Almost a mile-stone

The Mile = 7:05 minutes.

I had 6 seconds left in the tank, for sure. Next time I'll use it! Last week's mile was probably faster than the 7:40 that I estimated; today's run felt quite a bit better though. No tropical disease, crashing rainstorm, or iPod timer meltdown this time.

Finished with three sets of 10 push-ups. That is all. Frisbee tonight.

Round up

Frisbee game last Tuesday, practice on Thursday, in between a flight to Waterloo (gee, my arms are tired...yak).

Friday I took a run in the woods at work. Why have I never before, its beautiful. I saw a deer, I ate a rasberry from a bush along the trail, I did bench dips between two rocks. Anyway, maybe 4 k worth of light running and other stuff.

The weekend saw 5 games of frisbee at no Borders. Good games all, but we did not qualify for Nationals. Funny how important catching really is in frisbee.

Had a long, slow walk home from downtown on Sunday with my big shade tent in 35 degree weather.

Day Six: A Long Run

Six days in a row of exercise! What a week. (Unposted: Tuesday's frisbee game, featuring another stellar point-scoring relationship pass, this time a beautiful huck by Ken to HK's strike. Both the huck and the strike shocked the heck out of all witnesses.)

Today, Tim is with his Aunties (Stepmoms?) for the day; after dropping him off in Aylmer I took myself for a long run. I took an amazing, completely wooded route (ie: shady and scenic) along the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. I listened to a couple of podcasts (This American Life on fracking, and the Munk Debate on whether China will dominate the 21st century) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It felt wonderful, and my pace turned out to be pretty good too: 1:08 min = 12.2 km.

Next up on the Day With Nothing To Do: shop for a floppy sun hat and check out No Borders. After I finish this margarita.

Hilly 5K

I surprised myself today with a sub-25 minute 5K. Just barely sub -- it was 24:57, but I'll take it. It's been ages since I last timed a 5K. (Last October.)

Especially since I mapped a hilly route along the Gatineau and Lac-des-Fées parkways, rather than my usual tactic of trying to find the flattest 5K possible. (It's actually my usual stroller route, tweaked at both ends to meet distance requirements.)

Apparently running with 40 pounds of rolling stroller

Finished with Overunder's prescription of three rounds of dumbbell snatches -- 10/arm with 20 lbs. Next time I'll use 25 lbs.

Sixty dips

Okay, they were bench dips in sets of 10, but the point is, playgrounds are great places to add a little something-something to your average run.

Josey, if you can find a way to make your lunch runs wind past an urban playground, you can rev up your run with dips on a bench, chins on the monkey bars, or push-ups at the bottom of the slide. I also discovered swing planks. Seriously - try doing a plank with your hands or elbows on a swing. Angle to the ground doesn't seem like much, but these are hard.

And my kid? He can pull himself up into a standing position on the big kid swings without aid. The big kid swings are higher than his belly button.

western skies

are incredible. daddy-o is quickly growing tired of me stopping between sets to gawk and say 'holy wow, look!'

deadlifts: 85 x5, 95 x10
presses: 55 x5,5,8
bent-over rows: 30 x10, 50 x5, 60 x5, 70 x 6 (even rows heavier than squats! wtf!?)

finisher: 2 min turkish get-ups 5lb (1 min per arm) rx13, lx10

Untimed 800s

4 x 800 m run (theoretically as fast as I can manage)
After each 800 -- raised leg split squats (8 per leg)

Evens were uphill and quite a slog. I didn't have a timing mechanism, so I just did the best I could and imagined I was going super-fast.

A bad day for The Mile

I was still feeling a little queasy from the tropical disease that had me horizontal for most of the weekend, but decided to start my workout with The Mile anyway.

Then it started to rain. Really rain.

And I was using the iPod stopwatch, since I don't have a real watch. The iPod stopwatch which has a completely unpredictable algorithm for shutting off by itself. I think it's powered by my direct gaze.

So the official time for my first mile in many months is: 2:55.

I'm going to guess it was more like 7:40. (Hopefully that estimate will help to guarantee I post a better result next time.)

(For comparison's sake: 7:08 in Feb on the treadmill, and 6:57 in October on the road.)

After drying off and changing clothes, I finished with:

Squats - 95 lb x 7, 7, 7
Presses - 45 lb x 10, then with 20 lb dbs - 7, 7

And a few chin-ups. Not really in a row.

We're back as well!

What I love about starting back into weights - I can bench more than I can squat! Mostly due to the fact that I get all nervous with my form and worry I am going to hurt my back. I gain much quicker on my squats, so the payoff is pretty immediate.

squats: 65 x5 x5 x6
bench: 65 x5 x5 x10
pulldowns: 48 x12 x12 x30

finisher: 2 min farmer's walk around the gym (25lbs per arm).

cardio includes heart pounding mountain hikes with quick elevations and brilliant vistas (we're aiming for one a week!) and 3x weekly lunch runs. similar to stroller runs, sans adorable toddler.

I am with you!

Today it is hot. HAWT!

8 x 200 m sprints with 400m active recovery runs in between. All sprints were sub 30 seconds, all AR runs were 2:00-2:30. There were a few breaks for sips of water. This was brutal.

Kicker was a lame 5 broad jumps + five push ups each jump for time. (1:44).

Heartbreaker

Here's what I did to try to quell the ache in my chest after dropping off an inconsolable Tim at nursery school (yes, I cried too, but not in front of him):

4 rounds for time:

15 sit-ups
15 push-ups (5 regular, 10 knees, because I'm a realist)
200 skips
20 overhead walking lunges (using a pole, not a barbell)

=20:20

Some may be interested to note that the skipping highlighted the fact that the pelvic muscles are still not quite 100%. Wow.

I'm back. Who's with me?

First in the "Nursery School Workout" summer series:

5 rounds for time:
50 squats
Run 400 m
= 16:50

This is a full 1:15 min slower than I did it last November. Someone's got work to do!

Finished up with 3 x 10 push-ups.

ps - Did the usual thrice-weekly 5K stroller run this morning, but got caught in a thunderstorm. Ran the last km or so at a 400 m pace, with a couple of 30 sec rest breaks under trees. Tim got soaked from the waist down but slept through it all.

700 hundred foot ceiling

well, not really that big a ceiling. but my gym is pretty empty and that is wonderful.

Thursday
40min walk at 4mph. I know, I know. I'll be doing sprints and the fast mile soon. I hope.

Friday
squats: 205 x5,5,10
bench: 118 x5,5,9

Saturday
cleans: 131 x3,3,3,3,3
chins: 4,3,3,2,2

welcome to the new apartment

we've moved. we're more or less settled. we're in a condo by the bow river. it is the first of many being built. the land owner and the builder are in court deciding what to do about something so the other half dozen buildings are not being completed any time soon. what this means is that the most people i have ever seen use the gym are four, including myself. and they have a squat rack. boom.

Monday
squats: 185 x5,5,5
bench: 115 x5,5,5

<some time later>
cleans: 125 x3,3,3,3,3
chins: 3,3,2,2,2

Tuesday
40 minute walk at 4mph. I know, I know but I've got a bit of a paunch from being sedentary-ish.

Also did some core work. And some random chins throughout the day (8 sets of 2).

Wednesday
deadlift: 185 x10
press: 95 x5,5,6

<some time later>
cleans: 128 x3,3,3,3,3
chins: 3,3,3,2,2

Barefoot, pyjamas, buttcrack

There are benefits to basement workouts. Like not having to get dressed. And deadlifts in barefeet? Sweet! The weight was too light, but I don't think 115 lbs was ever that easy.

Quick, while Tim's asleep!

5 rounds:

7 db presses (20 lb dbs)
7 deadlifts (115 lbs)
15 incline sit-ups

Heave!

This dude's the only one working around this house lately. Note that he's working on presses, NOT phone curls. 

Okay, actually, Dad's been doing plenty but has also been RIMming around the clock so doesn't have time to post his workouts. As for this kitty-cat, her gym membership expired one week ago. Not renewing. Theoretically, we have enough equipment here to do pretty much what I was doing at the $50/month gym, so...

I have gone out for a few runs with Dumbbell Boy, and hope to keep that up as the weather improves. Not today, though - we're in the midst of winter's last gasping snowfall.

Push, pull, squat, run

Hi. I've gone to the gym a few times and haven't posted. Early mornings are killing me, so to spare the mental anguish, I've designed my workouts based on this template: push, pull, squat (in a circuit), then run sort-of-but-not-too intensely.

For example, yesterday's workout looked like this:

3 rounds:
50 squats (45 lbs)
6 horizontal chins (couldn't really finish the last set)
10 push-ups

1 set: 10 squats (95 lbs), 6 jumping chins, 10 push-ups

Run - 2 kms@ 12 kmph (5 min kms)

Or a few days ago:

10/leg bench step-ups (50 lbs)
10 bench dips
8 close-grip lat pulls (85 lbs)

Tempo run - 3 kms starting at 10 kmph up to 14 kmph and back down again.

Yoga: x2 weekly!

mwaor

squats: 205 x5,5,5
bench: 120 x5,5,5

alas, alack

well, hello there. I've been off injured for a while. I had a torn rotator that I injured the week before Worlds in June. I've felt pain in it until the first week of February when I really seemed to turn the corner for reals. I still have posture issues I need to resolve (years of slouching at a computer have forced my shoulder blades wide and weak, shortening said rotator muscle (teres minor). But now I'm back and doing stuff. I'm especially interested in keeping the shoulders healthy. Years ago I suffered from a torn hip flexor for six months. I would have leapt (if I could - ha!) at the opportunity to trade the rotator cuff injury in for the hip flexor. Anyway, I'm back in Canada since March 3rd and I've already had a workout. Take that.

Here are my workouts from Africa and my first workout back in Canada:
Wed, Feb 9
press: 78 x5,5,7
db row: 35 x10,10,10
inverted rows
run - 10min workset/10min rest *2 @ 7.5km/h (and the rest set at around 5.3km/h)

Sat, Feb 12
press: 89 x5,5,6
db row: 35 x10,10,10
inverted rows
run - 10/10*2 @ 8.0km/h

Mon, Feb 14
press: 94 x5,5,5
chins: 4,2,2,2,1,1,1,0 (13 in 8 sets)
bb row: 94 x5,5,5
run - 10/10*2 @ 8.5km/h

Wed, Feb 16
bench: 110 x5,4,3
chins: 4,2,2,2,1,1,1,1 (14)

Thurs, Feb 17
run - 10/10*3 @ 9.0km/h

Mon, Feb 21
bench: 110 x5,5,5
chins: 4,3,2,2,2,2,1,1 (17)
run - 10/10*2 @ 9.5km/h

Wed, Feb 23
press: 99 x4,4,3
chins: 4,3,3,2,1,1,1,1 (16)
run - 3/3*5 @ 11km/h

Fri, Feb 25
deadlift: 185 x5
cleans: 115 x3,3,3,3,3
db bench: 40 x5,5,9
run - 30min @ 8.0km/h

Mon, Feb 28
bench: 126 x3,2,2
chins: 4,3,3,2,2,2,1,1 (18)
run - 6/6*3 @ 10.5km/h

Fri, Mar 4
squats: 185 x5,5,5
press: 95 x5,5,5

It's great to be home. And it especially great to see how much work you were doing while I was away. Sometimes it depressed me when my shoulder was so sore and I couldn't do the little things let alone the feats of strength you were accomplishing. Overunder, kudos on your recovery, I'm sure you'll be rocking it on the field pain-free in no time. H - stop working the chins so I can catch up.

Meanwhile

I have worked out at least a couple of times since last post. There was a week away due to single-parenting.

The latest I can remember  (yesterday) involved a circuit:

5 rounds in under 20 minutes:
Squats - 115 lb x 8 (reduced to 105 for sets 4&5)
SDHP - 45 lb kb x 10
push-ups - 10

Followed by a 16 min/3 km tempo run (starting at 8 kmph, peaking at 14 kmph and back down again.)

Clearly it had been too long since lifting the weights, because my whole body is sore today.

Lately, I'm still loving the yoga. Yin. Twice a week as long as hubby isn't away.