid. I'm not sure why I expect to immediately be where it took me months of work to be before, but some naive inner part of me thinks that I can 'pick up where I left off.'

This is one of those ridiculous double-think things I try to sell myself. Like "healthy pastries": would you like your dose of cyanide full strength, or merely diluted?

Some jerk stole my Garmin out of my truck a few months back. I admit that I loved my Garmin, and I found it especially useful when I was doing quality workouts and distance training. I also logged every workout from my Garmin to TrainingPeaks and it essentially became a self-updating workout blog with stats and things I wanted to see about my workouts. That part I miss. The part that I do not miss is that I would often engage in the aforementioned pace/distance games with my mental self way-too-often on workouts that were not about pace or distance or speed. Somehow, it turned me into my own e-bully. This was nice for interval workouts and ones that I really wanted to push, but it was a habit that I did not shake when it was not needed, and it often reared its head at bad times during certain runs when I would get really disappointed with how slow I felt I was going in relation to how fast that I wanted to go. Again, that can be nice when you need or want to push, but when you are just doing survival miles to build your base it can put you in a bad mental place. It seemed that when I was starting new training cycles this was pretty par for the course, too.

With that said I am actually enjoying getting back to running with my plain old Timex Ironman watch. No GPS, no screaming at myself every 5 seconds, and not knowing exactly how many miles I have or haven't gone but a rough approximation. I mentally know the miles on most of the greenbelt from my house enough to where I have near GPS idea of it anyhow. For now, I will stick to being 80's runner with my ultra modern digital watch. It shows me time and I can keep up laps, and I'm not judging myself by the second on pace.

News.

2011-06-14T21:47:00.000-05:00

It has been forever since I posted. There is good news, and there is bad news. Right now, it would be nice just to make sense of it.

Today felt like an all-time low, physically and mentally, in running for me. The past couple of summers, I was very strong in the heat and did fantastic. I don't remember heat acclimation EVER being this difficult with me, and I'm not doing anything different than I have in the past.

It seems like for the last week, any time I go out, I can run for about 1.5-2 miles before I just have to stop and walk some...and end up spending the rest of the workout just doing intervals, except my intervals are more like 1-1, or 2-1, instead of 4-1 like they should be. I haven't even tried to go more than 4 miles, and I usually think if I'm running less than 6 miles, I shouldn't bother unless it's a tempo run or speed workout. Anyhow - running has been MISERABLE. The ability and the will to keep going simply is not there. It's just so ridiculously hot. What I used to love to run in, I now completely hate and despise because it makes me feel so utterly like hell and seems to suck the life out of me, rather than put it back in. It's hard to believe I ran so much, and so well, in this before.

I know that it takes time to heat acclimate again, and god knows I was super acclimated in summers past. (like going out with a 113 degree heat index and feeling great on a 6 miler). Right now I am really frustrated. I have even considered shelving my running shoes until late fall.

The reason I have been doing these runs in the hottest part of the day is to make myself get used to the heat, and that always worked like a charm in the past. For some unknown reason, it is just not working this time around.

A couple of my friends have said they are also having a hard time with the heat, too, and said they can't run squat in it.. That eased my frustration with myself some. It's early in the summer. (okay it's not even summer yet) It's insanely hot, and I guess I need to remind myself that it will get better, even though right now it feels like it will only lead to death.

The last *great* run I had was my last long run that I did early in the morning. I think i am going to move back to morning running, as much as I freaking hate to run in the morning. At least I *can* run then, and it feels like I'm getting a workout, instead of merely trying to survive the blistering heat.

The nutritional changes I made have worked wonders, when I have stuck to my guns, which I mostly have. I did let some sugar work back in for about 1 week, and I noticed it had an immediate effect. I haven't been on a scale in ages, but from measurements and appearance, I'd say I easily dropped 15-20lbs. I have more to go, and if I can just get my f'ing body to cooperate with running, I'll have the rest off in no time.

Oh, precious heat mojo, how I want you back. We have a lot of summer ahead of us, and running has been so completely awful that I have seriously considered stopping. I do not like to have those thoughts.

My Review of Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS Sport Watch

2011-05-19T09:03:00.001-05:00

Originally submitted at REI

The Timex Ironman® Global Trainer® GPS sport watch helps you get the most out of your training by providing the tools needed to monitor, analyze and improve your workout.

Disappointing overall

By austinjason from Austin, TX on 5/19/2011

Cons: Short Battery Life, Difficulty finding signal, Flimsy Charger design

Describe Yourself: Power User

How are you with directions: Great w/Directions

Was this a gift?: No

As a long-time Garmin GPS user who was ready for something new and different, I bought this GPS expecting to like it at least as much as I had liked all of my other Timex Ironman watches.

The customizable screens were nice, and the ability to jump from one type of workout like you would expect was there, although I found the menuing system a little cumbersome.

From the get-go I found that this GPS had a MUCH harder time finding and locking onto a good signal than my Garmin units did. I did find it to be accurate once it got a signal, but often had to start workouts with no signal because I was so sick of waiting around for it to get a signal. (and this is in clear, open area with no cloud cover) I was disappointed with the battery life, though. This is definitely not a watch for ultra training runs and CERTAINLY not long events, especially (and ironically) something like an Ironman.

What really tore it for me is the horrible charger design. The entire leverage of it on one side is held in place by this utterly flimsy plastic tab. Once this tab breaks, there is absolutely NO way that you can charge the unit again, unless you buy another charger from Timex. This is not that uncommon of a problem, despite the fact that Timex seems pretty defiant about it. After a back and forth with them, I finally decided to return this GPS. I absolutely would NOT recommend buying this 1st gen product.

I will definitely be pulling my old Garmin back out of the drawer with renewed appreciation for it.

(legalese)

Reset

2011-02-11T00:19:00.001-06:00

Lots to catch up on here. I will start by saying, that I am not really happy with myself right now, because I have not been getting my workouts done lately, none of them.

I got sick a few weeks back, and had to miss a few days & long run. Then, we had awful weather that I was not willing to run in. the following week, and also stupidly missed days I could have run when it was gorgeous, but I didn't go for whatever lame reason. The litany of weak excuses could go on forever, and that is what I feel like crap about - bottom line - when the workouts are important to you, you get them done, and for some reason mine just fell to the back burner. I'm not sure why I lost all motivation - especially since I was doing so well. Although the biggest reason is that my workout room is torn all to hell right now while it is getting redone. I have made it a point to move everything out of the way so that workouts will start happening again regularly.

So - I'm hitting reset. I also posted pretty lofty goals about the Nueces 50k, what I was not looking at was the actual date of the race, and where I was at in relation to that. That would have meant me starting over fresh and getting ready for a 50k (including taper) in barely 7 weeks. I had held on to some of my base, but not nearly enough for that, especially when you consider how incredibly hard that course is. So, I opted to move my 50k race to the following month (Hells Hills), and I will drop down to the 25k at Nueces and really concentrate on my hills and still building my base for that race. (I will be way past 25k by then, but 50k would bee too much). Anyhow, I'm excited to at least have specific goals to train for.

A thought keeps crossing my mind, over and over for the past several weeks. There seems to be some little voice nagging me to do a triathlon this year. The thought of getting ready for a tri sort of terrifies me. I have managed to be pretty mediocre at one sports discipline, and I cannot imagine having to take on 3 at once, especially since I don't have a lot of experience with cycling (like race/road cycling) and almost zero with swimming. Maybe that's why I feel like I need to do it - to conquer a fear &/or try to break into some sort of new ground.

I do have a really nice tri bike already, that has mostly been on the trainer, although not even on that in a while. (for shaaaaame.) I need to find a beginner tri training program that will put up with a slow old newb.

Luckily, I don't feel like I have moved backward in terms of gaining weight or losing a lot of muscle in this lazy time, but I am lamenting the amount of progress I could have made in this time with each type of workout had I not found stupid reasons to keep me from doing what I know is good for me.

Oh well, live, learn and do better. This looks like a gorgeous weekend we have on slate, and I will be out on the trail again.

results!!

2010-12-29T05:18:00.000-06:00

It has been a while since I"ve updated here. I'm mostly here to celebrate results, but also note some things that need improvement.

I wish that I had decided to take SOME kind of metrics (weight, BMI, musc %, fat %, etc) before I started my new fitness & nutrition plan. I can really REALLY see results in the mirror, but I have no idea where I started, or even where I am at now. I have flat out avoided the scale and concentrated on my nutrition and workouts. Having had several people I know say something to me recently about it being noticeable, I'll take that as a good sign that I'm not just seeing things ;-)

I have done really well on the nutrition part, and I don't remember feeling better. Also, the results that were supposed to come from this change are already showing themselves. However, the workout part I have only done so-so on. Some of it was when I was feeling a little under the weather, some of it was the hustle of the holidays combined with poor time management, and other times it has been merely pure laziness. So, while I had planned to start with 3 good workouts a week and ease back into a 5 or 6 day a week schedule, I didn't manage that. I have, at least, gotten 1-2 GOOD workouts in per week, but that really isn't enough, not by a longshot.

Even with those sparse workouts, I am seeing improvements when I do them, and I am seeing exactly the things change in my fitness and appearance that I had hoped to achieve. I've also been very pleasantly surprised at how GREAT I felt running the few times I went back out with friends.

Last week, I even managed about 7 miles with some friends on the road. I don't think I ran once for about 6 weeks or so, then the first time I went back out we did 4 miles and I felt GREAT the entire time. Last week felt good too, but had some big hills at the end and I was very very toasted at the end of that one, but felt awesome afterward.

So, I've held on to a LOT of my aerobic fitness level while also building my core. I need to continue with this same nutrition program, but really commit, in earnest, to more workouts/week and not letting other things get in my way.

I see no reason, if I continue with this, why I can't meet or exceed my springtime fitness goal!

I miss running a ton - really I do. I can see that this break, and this change is great for me, but I am ready to train for a big event again. Perhaps this spring I will be ready. I'm also being goaded about doing a tri - I am soooooo apprehensive and doubtful of my tri abilities. We'll see.

An overdue update . . .

2010-12-02T13:31:00.000-06:00

Last I posted, I had made some decisions about doing some completely new stuff. This has gone particularly well, for the most part.

This new nutrition plan just felt right from the get go and it has continued to do so. I've never felt better in my life, and I am amazed how this last weight I wanted to lose, but seemingly could not conquer, is now visibly melting away in the mirror.

The new workout plan has been very challenging, as I knew it would be, since basically I am working my weakest parts - ones I have historically avoided and honestly never did a THING with, even during the formative time of my life when building that muscle is so important.

The most important factor for me, was not diving into this workout plan TOO heavily at first, but easing in. To be honest, I've been so sore from just easing in, that I'm not sure I COULD do it another way, because I still have to be able to give massages, and that is very difficult when you are incredibly sore.

I'm seeing results from these new workouts in the mirror - the first week, I did 2 core workouts and 1 cardio, week 2 I kept a similar schedule, but upped the intensity, and also did a little better on some of the guided stuff that I struggled with during week 1. Week 3 was Thanksgiving week - nutrition was good, but my work schedule was off the hook and I didn't keep up with workouts very well that week. I think I only did one - which kinda disappointed me in myself, but that was my bad for overscheduling.

This week, I finally brought that difficult Yoga (about 1.5 hours Ashtanga) back into the picture. I am very pleased how much of the flexibility that I had worked hard to gain was still there - overall I did much better than I expected during the first 45 minutes of vinyasa hell (the fast moving part of this workout). I didn't do as well as I feel like I normally do for parts of the balance section, but I did really good on some things that I normally have a hard time with - interesting. anyhow - WOW i coudl not believe how sore this workout made me, especially my shoulders - I'll take that as a "i woke up muscles I needed to" I has been a busy week, and I got a tad off schedule nutritonwise (I think I kinda severely under ate for 2 days) and I did have to skip 2 days in a row working out, which I dont' like to do, but I can still make my 3 workouts with rest days in between this week, so I will do so!

I really feel like I can see my goal in sight already, and possibly much sooner than I ever dreamed I could. I also think that this time off of running and focusing on other areas of my fitness will, ultimately, make me a MUCH better runner, and take me far beyond the wall I seemed to have reached with my running progress. AND - I still got it in the cardio stuff, I can keep up and, even exceed, the people in my p90x kenpo, cardio, and plyometrics videos. Take that, you fit video jerks! ;-)

new paths, goals and unbounded enthusiasm!

2010-11-12T23:55:00.001-06:00

I've been doing a lot of reading and researching lately. And, I've put a lot together from the various training that I have had, and experiences I have had and also some theories I had. I've found validation for them, and then stumbled across someone who I thought put it all together in a similar way, except did such an eloquent job of it. It validated much of what I had found, and also rang true in every sense what I have echoed in some of my past posts about my current fitness level vs. where I really wanted to be and, more importantly, knew I could be. It also explained some things I wanted to understand a little more. I like it when "the light" goes on, and it was glowing full power with this stuff.

Even though I have found a level of fitness I had not attained before when I started running, and definitely got involved in a community of folks that I really think are inspiring and wonderful folks, I still could not believe that I could eat quite healthy foods (I'll touch more on this later) and even when I was training for BIG miles, I'd always seem to have 15-20lbs that I didn't need on me, "skinny fat" essentially.

I've known forever that I needed a LOT more strength training, and that especially my upper body had never been developed like it should be. My legs have always been HUGE, but I always did things to work them like soccer, or jog or something of that nature. Furthermore, every time I have touched closest to the fitness level and appearance that I wanted, I was doing weight training, and I was doing significantly more weight training that cardio. In short, if I want a higher RMR, I need a lot more muscle. That burns a LOT more fat. I also need more core strength and muscle if I want to run better. However, long distances are detrimental to bulding muscle. Once you have the muscle, there are way of preserving with with nutrition, but really to build it, your body needs to dedicate a lot of time to the training, and also to the recovery, because that is when the new muscle tissues are built.

With all of that said - I'm taking a break from running except for a couple of high intensity workouts a week doing hill drills or speed drills. 90% of my workouts are to be strength training. Being back on track with my nutrition has already made an enormous difference Which brings us to . .

Nutrition stuff:

Also, I knew in the back of my head that even though I was eating healthy, I could do better and eliminate a few things that still had in my diet that really aren't natural foods. So - i'm on a 100% organic, natural foods diet now - basically, stay the hell away from anything packaged for man made except some select dairy items & sprouted grain bread like Ezekiel. Wild game, wild fish, grass-fed beef only, etc. Lots of veggies & fruits, and whole grains/legumes, too. NO refined oils of any kind, stay especially far from soybean oil. Use only virgin or unprocessed oils like Olive oil, coconut oil (virgin) or butter. Technology is the one place that really screwed up when it touched our food, back to the basics. I was pseudo-good on that, but really had way too much processed soy& refined oils in my diet, and was limiting myself in some areas I really should not have been. I also moved away from my 6 meals a day that was working GREAT, back to the stupid standard 3, which I think helped contribute to my sluggishness and depression. As I mentioned before, being back on the 6 meals plan with nutrition finely tuned has made me feel like a brand new person!

I'm very excited about this new plan. I started p90x toward the end of last year, and I did 2 months of the 3 month program before I had to start training for a race and I found it impossible to do both things, so I made the decision to train for the race and drop the weights until later. Big mistake, because looking back at previous entries (in the old journal I kept then) I was seeing such dramatic results, and I even remember people saying stuff to me. Then weeks turn to months and I look up - all gone.

New Goals:

So - I'm hitting the weights, core and flexibility training hard. When I run, it's supposed to be hard, not slow, steady stuff for a while. I think I'll probably do the p90x program again, it was awesome and extremely challenging, and I was seeing results. There are a few extras I have picked up in some classes and seminars that I am going to add in at various intervals for extra vavoom.

I'm not really sure how long this will be, but my estimates now are about a 6 month break. That is what I'm planning initially from lots of running, and well see where I am re: results then. I was so stoked about this that I stayed up half of the night planning my new workout schedule, and meals for the next week.

So - here's to new paths, fresh goals and something I know that I can achieve, live with and maintain!! Hopefully this will get me in the shape I've wanted, and give me a better foundation to be a more fit athlete overall and help me to run better in the future. Time to harden up this old loose cage of mine!! goal: 11% body fat by spring. and a much more toned and strong core. I'm gonna have to work like hell, but I plan to break a lot of hearts this spring, watch out Austin ;-)

Also: I will not be pressured into doing any damn races, no diverting my goals this time. Don't try it, I'm gonna be a bitch about it ;-)

long overdue update

2010-11-11T00:24:00.000-06:00

Uh, hi! It has been a looooong time since I posted here. And, I'm considering new posting habits now that I've started back. It's way easier for me to upload the data from my GPS to TrainingPeaks and just make quick notes there, rather than type up entries for each day. So - I might be doing weekly overviews, race reports, goals and other things here, but I'm going to be less posty about daily workouts here, unless it was a breakthrough workout that I need to remember something about.

My last run, before this week, was Saturday 5th October. (and I did two runs that day) Not long after that, I feel into a really crummy depression and just didn't feel like running for a week. Then it got hot again - and I was still feeling crummy and that added to my desire to cease all running. So - I look up at 3 weeks has gone by, then damn...a month! Pretty much all I did when I wasn't working during this time was sit, eat & play video games. Not. Good.

Then, the weather got nicer again, and I also decided to come back out of my shell. So - here is what I've done so far this week - then goals and stuff.

Sunday - I did a 4 mile walk with my friends Brenda & John. It was a wonderful trip around Town Lake - and such a great time.

Monday - day 1 of a cleansing fast. no workout today- I need not explain more. ;-)

Tuesday - My frist run in a while! I was really really worried about how much of my fitness level I had lost during this break. I was absolutely shocked, first of all, that when I was stretching, I had maintained a lot more of my flexibility than I thought I would have. The same was true once I started to run - I warmed up relatively quickly and enjoyed a nice, easy run on the trail. (mostly flat, some technical) I did 4 miles, ran into lots of nice folks who wanted to chat, and met lots of friendly dogs. So nice to be back, and I was surprised that it felt so good this first time back out on the trail. So - fears averted, and while I could tell that some of my old pizazz was gone, most of it was still there.

Wednesday - it was a little warmer today when I went out, and I went out deciding that I wanted to do a little more distance today, so I thought I'd try for 5 or 6, depending on how I felt. I was shocked that my legs were not sore *at all* from my first run back yesterday. However, my lower abs, right where they attach to the bone, were SO sore when I started the run, I wasn't even sure I could keep running. This is something perplexing to me - my damn lower abs hurt SO much of the time when I run. It drives me crazy. I need to work on them, but here's the deal, when I do, running is IMPOSSIBLE - they just hurt to damn much, and when I run a lot, they are too sore to work out. It's a Catch 22. Also, warmup took FOREVER today compared to yesterday. I didn't feel that great until close to 2 miles in to this run, normally it only takes about a mile when things are good. But - there are good days and bad days, I was determined to make the best of this one, even if it wasn't a good day, so I told myself it would get better, and it did. I decided 5 would be good enough for today, so I turned around at 2.5 to come back in, and my trip back in was awesome. A couple of hours after this run - maaaan my quads were sore - but I stretched and took a hot shower, and they seem better for now.

Goals - I'm about 90% sure I'm going to sign up for the Bandera 50k in January. I'm not planning any further ahead than that right now - I've learned my lesson about planning crap out too far in advance. I'll think more on it, and then visit more goals after I knock that one out.

Thurs & Friday

2010-10-02T04:11:00.000-05:00

I was really frustrated with how Wednesday went, workout wise. This week I have felt particularly stressed and had a crazy schedule a lot of the time.

Thursday - My plan was to do a good yoga workout. I decided that I would make the workout a Sadhana of sorts - I would do my meditation and prayer - but I would not be doing Kundalini, I needed to do Ashtanga, and I have this one day to do it - so. I did my own Sadhana thing. This ended up being a great workout. I did a lot better than I thought I would, and am still amazed at the constant improvements in my flexibility, core strength and even some sculpting effects I've noticed. My core (ilio-psoas mostly) were KILLING me from the start of this workout. The first upward dog hurt so bad I thought I was going to yell. Things got a lot better, and I was extremely pleased and energized by my workout.

Friday - This would be long run (sort of) night. While I am not training for any particular event right at this second, and really just building my miles just...well because I do know of some stuff in December and especially January I'd like to do - I was just building them. There were friends that wanted to join me on this night run, and I was really excited about it because they were friends I haven't gotten to see or run with much in a long time. I really REALLY enjoyed this run so much. I felt terrific on this run, even all the way through warmup, and I warmed up quickly. The temp was just AWESOME - and it was a gorgeous night out on the Greenbelt. It was nice talking - although i admit that I kind of suck and talking and running because I run alone so much, or with people so much faster than me that I can only talk to them at "no drop" points. haha! Originally, I had told myself I would do 15 miles. Our first out n back yielded 10 miles, and it was a nice run. They did not need more than 10 miles - which meant I'd have to go back out for the extra 5 alone. To be honest, i wanted to hang out with my friends and enjoy a beer and visit some more - so I opted to call it a great 10 miler and have a cold beer and visit. I felt VERY strong when we came in and still feel quite energize from the run. We started about 8:15 pm. We ran into a friend of ours who needed to get her miles in a little earlier toward the end of her run, and ran the last leg of her run back to her start point with her. I think everyone enjoyed this, although I really wish I had gotten to visit more. JoAnna had to go home to get in bed for a long day at work, and Layla was ready to go home as soon as the run was done. Alicia and I hung out a chatted over a beer for a bit, and then said good evening. Great night with friends, and I felt very good about this workout, even if I did cut it some short.

Time keeeps on slippin'

2010-09-30T05:18:00.000-05:00

Funny that - how I seem to merely look up and bam - 2 weeks have gone by. I'll try to pick up where I left off last time, to the best of my abilities with the caveat that this last couple of weeks has been an insane jumble.

Thursday - I'm not sure what on earth I did, to be honest
Friday - my night run was out, and I was going to do a Saturday morning run, instead (we had a cool front arriving and it was SO freaking muggy I wasn't going to mess with Friday night)
Saturday - my mom was very sick and requested that I be on call to help her. I was tending to sick folks all weekend. (granny wasn't feeling good either)

Sunday - Tuesday - *I* was sick. Sinus infection of death, and it was raining the entire time, super humid and 100% conducive to me not feeling worth a damn. I'm not sure I'd have run in this crap even if I *wasn't* sick. However, by Wednesday, I was completely stir crazy and willing to try a workout again.

Wednesday - I went back out on the trails for a brief run. Today I'd do just barely over 5k, as I was still on antibiotics and this was pushing it a bit. It was muggy, but I still enjoyed this very muddy run. This was also a good opportunity to scout out some of the areas of trail I hadn't seen since the flooding - I'm still in awe. there are parts just past shan's where there is grass from the flooding deposited 8 feet high in the trees. Wow. I felt mostly great on this run, especially for not having run in so long, but my stomach was a little angry about 1 mile in. After that remedied itself (and I'm sure it was the antibiotics) I felt great.

Thursday - A couple of friends invited me to workout, and then when I got there I realized it was a GROUP workout with Tejas. It was fun, but hard. The trails were muuuuuuddddddy and this was the most technical and HILLY route I had done in ...well months. We also had a big, nasty hill at the end we had to do at least 2 repeats on and then come back in. (and coming back in had more uphills than going out) At first I thought I was only going to be able to do 1 hill repeat, but I caught my breath and made myself do another - and I'm glad that I did. I felt amazingly well coming back in, and even picked up my pace quite a bit in spots. Afterward we all met at Craig O's for beer & food. It was nice to see everyone again.

Friday - I was so sore from Thursday workouts on Friday morning, that I could barely walk. BUT - it was Dawn's birthday run night, and she and Elizabeth and I had been talking about this and I knew that Dawn was REALLY looking forward to it. So, I toughed up and made myself do this run, even though I did not want to. I was even going to move the workout off of the trail because we'd had MORE fucking rain (hear me? FUCK YOU, RAIN! ..yes, YOU!!)- but it had cooled off and I merely changed our route idea. I gave a choice of routes, and Dawn really had Shan's at heart - she looves Shan's loop repeats - and really, I do too. We had ALL done hill workouts the day before, and I can't say I've ever done them two days in a row, but this was what she wanted for her birthday - "run to Shan's and do repeats until we get tired" It's about 1.6 miles to Shan's and then we did uh....I think we did 3 repeats of shan's, then came home. To be honest, my GPS was being fussy at first, so I just said screw it and ran with it off, but I think we did 5-6 miles. (and a good 3 miles of it was nothing but up and down hills over and over) I started out this run VERY un-inspired, but once I got warmed up, I felt GREAT. Suspiciously great, even, especially considering that outrageous humidity ( it was about 94%). I felt SO SO good during this run, and had a GREAT run. yaaay!

Saturday - off day!!

Sunday - I had a rather uninspired 5k that morning, and tacos. This wasn't a great run, or a horrible run. I had no goals other than easy pace

Monday - off again for no particular reason really

Tuesday - FANTASTIC night run - 6.5 miles on the greenbelt. first half I did easy, the last half I pushed HARD coming back in. It was an amazing run, one of my favorite routes that includes shan's and then takes you over to the power line & back.

Wednesday - What a wierd day. I was supposed to do a street run - except nobody wanted to come with me, and normally this isn't a big deal but tonight I just did NOT want to run alone when the time came later. (which is odd considering that I run alone about 90% of the time now) So, I thought I'd just do a yoga workout later instead. I honestly tried to do this yoga workout - but I didn't get more than 15 minutes into it before I was just do distracted, un-inspired and un-interested that I just said "screw it." I'm not sure why - but today just did NOT feel right doing any kind of workout - strange. I decided to let it be, and have a better day Thursday.

Wednesday - Yoga

2010-09-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

What: 1hr 15 min yoga (Ashtanga)

My actual plans today had been to go to St. Ed's and run the 6 mile loop from St. Ed's up through Forest ridge and back. However, it felt like humid death outside, and I remember all too well the suffering from Tuesday's run and decided against another run: today would be yoga day.

The past couple of times that I did yoga, I strayed from the workout I have been doing, which is a super duper hard one that I can't do all of just yet, and did my own vinyasa workout. I didn't work so much on balance poses. Balance poses, for me, were always my strengths for the most part (although there are ones I still cannot do, most I am very good at). So, I worked on the Vinaysa, and I worked like hell at it. But, I also avoided poses that I need to get better at, which ...I need to get back to!

Today's workout was really difficult, and frustrating in parts. I think it was frustrating because I was having difficulty with things that I normally NEVER have problems with, and it was just a very odd start. Luckily, things got better about 30 minutes into the workout and I finished, although it was a slightly modified version.

Once we got warmed up and started, I realized that my vinyasa workout was not moving quite as fast as this one. This one really cruises once it's time to start. Starting out seemed okay, but about 10 minutes in, I was having a LOT of trouble with my balance on poses like Warrior III. WTF? I kept falling out of poses like Right Angle Pose - which is usually one of my very best ones. Very strange. I was also unable to hold a few of the poses as long as this workout has, which wasn't a huge issue in very many places before - but I again realized my personal workout hadn't held the poses quite long enough. slacker!

I omitted Half Moon and Twisting-Half Moon poses today. Those are always extremely hard poses for me that I pretty much never have gotten, and I'd had SUCH a hard time with Right Angle and Twisting Right Angle poses. Another pose I had to omit - because it simply hurt too badly today to do it, which surprised me, were simple Standing Leg Extensions. I could balance perfectly, and I could hold the 1 leg up perfectly, but my hip flexors were in AGONY, I mean screaming, awful pain. This wasn't the "good" workout kind of pain, this was stop. right. now. pain. So, I omitted those and also realized this meant there was absolutely NO getting through the last 7 mins of the workout before cooldown, which is a series of core-torturing poses made for abs focus - but all would be impossible to do if unable to engage the hip flexors fully.

Even though I had mixed feelings about this workout, this was sort of a breakthrough workout for me in terms of realizing strengths and weaknesses. Someone took a picture of me last week, and when I looked at it, I could really see what these Yoga workouts had done for my shoulders and upper body. My chest is more open, and my shoudlers look a lot better. I also REALLY noticed a massive improvement in my Chaturanga and upper body stregth. Also, the flexibility improvements are significant - especially in my adductors and hamstrings. I'm very pleased to see and feel this progress in my body. Now, I have to figure out how in hell to do Half Moon, Twisting Half Moon and a couple of others without falling over like broken furniture.

I need to strengthen my hip flexors SO badly, and it frustrates me to tears that they are so sore and impossible to do anything with on days that I"m not running. To even be able to do the exercises it takes to isolate and work them fully - I'm going to have to run a lot less. Only thing is - I rather love the cooler weather running. Maybe I'll do my last event of the season in May this next year and then take the summer off to spend in the gym. It's possible I might want to do that before then, but I also have things I'm considering (like an early may R2R2R in Grand Canyon), which means there will be very little time for taking off if I want to be ready for that.

Tuesday

2010-09-15T03:11:00.000-05:00

I should probably rewind a moment, and note that i didn't workout Monday. Monday was a day of epic stupid and bad planning for me. I did not eat breakfast/lunch until...4pm. I was slated to run at 6pm, and it was so hot & humid. I thought 2 hours would be enough time for my stomach to feel ready, but it was not. I had an 8pm client scheduled, so thought I might do a later-in-the-evening run. It *still* felt gross even at 10pm. My "screw this" attitude took over and I proclaimed a cease to any and all running until this ridiculous steaminess leaves us.

Naturally, this didn't last but 24 hours until I realized that my flab was NOT going to go away by skipping runs. So, here's Tuesday.

what: trail speed workout
where: BCGB
distance: 5.16 miles
time - 1 hour ish

I wish I had more accurate data for the time, but I need to sit down and add up some things, because my GPS/timer acted very strangely at first and so for half of the workout, I didn't track distance, only time (and this was after I had tried to "reset" it a few times - so it had about a dozen splits added). Then I reset it and got the distance from the halfway point - but I still need to add the times.

Today, it felt like a steambath. Not *nearly* to the extent that it did yesterday, but it was still pretty humid, especially once you reached the creek area. Luckily most of the mud had gone away. I decided to head out to 360 and survey what the flooding had done to the trails down in that area, since I had not been down there after the recent floods.

I made it a point to stretch well before this run. The last couple of runs I did, I felt like I rushed through the stretching. Even with a good stretching - warmup was brutal today. It was 100% the humid, heat that was causing this. My energy/fuel levels felt good, and I made it a point to take salt before the run - which is good because I'm not sure if I ever poured sweat as quickly & profusely as I did during today's run. I though just one water bottle would be fine, since I wasn't planning on a lot of time/distance.

I didn't feel warmed up well until probably just about 2 miles in. I wanted to go 6 miles, but I really only had time to go 5 miles because I had dinner plans tonight - so I went out to what I thought was 2.5 miles. Amazingly, once I reset the GPS to track distance and time, I measured that I had run out 2.553 miles - woohoo for my inner GPS. My goal today was to go back in faster than I went out - by a decent amount - and I succeeded. It was so steamy, that maintaining a fast pace was really really hard, so I thought that I'd do 4:1 intervals in. (4 min run, 1 min walk) I was running at paces that I had a very very hard time keeping for 4 minutes, even. A few times I had to stop and walk 15 seconds, so I'd just add that extra 15 onto my timer before I could stop and walk the 1min. Even with the 1 min walking, 4 running intervals, I beat my time out by quite a bit - rough estimates put me more than 6 mins ahead of the pace I went out - that's a pretty big pace increase for a 2.5 mile distance- so woohoo.

Even though this one was tough - I felt like a million bucks afterward. Overall, a good workout.

Hate mail to myself....

2010-09-14T15:58:00.000-05:00

Dear Self:

Stop being a dumbass.

Love,

Jason

Okay - I had mentioned before that I was on a battle against this last tiny bit of belly flab that just doesn't seem to want to go away. And - I had made pretty good progress toward that - and I am still chipping away at it. However, this past couple of weeks, I have done very stupid things with nutrition that have affected workouts - and my goals in general.

Let's review what we will not be continuing:

1. Killing my morning appetite with a pot of french press coffee so I can "get stuff done."

2. Not drinking nearly enough water.

3. not being on, or keeping, ANY kind of regular eating schedule. I've had days where I didn't even eat my first bite of food until 4pm - then ate too much which, then, results in awful workouts.

4. Eating too much to make up for not eating earlier in the day - this just doesn't work, and makes me feel sluggish. I think it also overloads your digestive system to the point where you really are not fully processing and absorbing nutrients from your food.

5. Not holding myself accountable to workouts when plans change, or weather intervenes. Truth is, especially with the strength training and core work I have to do, there is *always* a workout I can do.

While my results slowed - understandably, I did still manage to lose a few more pounds, I've lost 3 since I last measured a few weeks ago - which is pretty shabby - but to be honest the past couple of weeks I've run less than I have in a long time, and probably haven't cut as far back on calories as I should have given the amount of exercising I wasn't doing. So - it's a mixed thing because of the comp readings - and this is why I like comp readings.

It may appear that at 207, I'm close to my goal - but - that is not the case. My comp last time I measured was 35% muscle, 24.9% bodyfat (given that this is a household comp - which isn't entirely super duper accurate, but it's a close enough approximation to give you a good idea of what your body is doing in response to various diet/exercise combos). I'd like to see my bodyfat NOT above 14%, if I can get it leaner and still be healthy - hey I'm game. I weighed I think 211 when I took that reading.

Well, my 207.6 reading the comps looked like this: 34% muscle, 26% fat. So, I lost 1% muscle and gained 1% fat. My goal is the polar opposite. (and I must say that I even do LOOK like i'm closer to my goal) This is why I hate using weight alone to gauge progress with fitness goals. I've always thought the measuring tape and calipers were the best ways to know if you are losing FAT - losing muscle is a shitty way to lose weight.

So - adherence is the word of the day. Adherence to my eating schedule and adherence to my exercise commitment. I'm watchin' you, self. Time to lower the boom.

Interesting Week

2010-09-13T02:42:00.001-05:00

This week was truncated somewhat - part of that by my laziness, and part of it by tropical storm Hermine.

Tuesday - Yoga in the morning. In the afternoon, I went for a fantastic run in the rain ran really strong, but the water was so high and the trails were in such bad shape that we didn't get to do our planned route. I did this in fast intervals, where we would then catch up, as we ended up doing a no-drop style run. It was a lot of fun!

Wednesday - the trails were flooded and it was generally storming like hell and I didn't do yoga or any indoor workouts, which I should have. Super shame on me.

Thursday- I did the most miserable, suffering, humid, slow just GOD AWFUL workout. It felt like I had concrete feet and was breathing in glue. However, I got through it and felt pretty darn good afterward!

Friday - originally, I had a long run planned for this evening on the trails, but - the route we normally use was impossible to use - flooded and to be honest a lot of the trails I had seen on Thursday down on the super highway were torn to hell by the flooding. There are volumes I hadn't seen that I knew were probably also affected, and it's not a good time to go scouting that out for the first time at night with just lamps. Also, long distance in that kinda mud is just....awful. So - I decided we'd do 6 miles-ish on the street. If I felt like I migt be able to keep going, I would go another loop, but - the street tore me UP the last time I ran just two measly 5 milers in a row on it - I mean like ow.

I felt great during this run with Elizabeth and Dawn - they are faster than I am, but I didn't trail too far behind them. I did start to have a pretty ugly blood sugar crash near the end, but that was my fault for not fueling and I managed to catch it early and bounce back fast after some energy chews. We did just over 6.5 miles in 1hr 15 mins. Honestly, I felt pretty good and I even argued with myself that I might need to go back out, but I also knew that I had run that first 6.5 WAY faster than I would have if I knew I were going to do 2 loops of it, so I decided to be happy with the intensity that I brought to this workout for me speed-wise.

I am SO glad that I stopped there. I was going to run Saturday, but my right knee was so SO in pain - I mean it was royally screwed. OUCH. I did not feel a thing during or just after my street run the evening before, but for the first half of the day, my knee was feeling badly. It seemed to finally feel okay - but what also helped is when I finally finished work on Saturday and could just sit down for a while.

Sunday - I was supposed to run in the morning, but I'd gotten only about 2 hours of sleep, and had clients booked on Sunday - so I skipped Sunday workout so I could sleep a couple more hours. Not happy I had to do it, but it was necessary if I was going to work. I got my work done, was too tired to mess with workouts so I decided embrace a lazy Sunday.

Kinda disappointed in how little I really ended up running and working out this last week. This week, I aim for that to be very different.

Back on blogger!!

2010-09-10T12:56:00.000-05:00

Okay - so I went back to LJ. I left the Google cloud for another one. Long story short - both experiences sucked.

LJ is old, clunky & very hard to customize to my liking. Google's cloud is simply the best & I could not handle iOS compared to Android, which is far superior. So - I'll be back here. Since I did, however, start this week on the old blog, I am going to finish this week out there, so I can start here with a fresh, clean slate next week.

I've also added a new workout/nutrition data service that I will have cross-linked to this site. The address there (and it will be a link here on my page, soon) is - http://www.trainingpeaks.com/austinjason

That will contain details as to exact timing, distances, weekly, monthly totals, etc. All of that is searchable and displayed in graphs. I really love this service, and it's helping me to fine-tune things in my nutrition and training and keep track of technical details easily. (it uploads from my GPS).

Right now, I'm missing about 2 weeks worth of data on trainingpeaks.com. I have some of that to upload, and part of it was lost in a software upgrade to the GPS, although I did make manual entries for some of it there. That site is still very much under construction.