Whole lotta Tabata

For those of you reading this that don't know what a tabata is I will explain. You pick an exercise to do 8 sets. You work for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds until complete. All 8 sets take 4 minutes total. For my workout today, I had 4 exercises that I did tabata style. You count the reps for each set, with the lowest number being your score if you will.

Here are the results;
Knee Pushups 24/20/17/15/12/12/12/12 score = 12
Air Squats 19/18/18/18/17/16/16/17 score = 16
Sit Ups (Nancy stood on my feet, used Yoga mat) 13/10/9/7/7/7/7/7 score = 7
burpess 5/5/4/4/4/4/4/4 score = 4

Actually feel better after than before, I think I worked out a lot of the stiffness from yesterday's run. My thoughts today were with Martin and Marcy.

I probably should have checked Map My Run

Wasn't that far off. The run was 13.3 miles, not 13.1 miles. Also, probably didn't help that Nancy and I had a cheat meal last night. Half order of pancakes and french toast with Turkey bacon and sausage. Followed by a half piece of banana cake.

My stomach was not happy with me this morning. Now that I wrote it down, it sounds really bad. I need to limit these going forward.

I back to being slooooooow

To get everyone caught up over the past few days my schedule has been all over the place.

These days I feel like I'm thrilled with my progress one day, then take a step back on another day.

Thursday's workout was Fran (21/15/9 reps of 95lb. thrusters and pullups for time). I substituted 50lb dumbbells and used no assistance on the pullups. This was the very first workout I did under my regimen that began in October of 2009. Back then I used 1-60lb. dumbbell, did 5 unassisted pullups then used 55lbs of assistance on the Gravitron. Back then I finished in 9:24. Thursday I finished in 9:43. To me a huge improvement. Had to cut short the bike, rode for 20minutes all out, forgot to note distance.

Friday's workout was 5 Burpees/10 pushups/500m AMRAP in 20 minutes. Finished 6 full sets. Finished the burpees and pushups for round 7 and got 160m in the row before time was done. Then I went immediately to the bike for the WOD which was bike one mile, rest that same time, bike 2 miles, rest that that same time, all the way up to 5 miles and back down. So that equates to a total of 25 miles on the bike. After reading some other blogs, I decided I would rest one minute after each. Got to 15.1 mile in one hour before I was asked to get off the bike by another member. I probably would have been there another 40 minutes or so. So as I am riding the bike I am thinking, boy, good thing I don't have too many long workouts (this one even cut short was 80 minutes). As I was saying this I was forgetting about my 13.1 mile TT today. With the terrible weather, I decided to run it here in Manhattan. I was going to do it in Central Park, then I remembered that a man was killed by a falling branch, so I switched it to the West Side Highway. I think I figured out a course and off we went (Nancy had a 10k on her schedule). I was really sore from the week's workouts, but that is no excuse. Finished in 1:54:11. A full 14 minutes slower than my run from 1/24/10. I am not as depressed as I thought I'd be. Looking back, I am trying to figure what went wrong and will try and let everyone know.

The only way to get home is to run faster

So with the switcheroo I have going on this week, tonight's workout was run 6x800m(1/2 mile) with 4 minutes rest in between, all out effort.

Got home a bit later than I would have liked from work and tried to find the shortest WOD on the plan. With my 13.1M TT on Saturday, I chose to do this workout tonight. I had no desire to go to the gym tonight, but figured I would modify this workout a bit too.

Results are;
1st 800m @ 3:00, rest 4minutes, 2nd 800m @ 2:56, rest 4 minutes, then the modification came, I ran a mile instead of the next 2 800m, finished in 6:25, rested 4 minutes, 2nd mile was 6:27. All rest time was walking on the treadmill very slowly.

Yesterday's WOD was 50 step ups/40 box jumps/30 sit ups/20 pushups/10 burpees 2x for time. Sit ups were done on an incline bench, finished in 12:44.

Can you get sore from 25 squats?

The answer is an emphatic yes!

Due to scheduling switching, yesterday I did 5 Sets of 5 reps of squats. Warmed up with 135lbs. First set was at 185lbs., second set was at 205lbs., third set was going to be at 205 again, but I thought why not try 215lbs. Asked Nancy to monitor my form as I was concerned I would not be going deep enough. Was able to do these last 3 sets at 215lbs. with Nancy's approval of my form. She actually said my form was better with the 215lbs. than the 205lbs.

So to track my squatting progress again;
11/3/09 165lbs. for 3 reps max
12/26/09 185lbs. for 3 reps max
1/12/10 185lbs. for 5 reps max
2/22/10 215lbs. for 5 reps max

I am really happy with the strength gains, especially since I have always felt my legs to be a weak area.

Saturday's workout was a double, first part was 150 wall ball shots for time. I substituted 150 thrusters with the 45lb. bar, finished in 12:32.

Then I had a 500yd swim for time. This is the first time since my total immersion class that I tried to swim whole stroke free style for any length. My time was
15:13. I can imagine people reading this saying, OMG, he's slow. I know I am slow. The good thing was I didn't feel as if I was drowning and felt pretty good when I was done. I tried a couple of times to go faster, but my form suffered, so I slowed down. My goal for the swim is to swim with less effort so I have more energy for the bike and the run. I know once my form improves, I will get faster (I can't get much slower!)

Flailing, heaving and squatting oh my!

That was me on the treadmill this evening. Today's WOD was 400m run/50squats/800m run/50 squats/1600m run/50 squats. 400m done at 10.0mph, squat set was broken. 800m was done at 10.0mph, again squat set was broken. The mile started at 9.0mph and I was at 9.5mph when I finished the mile at 6:37. Again, squat set was broken. Finished everything in 16:15.

I also want to thank you guys (Team Trimax) for the great comments. The more I think of it, the more I would like to do the Ironman next year (Maybe Arizona with Martin?). I am so incredibly impressed with you guys doing one. You are a constant source of motivation for me.

I know I've said it before, but I feel very fortunate to have stumbled upon Max over a year ago. I am sure that there is no other coach that would have been able to help me get so far, so fast.

Well, I've reached my goal

When I first met with Max on January 9th of last year, the immediate goal was to complete the REV3 half iron triathlon on June 7th. Nancy has said this was my midlife crisis. You see, the bigger goal was to be in the best shape of my life on my 40th birthday. With today being my 40th birthday, I have achieved my longer range goal. I can say without hesitation, I am in the best shape of my life. I feel great, My weight this morning was 176.5 (started at 214.5).

Now comes the tricky part, once you achieve a goal that you put so much time/energy/effort into, what do you do? My goal for this race season is to break 6 hours in a half iron distance race (6:45 is my best of the two I've done). My goals in case you haven't noticed tend to be obnoxious as Max likes to say or pie in the sky as Nancy refers to them.

I've already told Max and Nancy, but I am putting it out there for everyone to see. If I am fortunate enough to break 5:30 in any race this year, I will sign up for a full Ironman distance race for 2011. I am debating signing up for one either way, because then I could have a whole offseason to train for it. Now that it's out there, I can't take it back.

Back to the workout results. Yesterday was 250 lunges for time (125 each leg). I did these standing in one spot in my apartment, so they were not walking around like Erica's and Jane's were. Finished in 7:47. Then went to the gym for the 30 minute TT on the bike. 10.27 miles covered.

Today was more bike, 5 minutes on, 1 off, 10 minutes on, 1 off, 15 minutes on. Got 10.8 miles in. The 2 breaks were spent pedaling slowly.

Happy I went

Today's WOD was a double (aren't they all?). 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 box jumps,burpees and situps. Situps were done on an incline bench (I will save everyone and not write down the reason why). Second part was a 20 minute run done on the treadmill due to the snow. This WOD was done about an hour after dinner with friends. The old Dan would have come home and gone directly horizontal on the sofa. When Max writes that I was woefully out of shape he is wrong. As my friend Bill said "round IS a shape."

The new Dan went to the gym. Results are for the first part 9:54. Ran 2.79 miles in 20 minutes immediately after I was finished with the first part.

Yesterday's WOD was 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 of thrusters with the 45lb bar and burpees. Finished in 19:33. Lungs were sore for the first 20 minutes of my swim.

Not looking forward to lunges tomorrow (at least no burpees).

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's day with their loved ones. I know I am. I ended up taking today off and will double it onto tomorrow's wod. It was a great mental health day.

Friday night's workout was run 400m/50 squats 6x for time. The treadmill started every round at 10.0 and only went down to 9.7 to avoid falling off on sets 3 and 4, otherwise it stayed at 10 the whole way. All rounds of squats were broken. Finished in 20:25. On December 8th it took me 18:31 to do 500 squats for time. I am thinking this is a great improvement since then.

On a side note, my abs (or shall I say flabs) are so incredibly sore from the knees to elbows. It is 72 hours after doing them and they are still sore to the touch!

Yesterday was deadlifts (5 sets of 3 reps). Warmed up with 135lbs. The results were; 225x1, 245x1, 265x1, 275x2. Everything was shaking during the sets of 275, but I am happy it was 10lbs heavier than the last time I had this workout. I had a lane reserved at the pool, when I got there for my 1pm the lifeguard said he was going on an hour brake and moved me to 2pm without telling me. I left, frustrated that I didn't swim as this is my biggest concern for the races.

Another note, my back is now so sore from the deadlifts, add that to the swollen abs and it makes coughing, sneezing and laughing painful.

Catch Up

Here is the results from the past few sessions.

Wednesday night was supposed to be a 40k bike TT. I substituted a Spinervals TT DVD instead. Was back on the bike, realized what a pain it is to set up the trainer, get my bike out of the closet, etc.. Felt like a wet noodle when I was done. Had no idea how far I went, but know I worked really hard.

Last night was the 25lb. kb swings (subbed a 25 lb. dumbbell) 21 reps and 21 knees to elbows 4x for time. Okay, so the swings are no problem. The first set of knees to elbows was pretty good, then by the 4th set it was all I could do to lift my knees to my waist. Finished in 10:48.

Second part was done immediately after. It was going to be stand up one minute off one minute, 2 minutes up, 2 down. Up to 5 and back down. Total time up was 25 minutes. Nancy asked me to go with her to our other gym. She had deadlifts, so I used the stationary bike and said I would stand as long as possible. First set was 15 minutes up, took a 1 minute break, then finished with 10 minutes up. Last 5 was super tough.

Looking at my schedule and longing for a day off. Not so much physically as mentally. I may double Sunday and Monday's wod's inorder to take Sunday off.

Delayed onset muscle soreness

So I realized yesterday and even more so today how much the squat/run workout from Sunday killed my legs. My legs are killing me.

Thanks to everyone's comments my mindset is good.

Last night's workout was 500m row/50kb swings (used 20lb dumbbell) 500m row/40 swings 500m row/30 swings/500m row. Finished in 12:09 which was 34 seconds faster than on January 6th when I did this workout previously. I was pleased with the workout and the way my back held up. It is officially 100%. After this workout I went with Nancy to our other gym so she could do squats (5 sets 7 reps). I am giving her props because she killed them. Her previous max weight was 80lbs. and she got 4 sets at 65lbs and one at 70lbs. I was really proud of her effort.

Tonight's workout was a double and my legs were still really sore before starting. I chose to run outside and try to get it in before the storm comes. I did not do the 10k, it is 6 miles even from my apartment to Chambers Street and back. I lost 45 seconds waiting for lights to change, but am not going to subtract it from my time as the recovery probably helped. Finished in 46:58. As I was running a lot of the blogs from Team Trimax were floating through my head. I was remembering reading Kathy's "Tri Mom" blog about the time she was running like Frankenstein (the way I felt) and made me smile. I was thinking of Erica's comment on effort, Ariel's never say die attitude and Jane, Mike and David's speed. When I started getting down on myself, I thought of Martin's comment saying to get over myself, which I did. I thought of how encouraging Christina is to all of us. It helped me finish in a great frame of mind even though I didn't run my fastest. I know I ran my best.

The 2nd workout was an AMRAP of 4 burpees/8 pushups/12 situps. I waited my usual 3 minutes after the 6 miles to start. Got 13 full sets in before time and my energy expired.

I believe I've lost my Mojo

Yesterday's workout consisted of a 4 mile race in Central Park followed by back squats at 70% (175 lbs.) 21 reps/burpees, 15 reps/burpees, then 9 reps/burpees. (I substituted the burpees for the row as the rowing machine is 2 flights down and I would lose the squat rack).

We got to the park and it was COLD!! (17 degrees at the start). To make matters worse I had to use the bathroom (#1). I wasn't going to be able to make back to my corral in time so I figured I'd just hold it. Off we went, the first mile I clocked at 7:25 on my watch and I am thinking I better pick up the pace, 2nd mile was 7:16, so much for picking up the pace! My friend passed me around mile 2.5. He was looking great, so I thought to myself, "Okay, try to keep up with him." It didn't happen and he blew by me. I don't know what it was, I just couldn't get it into gear. My final time was 29:08 (7:17 pace). It was still good enough to place 113 out of 472 in my age group (I was hoping to be sub 28 minutes)

I came home showered and began moping. Nancy asked me if I was one of the 7 dwarfs (Mopey). I finally got over myself and we went to the gym for the 2nd wod. This was the first time I tested my back since Tuesday and it held up fine with the squats. I finished this workout in 18:26. I am really sore today from the squats, but the back feels good so I am glad it was nothing more than a strain.

I sat around and wondered things must be pretty good if I am complaining about running 4 miles at a 7:17 pace. I think we all do this as we are constantly trying to better ourselves. This trait enables us to keep pushing when we don't want to or when we aren't feeling our best. I believe the reason I wasn't excited about my result is that I don't want to settle. I realize that I can't pr every workout and that somedays I will just not have it. Those are the days when I have to really focus on the end goal and give my best effort. In the end, only I am going to know if I did everything I could have done to achieve my goal.

Discouraged a bit, then encouraged a lot

So last night's workout was run 400m/50squats/10burpees 4 x for time. The back is feeling a lot better, still hurts when I twist it, but wasn't planning on doing any twisting during this workout. Decided to wear my new Nike Free 3.0 for this wod. I plan to try and build up to longer distances in these.

Before I went over to the gym I checked Christina's notes and thought to myself, okay she did the wod in 12:55, so if I can come close to that, I'll be psyched. Ran the 400's at 9.5 on the treadmill, squats were tough, burpees are always hard. When I finished I looked at my watch and saw my time of 15:22. I was a little discouraged as I thought I put forth good effort. I came back to comment on what a great job she did and realized I had read her blog wrong and that we had done exactly the same time!! All of sudden, a time I wasn't so happy with, became good. Funny how perspective works.

Worked on my swim for 35 minutes in the pool today. Feeling better about my new mechanics. Nancy, me and our friend Gerrit are running in a 4 mile race tomorrow in Central Park with the NYRR. The weather people are saying it's going to be 15 degrees when we start. What are we thinking? I am praying I can run really fast so I can get home and warm as fast as possible!

How long can it take to count to a 100?

So because my back is still no where close to 100%, I had to do some more rearranging to the schedule. Last night I did 100 pull ups for time. There was a time not long ago that I couldn't do one pull up on my own. I made a vow to myself that no matter how long it takes, I am done using assistance on pullups. I kind of wish I would have seen this workout BEFORE making that vow.

I got to the gym around 6pm and was thinking to myself, I hope I can finish before they close at 10:30pm. I have no idea if I posted a good time or not, just the fact alone that I did 100 unassisted pullups in 13:13 is amazing to me. I had a hard time straightening my arms for an hour or two afterwards.

The back is much better today. Only hurts when I twist it. I am debating the squats tonight, but might hold off until tomorrow.

Back pedaling

So the jolt in my back the other night turned into a full on back breaker. I barely made it to work yesterday and walked like a guy twice my age. It was okay while seated, but then when I would get up shooting pain would explode throughout my back. There were no quick movements during the day at all. Naprocin is helping I guess.

Yesterday's workout called for a double. 500m row/50kb swing/500m row/40kb swing/500m row/30kb swing/500m row. Went to the gym and tried one swing. There was no way it was going to happen. I sacrificed this workout for now for the greater good. I also had a 45 min TT on the bike which I did and got in 14.34 miles.

Back is feeling better today, so at least it's moving back in the right direction. I will have to do some more shuffling with the schedule to work around the back. On another note, I am appreciating how much this protocol is working. The 245lb squat for me is great. I am looking forward to all of our progress.

Back on the horse, at least that's how I am walking

So I can't believe how sore I am from 11:07 of Rowing/Thruster madness yesterday. Had to switch up the plan due to a 4 mile race on the schedule for Sunday.

Substituted 7 sets 1 rep squats and a bike 5 minute TT 4x with 2 minutes rest in between. Nancy came to the gym with me because she had a tabata that I was going to time for her when I was done with squats.

Figured I warm up with 135lbs. Well, something happened and my back felt a jolt during my warm up set. I am thinking "Are you kidding me, during my warm up!!" I figured it would loosen up and I continued. The results are as follows 205, 225, 245x4, 205. I have never had more than 205 on the bar before. The first set of 245 I know wasn't as deep as I should go. They actually got progressively better as I went along. I think getting used to the weight helped.

Then we timed Nancy's tabata (she killed it, or did it kill her?). I came back to the gym for my apartment building for the bike TT. I realized that my computer is on my front tire, so riding my bike on the trainer will have to wait. The results are as follows, 1.75 miles, 1.73, 1.67 then 1.87. I attribute the last set to LL Cool J who was on my ipod.

As of writing this, my back is extremely tight, I am hoping an anti inflammatory will settle it down.

Oh, how quickly we forget!

So basically for the past 2 weeks I was tapering for my half marathon and taking some time off to heal. I hadn't really had any time off since beginning my journey last January. I had 3 of the past 4 days off with only light workouts all week.

Today was row 500m, 25# dumbbell thrusters 21 reps 3x for time. The dreaded words "for time". I was thinking, I am rested and ready to kick some thruster/row behind.

The first 500m was done in 1:33 (I am thinking I am a superstar). First set of thrusters were broken at 12, then finished. The 2nd 500m row was around 1:50 (lungs burning, nose running, eyes tearing, pain setting in). The 3rd was hard to remember as my lungs were on fire and I couldn't catch my breath. Finished in 11:07. For the first time, I had to lie down before leaving the gym. It took a good 7-8 minutes to catch my breath. Made it home and had to lie down for another 5-10 minutes.

Nancy came into check on me and said "I'll leave you alone as long as I know you aren't going to die" Later on she added "Are you outta shape?" "Did you get soft?" I am sure I didn't lose any fitness, but boy, I forgot how hard these wod's can be.