95's with a happier aftermath

Hi. I worked out again, finally. Actually did something last week (other than frisbee) involving a 5K run and some sit-ups and push-ups but I forget the details other than the run was easy and the other stuff was hard.

My gym membership is running out in a month, so I'm going to try to get there a few times before then. Yesterday before noon was nice and quiet there, so I did this:

3 rounds:
500 m row (2:18 min each - finally beat the 2:20 hump!)
Squats - 95 x 7, 7, 5
Bench press - 65 x 10, 10, 8

Killed the legs and chest with:
18 x 45 lb squats
22 x 45 lb bench

Then for the back/core:
Bent-over rows - 30 x 8; 35 x 4, 4 (each arm)
Back extensions - 11, 10, 10
L-sits on the roman chair - 10, 10, 10

In 35 minutes or less. And I beat the boys home so I could eat my avocado salad without dripping it onto Tim's pate.

The giant neck strain from the 95 lb squats I did several weeks ago is finally abating, thanks to a bit of massage therapy (the professional kind), and a little less baby-carrying. I think I can move on to 100+ now. Finally.

Next post: new goals for the upcoming training season!

Back Entries

A few lame-o workouts to report. Wounded knee is still healing, slowly (I know the real Wounded Knee will always be a sore point...)

Last Thursday was 7 x 1 rep presses. I did 95, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115 (failed) 110, 105. Then 95 x 3, x 3. Finishers 55 x 15, x 12.

Last Friday was a circuit-y thing: as many rounds in 20 min. of 180 skips, 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 squats. Without too much effort I did 6 rounds in 18:55.

Saturday was 2 games of limptimate.

Monday was a 3 round (tried 4 but I was just too tired) circuit of 1 minute of 75 lb sumo high pull deadlifts (25, 21, 15) 2 minutes of skipping, 1 minute of sit ups (31, 25, 29) and 10 pull ups.

can you have two finishers?

squats: 205 x5, x5, x5. 5 minutes between sets.
press: 105 x4, x4, x4. this was tougher than i expected, and then i realized that it was not 95 like i had intended. yay.
chins: 6, 6, 6. 3 minutes between alternating sets of presses and chins.

finisher I
thrusters - 15 lbs db's, 20s work/10s rest * 4 = 2 minutes. 37 reps. lowest reps in a set was 8.

finishers II
farmer's walk on a flight of stairs - 2 45 lbs plates. 5 trips in 2 minutes. both of these were hard. but i can see adding more time to both. i might wait until i can hit 4 minutes before i make the db's heavier for the thrusters.

some time later
swimming: 40 laps (1000m) in 27:55. Shaved 8 minutes off :-) I just tried harder.

milestone

So, normally on this day I would post my totals and compare my progress to a) the year before and b) to my very start (my training age is 2 years today).

However, my back injury from the spring and summer has sidelined my progress and I'm not ready to deal with my regression in bold, stark numbers. I'll just acknowledge it with a hat tip and move on. I'm looking for big things this next couple of months and, in fact, the next year. I may even have boldly stated to joseyposey that I will be in the best shape of my life by July 1st, 2010 (the significance of that date is obvious below, the World Championship begins on July 3rd).

I'm going to talk about the next year, why it's important to me and the milestones that are out there.

Timeline Stuff
Late October is the American frisbee championship in Sarasota, Florida (regionals Oct 10th, 11th; nationals Oct 29th-Nov 1st).
Next July is World frisbee championship in Prague (3rd-10th July).

my situation
I am a member of the Black Aces. The team within a team. Borne of the realization that we are the end of the bench on our team, we have bonded. I play on a great frisbee team, one that very convincingly won Nationals and is getting stronger for the Fall series. I like being on the Black Aces - earlier in my career I never would have imagined playing on such a great team. But I still want to contribute as much as I can. Though I spent the last few years as a d line starter, I know that I am not that guy on this team. But I can be a good team mate that contributes more. I want to move from two points a game to six. I want my legs to be able to run so that somebody else can rest. And maybe I can kill-a-handler^TM.

So, that's my goal.

my thoughts on the requirements of frisbee
I'm sure I've talked about this before but here goes:
game length = 90m.
average points per game = 25 (15-10 game?)
dead time from half and timeouts = 10m.
time between points = 90s.

play time = 90m - 10m = 80m
time allocated to a point = 80/25 ~= 3 minutes.
time allocated to a point - time between points = 3m - 90s = 90s

therefore, the average length of time you are on the field running your butt off (obviously there are calls and turnovers but you're still out there) is 90s.

therefore, I think, if you trained for a super intense two minutes, you'd be well prepared for your average point of frisbee.

what does this mean to training? well, suppose that my goal was to play 6 points per game, then I could set up a training program of (120s work/90 s rest) x 6.

now some caveats. I know that some death points will be ten minutes long. But really, the goal is to be fitter than your check. And maybe you can end the point earlier ;-) Also, doing some 4 minute tabatas and crossfit workouts would help with those death points . . .

also, if there was a two minute high intensity point, you won't be on the field the next point -- you'll be taking at least one off (5 minutes rest) but keeping the recovery time to 90s keeps the fitness level high and the workouts manageable.

my training
- swim for cardio when i can to rest my joints
- try to work out twice a day, two days on, one day off, strength training once every three days.
- squats, pressbench, chin-ups
- do 120s w/90s r * 6, tabatas (20s w/10s r * 8) * 3/4?, crossfit (the girls)
- stay healthy so i can keep working out

I would write more but I'm already getting flack for having written so much . . .

hitting the pool

The Talisman Centre has three pools (not counting the diving pool and the "learning" pool).

40 laps * 25m/lap = 1000m in 36 min. (54s/lap)

I think this is not good but man, I have not swum in a while. And laps in a much longer time. It's been longer since I swam laps than since I rode a bike (went mountain biking in the summer of '01 (ms. hedda was there!)

Went biking. Nothing hard core, just cruising about the city (getting to the disc golf course and to various patios). It was giddily fun.

first post-nationals workout

at the very swanky Talisman Centre.

squats: 195 x5, x5, x5.
bench: 135 x5, x5, x5.
chin ups (neutral grip): 6, 6, 6.

I am avoiding deads and cleans as I want to not hurt the SI joint. I will sort out my issues with these lifts in the off-season.

Sucked back in.

Mini McPie was sleeping in the backyard so...

Monday's crossfit looked easy: 2 minutes of double unders, 2 minutes of sit ups, 1:30 of the same, 1 min, 30 seconds. Count the totals of each time. (I can't do double unders all that well and my knee sucks, so I did regular skipping.)
200/48, 140/35, 125, 27, 80/17.

Worst workout ever,

Nats was. First game, early in the second half I went up for a D and landed all wrong. My knee sleeve, which was apparently ill adjusted, failed to hold my patella in place and I went down to the sweet sound of a giant knuckle cracking and popping. Awesome. I made the D and the continue pass though. Yay me. Carried off and out for the rest of the tourney, I was happy to cheer my teammates on, as long as they did not do anything stupid. Let me just say there was some stupidity and the bile is still high in my throat as a result.

So, overcoming the disappointment of so much preparation and tuning and envisioning has been a challenge, but I have found some solace in the details of the short game I did play. Here they are, with no apology for blowing my own horn:

I was fast and always open on O.
On D my mark got the frisbee only 3 times.
I made 3 D's (2 skies and a run through on which I scored afterward)
I caught the first point of the game (tourney), a jumpball for a hammer in a crowd.
I scored 3 other points (our total was 10 in that game). Only 2 were scored after I went out.

Based on this, I would like to think that I would have helped my very short benched team in some of the close games we did have.

So, this big disappointment just inspires me (I think drives might be a more appropriate word here) to prepare harder for next year. It won't prevent this type of injury from happening, but it will provide a nice sink for my anger.

OM, my goodness...

Five yoga classes in seven days, and both my body AND mind need the rest day. Mostly because a solid game of ultimate last night has left me pretty beaten up. Yogis aren't supposed to have bruises, cleat distance apart, up their legs, are they? Seems I still have some aggression to work out that yoga just can't seem to release - I will need to find the right balance with time. Expect my personal trainer will be able to help me out.

Good luck, and fun time to all in Winnipeg! Wish I was there, had my hopes up high for a glee club (+1) dinner.

Nats Prep

Well, its the best I can do after mending a pulled hammy.

Last week I built a deck. It wasn't exactly meta-con, but it was tiring enough.

Played Frisbee on Wednesday with little mention of any problems from said hammy. The lungs on the other hand...

Went to the park with lil' Tim yesterday and did a bunch of sprints, hills, throws, pistol squats and a 17 amongst all the baby management. Worked out pretty well in the end.

Just-a-jog

I finally got new running shoes on Saturday, so I took them for a spin. The weather was PERFECT for a run -- not to hot or cold, just a bit cloudy. It was lovely. The last time I went for a "just a jog" was back in November, in Florida,when I was 18 weeks pregnant.

Leisurely pace: pretty much exactly 5 km in 30 minutes.

It felt great. Without any real speed goals right now, I might make a habit of this just-running thing.

Five

Games of frisbee. Which isn't actually very many for a tournament, and we tend not to post about frisbee here since it is usually a given, but because it's been nearly a year since I've played so much all at once, I just wanted to mention it. Also, ouch. I can sure feel my cutting muscles (ie: inside of thighs, and core).

And, I could not have eaten more roasted almonds on the weekend. (In fact, I am STILL eating them.) One point two kilo jar, I love you!

The Mile, Revisited

7:20 mile today. That is 35 seconds faster than last time. It is so very, very hard.

Followed by:

3 x 30 seconds of thrusters (13, 17, 16)
3 x 30 seconds of sit-ups (17, 16, 13)

No, I didn't mix up the numbers on the thrusters. I stopped whining and started trying.

Manscaping

Hah.


Last week saw some vigorous workouts with the Ms. As well, there was a large amount of lifting and heaving as I replaced my front walkway. Many large 6x6's were dug out, broken up and hauled away and much gravel replaced it. That gravel needed to be tamped so what better way to apply a little training than to use the Lief Erickson era jackhammer, center, "designed" and operated by yours truly. The workout? Hoist by its large nails the 50lb leftover 6x6 using arms and calves for height. Let drop. X 1000.

On the weekend was a half assed frisbee tourney with lots of PT.

Tuesday was a gruelling home crossfit: 3 rounds of 20 45lb overhead squats, 400m run, 20 pushups and 10 sit ups. Time was 20:55. Ick.

Currently nursing a slightly pulled hammy after what was going to be a great game of frisbee on Tuesday night. Fug.

my turn

squats: 205 x5, x5, x5.
bench: 135 x5, x5, x5.
deadlift: 235 x5.

I had intended to do cleans but my low back started acting up after the deadlifts. I'm taking DL's out of the rotation for the foreseeable future.

Squats and presses, with a hint of Litvinov

Escaped to the gym for a 30 minute workout:

4 rounds:

95 lb squats (7, 6, 6, 5)
400 m run (8.5 mph*)
+ 12 finisher squats (45 lb)

*Last round was about 300 m @ 9 mph. (Previous circuit on a treadmill I was only able to go 7.5 mph. So yay! Joints and things are coming together, literally.)

Presses:
45 x 10; 60 x 3; 55 x 3; 50 x 3

Knee tucks on the ball: 12, 10

Also, thanks to (I think) sticking to my no bread campaign and more regular workouts, I'm within striking distance (ie 5 or 6 pounds) of my pre-pregnancy size.

hi!atus

hi!

Monday - half hour jog along the Elbow in Calgary. This was hard. I don't think it was the elevation either.

Tuesday - tried out skipping some rope. 60s work/60s rest x 3.

Wednesday - gym time.
squats: 195 x5, x5, x5. increase to 205.
press: 105 x5, x5, -. did something bad to my upper right back. didn't do the last set.
power cleans: 115 x3, x3, x3, x3, x3. increase to 125.

Double double

Two workouts in two days, together. This parental leave thing rocks.

Yesterday:

The mile ain't so fast anymore
Hedda - 7:55 (great triumph was to not walk)
Overunder - 6:20 (okay, his mile is still fast)

Sumo deadlift high-pulls (45 lb - 3 sets of 30 seconds)
Hedda - 14, 14, 15
Overunder - 21, 20, 20

Bench dips
Hedda - 12, 6, 7
Overunder - 25, 15, 20

Today:

That damn vigorous warm-up

17s

(Sprint the steep hill x 3 + 15 sit-ups) x 3 rounds

Hedda - 1:58, 1:32, 1:20 (He didn't tell me I was being timed on the first set)
Overunder - 1:08, 1:08, 1:05

Sprint length of soccer field (jog back) x 2

Then mmmmm.... frosty Coronas.

Back Track

A few post vacation workouts to post.

Last Tuesday, park work, which included:
Vigorous warm up,
3 x 5 sets of sprints up the hill with 5 pull ups in between sets.
20 yard 17's
4 sets of 50 yard accelerations (run 75% then burst to 100%, back to 75% as many times as possible in the 50 yards.)
5 Burpees + 20 yard sprint, x 4
3 x full filed sprint

Next day was 5 x 5 sprints up the hill and 10 sit ups and a hard frisbee game.

Thursday was a hard frisbee game (masters against a men's team, 17 to 5 victory for the old guys).

Yesterday was a home circuit: 5 rounds for time of 5 pistol squats each leg, 400m run, 20 push ups, 5 pull ups, (26:51).

My gym membership is still valid.

It turns out they don't take it away if you don't show up for a month or two. It was Saturday, usually very busy at the gym, but I bet on the place clearing out in the last half an hour or so

While Ken and Tim picked up some groceries, I did a workout:

Alternating sets:

1000 m row - 4:50; 4:55; 5:00min
Bench press - 45 x 10 + 65 x 10; 75 x 7*; 8 push-ups

Squats - 85 x 6, 5, 5 (How can I have sunk so low!?)
Calf press - 250 x 10, 10, 10

Deadlifts - 85 x 8; 85 x 10; 95 x 10 (experimenting with set-up since I'm not up to lifting with full plates. Yet.)

And then a quick stretch to be the last one out of the gym.

*I think I could go as heavy as 95 lb on the bench press if I had a spotter. My numbers here are about 2 reps shy of a max so as to not risk life and/or limb. (Well, I'm not sure I could actually hurt myself too much with 75 lbs, but it would be embarrassing.) I planned to up it to 85 in the last set, but the bench was taken so I moved on.