A Decent Week

This last week was a pretty good one. I felt stronger each day I ran and was able to cap off the whole thing with a 9.75 mile run. I ran a very hilly course for this long run. It is a bear to say the least. Up, up and up and then down down only to go up, up, up again. I will keep with this course for my long run for the next few weeks as the half marathon is fairly flat and the hill training will help with my endurance. The end result was a 20.55 mile week. That is impressive for me these days. I haven't broken twenty with any regularity as of late and hope to make two in row this week. My long run is slated at 10.5 miles. Wish me luck.

Day 4: P90X

Today was the 4th day of P90X and the program called for Yoga. To be truthful, I am not sure if I will ever do this program. I am sure it is a fine program and has a good deal to offer. The down side it is a little over 90 minutes and I am training for a half marathon. I just will never have 90 minutes to dedicate to the cross training. Sorry, just the truth. That said today was a 2 a day. I started the morning with a 3.55 mile run and finished with the Cardio program.

The Cardio program is allegedly the least intense of the workouts. I think I would beg to differ. There are no breaks. it is only 45 minutes where the others are 55 to 57 minutes. The program starts a bit slow with some yoga. But the killer is the end and there is a part where you roll on your back and come back up and jump in the air. I think I threw up a little in my mouth on that one. This is a disgusting truth. But I knew I worked that is for sure.

I am 4 days in with a rough weekend ahead. Between meeting clients and taking care of errands I will have to put in a 4 mile run, a 9 mile run and two p90x workouts. I will report how that goes. I will do my best that is all I can promise.

P90X: Day 4

I started the P90X workout this last weekend. I have been concerned that I wasn't getting enough cross training for my core and with a half marathon coming up in November I thought it was a good time to mix things up. I have seen the infomercials and did a quick ebay search to see what I could come up with. I managed a very good deal for the product and I would say that in the 4 days I have been doing that it really does work you. So far I have done:

Chest & Back: This is pretty intense chin-up and push-up program the next day I felt so dead.

Pylometrics: This is an hour of jumping. It is hard, really hard. It probably didn't help that I ran 8 miles that morning.

Shoulders and Arms: This is another tough work out much like the first one. It is hard.

Kenpo: Well I train in Kenpo but his is just a little cardio kick program and for me it is light weight. But it does make you break a sweat and that is good thing, any time you can add an hour of sweat to the day is a good thing. I also, ran three miles before I started. I was supposed to do yoga but that is 1.5 hours in length and I really needed to keep on my run schedule.

Overall I feel good and I think that if anyone keeps with this program for 6 days a week for three months they will have great results. I am hoping that two months will give me extra strength and spring for my half marathon.

I am in Vegas starting on Friday, I will let everyone know how it went.

What a week

This has been a heavy exercise week. The running went well. I was able to run 4 times. I started with a short 3 miler, just a recovery run, on Tuesday. On Thursday, I did some mile repeats for 3.5 miles. Saturday, was a little longer as I was feeling good and managed 4.5 miles. I finished with an 8 miler on Sunday. This gave me a total of 19 miles for the week. This was a great total and I felt pretty good, well aside from being dead at the start of my run on Sunday.

Why was I dead? Well on Friday, I received my P90x kit in the mail. This is a very intense cross training program for those who have not seen the ads. I did the first installment on Saturday as well as having done my martial arts class. When I woke up on Sunday, I was tired to the bone. But I did my 8 miles like a good boy, it just was about a minute off my normal pace. I finished Sunday, with installment two of the P90x and now I am tired from my 5 workouts in two days. Whew!!! I mean it really I do.

I will say this so far about the P90x, it is as hard as you want it to be. Tough stuff if you want it to be. I started this as I was looking to build my muscles before the half marathon in November. Plus, if I can gain some more tone, I would be happy with that as well. I will keep everyone posted.

Injuries ... Again

I was doing fine with my program and then I went to my martial arts class on Saturday and ended up with a weird injury. We were doing these drills where your opponent holds your leg and then you hop. The drill is intended to help you practice keeping your balance and prevent take downs. I am not sure how well this works. But it is a good concentration drill and hoping for a couple of minutes is difficult. It is very difficult for me. Since I did my marathon last year, my right hip is not 100%. When you are not 100% your body adjusts to keep the injured part from taking all the impact of an activity. This is what happened. As my hip was crying over the impact I was subconsciously turning away from the impact of the hopping and this meant I was landing to the side of my leg and I ended up with a bit of a high ankle sprain in my right leg. So as last week was a down week anyway, I took two days off to recover.

I ran last night without incident but sometimes things happen and you have to adjust. Today is for speed work so wish me luck.

A Decent Rest, but you know....

I am not very good at resting. This is a rest week but I have a hard time cutting back. I was supposed to do just 4 easy runs this week. Nothing fancy and no real goals just get out there and be steady. I hope I don't regret it later but today I did some speed work. I did a warm up half mile and then did two mile repeats with a half mile cool down in between. My pace was 8:45. I don't make too much of this speed as I was on a treadmill and I tend to find that pace easier there than on the streets. Everything is harder on the streets. But it was quick and at the same time serves the recovery week theme. There was less impact on my body after all. But I did break the rules of the 4 easy runs. Oh well, I am sure I will be fine.

Next week I am back into action with tempo runs and what not. Well happy running.

August is Over

I am glad August is over. For running it is the worst, it is a month to be survived more than anything else. Now that it is over, I think I will run much easier. I did a little three miler and the cooler weather really made a difference. I did 53 miles for August and considering that I spent the first week swimming I think that is good. I am going to shoot for about 75 miles for September. I think this is a reasonable goal and not quite 20 miles average per week. I would like to add 100 miles for October and another 100 for November. There is no plan for December. Here is to plans and hoping it all goes to plan.

A Good Effort

I was able to put in 4 days of running last week, I had only been able to put in 3 the week before and my numbers were a bit down as a result. I will say this I was not as fresh for my long run this week as I was last week. There is something to be said for less running. But for my 4 runs I managed:

Tuesday: 3.0 miles - just a slow and easy nothing to write home about but it got the lead out of the legs

Thursday: 3.5 miles - a tempo run and I was very pleased with my speed portion and I have been doing much better on the hills.

Saturday: 3.0 miles - A steady but quick run; however, with my martial arts class later in the morning I was tired on Sunday.

Sunday: 7 miles - I started slow but found a nice pace at mile 4 that carried me the rest of the way. I was dead when I was done and didn't feel better until Monday morning.

Over all it was a 16.5 mile effort. I have been experimenting with some new shoes. I picked up a pair of END shoes that I have been mixing in on shorter runs for the past few weeks. I think I will write a shoe review later this week.

It's About Pain

I have not been as diligent about posting as I should have been. I think that blogging is an ebb and flow sort of thing. I have noticed that I have some nagging injuries these days. Mostly the culprit is my right hip. When I train heavy the hip lets me know about it. I am not sure if it is a result of my body telling me to slow down or the result of some injuries in my "bullet proof" twenties coming back to demand payment. I know I get a nice creak in my elbow from where I elbowed a man in the fist, while he was throwing a punch. (A dumb move on my part but probably singularly impressive to watch). The point of the day, pain management.

So here I sit attempting to battle to stay in as peak of condition I can get while maintaining a successful law practice. It is a hard balance. As I mentioned, I believe I will need to supplement my running with swimming to cut down on the wear and tear on my hip and calf. These are the two problem areas. Tonight I managed another 32 laps. To go with this I do manage to get my martial arts training in as well. To be truthful the running and swimming are tools to make my martial training more effective. That is the point, well for me it is. The running has its own goals but the reason for doing so was to be more effective on the mat. The surprising thing that running has brought is its own little addiction.

There is something that borders on spiritual about tapping the physical. It is the feeling of truly being alive and connecting to the universe. (If that makes any sense). I have never really be a very religious person, but sometimes when I am really in the heart of a great run or flying through techniques and I get that "perfect moment", I think at those times I truly understand spirituality. Because the feeling is beyond simple satisfaction, it is as if I have tapped into something more. To get there through, there is a pain barrier that has to be broken through first, at least for me. It may be because I am now in my 40's and I can't quite get rolling with out a little bit of discomfort. Once I get there it is worth the little pain barrier.

This has been a bit of an affirmation. Why do I beat myself so relentlessly? By most accounts I am a fairly intelligent man, some might debate it but I like to tell myself that anyway. The answer is that beating myself down is worth it. When I can get those singular "perfect" moments it justifies all of the pain. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Happy running or swimming or fighting or what ever your poison happens to be.

Some Time in the Pool

I have noticed that I get some injuries when I train too much. A big suprise but true. To combat the tendencies of my right hip, left calf and right hamstring from yelling too much, I have decided to take a more reasoned approach to my training. This is tough for a guy who at some level enjoys chastising himself for not gritting through the pain. So I have decided to take a 3 week on one week off sort of routine. But my off week is a pool week. I am not a big fan of swimming laps, there is too much isolation in swimming. There is too much disconnect from the environment for me to ever be enthusiastic about it. But to keep injuries in check it is a must. So I did 30 laps on Sunday, 25 on Monday and 40 today. That is a lot of laps and I think it is good for me, even if it is boring.

As to the running, I am getting faster again. I dropped some speed after my illness. I think that lung infection really hit me hard in terms of endurance. I am only now getting back to a 10:00 pace. For a while I was around 11:00 to 11:30 for a time. Now I am back to 10:00 to 10:15. With a little speed work I should be ready for a half marathon in November. Here is to happy training.

Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.

I read a book, not a big suprise. I read a novel about running, okay a little unusual. I have seen Once a Runner a few times in the book store and I have picked it up and put it down. I was finally intrigued enough to buy it. The book itself has an interesting story. It was out of print but the demand for it reached a critical mass the the publisher put it back on the shelves.



The story itself is simple enough a college runner is quite simply trying to break the 4:00 barrier and to hopefully break a world record. A secret lofty goal and an impressive public one. I got the point of the book pretty early on. The book is about the cost of dreams and running can be seen as a metaphor for what ever your dreams are. If you want to succeed you have to give everything you have to achieve them. For our main character in the book he comes to realize that to achieve greatness he has to foresake everything else in order to achieve it. That is the cost, everything.



I found the book to be equal parts uplifting and grim. It is a triumph of the human spirit and at the same time a slap to those who think they can do it all. I think you can do it all, you just can't do it all well. Excellence equals sacrifice. We all on some level know this. I like this book and how often do you find a novel about running. Give it a try.

An Update

Has it been a month, I suppose it has. In that time I have finally picked up my running to 15 miles a week for two weeks in a row. I have been to my martial arts class and got seriously clawed up by a training partner who doesn't seem to understand the wisdom of the finger nail clipper. When doing grabs and locks you have to respect your training partners and that means clipping the nails to avoid unnecessary injury to your partners.

I have been excited over my running as of late. I was able to put in a six mile effort one day last week and that has been my longest run of the year. This is simultaneously sad and exciting. Sad as I ran a marathon last year and exciting to finally get things back on track. Whew!!!

Here's to hoping for better things in the coming weeks.

A Good Week, Finally

It seems that I have been struggling for this entire year to get a good routine together. This week was finally one that I think I can build upon. I was able to get out of the roads four times for a total of 12.5 miles. The milage may not be breath taking by any stretch of the imagination but it was a solid start.

When life is chaotic it can be difficult to get things together. When my life became a bit chaotic my running also seemed to followed the same chaos. I am attempting to get things in a more organized framework and hopefully I will be able to follow up on this.

Currently, I am thinking of doing the Philadelphia Distance Run in September. It is a nice half marathon and I haven't done a race since last November. It feels like too long of a break, probably because it is. Here is to getting another number.

Harsh Conditions

I have been laid up for the last two weeks with a nasty lung infection that really laid me low. There was no running and to be truthful there was little of anything that was not laying my head on my pillow. Over the past week I have been able to get out doors again, I even bought a new pair of shoes. Nothing says summer like new shoes.

I have been running in stability shoes but as I was at a water park on Sunday I noticed that my wet foot print does not match the stability foot print. I decided to go with a lighter shoe and see how I do. So I went from the 12 oz Brooks GTS 8 to the 8 oz Brooks ST 4 Racer. A racing shoe, just so I say. I will use it for my speed workouts and on race days. I have done a couple of quick runs and I would say that I like it. I can feel the weight difference but I also would be afraid to go very long distances in the shoe. It says that a half marathon would be fine but I don't think I would do one in them. Perhaps a race of 5 miles or less, 8 miles tops. There isn't alot of shoe there but there is enough.

Here to hoping for a healthier summer than the late fall has allocated me.

Gosh, a hard one

My new found speed has left me a bit more self critical on my run times. I went for a 3.75 mile jaunt on Saturday and it was a killer. Killer I say. The humidity was insane and yet I was determined to get a run in. I stubbornly refused to back off my pace for the entire run and managed to log a 9:45 average time throughout the run. The cost was a bit high. I was hyperventilating at the end of the run and my legs were giving me a bit of a shake. Not good. My inner Viking refused to quit and I paid the price. Earlier in the day I had done an hour and a half of martial arts training.

The combination of being a bit tired when I started and the humidity really dragged me down. It was a short run but I was dead when I was done. I think I am pushing harder these days trying to crack my speed barrier and hopefully reach the 9:00 mile. I am not sure if I will get there but now I am at 4 runs in a row with an average under 10:00 per mile. I am getting better.

29.52

I have been getting more speed as of late in my runs. I was going to run yesterday but I wanted to be fresh for my little 5k experiment this morning. One of the things that has gotten me down was that I was not able to crack the 30:00 threshold for a 5k. When I came close last year, I was in truth a bit bummed about it. But now it seems that I have gotten some experience and with it some speed. Enter this morning:

I got up and out the door for a little run in the morning drizzle. I wanted to see exactly how fast I could do a 5k. So I started with my 2 minute walk and then set out on about a 10:00 minute pace for the first mile. Once I was awake I was pushing the envelope the entire time, uphill 9:45 pace, down hill 9:20 pace and so on until I hit the 3.11 mile mark which was at: 29:52 or a 9:37 pace. This was a great feeling. I am happier about this PR than any I can remember right now. Excuse me while I bask in my own accomplishments for a time ... ahhh. Ok, I am done. I am not sure what my running will look like in terms of totals this year but it will be faster. Also, if I didn't run another mile for the rest of the year after today, I would call it a success.

9:58

It seems that I have discovered some speed. I didn't run at all last week due to my schedule being crazy, I was covering for another attorney on a few cases and it cut into my day quite a bit. Then I went out on Monday and did well as I mentioned, I had a couple of miles sub 10:00 and finished just a bit over 10:00.

Tonight after work I hit the roads in my favorite running weather: light rain. Light rain is the best. I always feel great in the rain. It keeps me cool and feels fresh. I went out for "The Loop". The Loop is a 3.65 mile stretch that circles my house. Tonight it was excellent, I felt like I could just push it and push it. So I did, the first mile was 9:55, the second was about 10:20, the third was 9:47 and the last part was about the same pace. The total 36:22 minutes or a 9:58 pace. Wow!!!. I have not run so fast in about a year and it is nice to know that I can the dump truck, i.e. me, up to speed.

Yes, it is going to be a good spring for running.

I have been less than diligent this month

That is in terms of posting. I have been working very hard this month and I have not been posting as much as usual. I hope to change that. I did update my miles and am at a bit over thirty miles for the month. I have two thoughts about this ... really only thirty miles and wow thirty miles. I suppose that it is fair to say I am both disappointed that this is the number as I like to do much more than that and at the same time I have been a very busy lad so the fact that I got any miles in seems like a great achievement.

Last night was a very good run. I am a bit of a plodder when it comes to running. If I were a vehicle I would be a dump truck. Lots of power but not much speed, that sort of defines me. When I started running, well it is nice to call it running, I was doing 14:00 miles. Just to put it in perspective I did weigh around 300 lbs. Now I weigh in at 230 and generally do about a 10:30 pace. I have been trying to cut into the 9:00 range for the past year with limited success. I did do a 5k last year when I averaged 9:50 but I have not duplicated the effort since. Last night was a good step toward the 9: something.

The first mile of my 3.65 loop was at 9:56 and the last mile was at 9:48. The in between was my normal pace and I ended up with a 10:06 total pace. I am quite pleased with my effort on this one. I am going to go out tonight just to see what I can do. Nothing like a good run to get you all motivated again.

In other news, I had a belt test at my kenpo school on Saturday. I passed and now I am one step closer in my training. It is interesting the way things went down. I called my instructor at a little before 9:00 to see if he had some early room for a private lesson. This is when I learned that I was going to be taking a test that day. The good news was that I wasn't able to develop any pre - test jitters. I just went in took my beating and went on with my day. I may do a more extensive post on this later on.

It Has Been a Time

Update:

It has been some time since my last post and all I can say is that I have been quite busy. Between the court time and the remaining work I have been doing I have not posted as much as usual. I have been running few days a week with a day or two of martial arts.

It has been nice getting outside again to run. I will say that. My calf has healed over the winter and now I feel fresh and well to be honest... pretty fast. My time on the treadmill has quickened me up a bit. I think I would like to keep a day a week on the treadmill (heaven forbid) to speed train. It does work and I do like the ability to try some speed out even if it is on the treadmill.

Sometimes I could use a good ass kicking:
I was going to private lessons first thing on Saturday mornings. It was nice but I didn't take the pounding that Kenpo is known for. If you are not being bashed, pummelled, thrown, kicked and elbowed it just isn't a good class. I have had to start taking a later group class on Saturday (I take my daughter to T-ball). The good news is that I get what I want. There is a certain black belt in the late morning class that hits like a piston and is as solid as a stone wall.

The stimulation of two older lions beating the hell out of each other is great. Sure I wake up the next morning with lots of bruises but it is worth it. The heart of martial arts is different for each art. For Kenpo, I believe it is in the clash. There is a certain purity of two artists mixing it up with no pads, no gloves, no head gear. It is the essence of it, that is what I love. In many ways it loves me back, with a good ass kicking that is, we have to find our humility after all.

Back Outdoors, at last

I have had to run inside since early December. This was started by an injury to my left calf and continued due to some bitter cold and ice. So today, when it was seasonably warm, I finally got to get outside and run a little. My conditioning is sub par. I really struggled with the little three mile jaunt. But no need to get down on one's self, you just draw a baseline and know that you will keep at it and you will get better.

When I started out I felt fine but my lungs started to scream a bit after a half mile. I think that this was just some rust. After a few weeks out of doors I am sure I will be better. But it was a good start and I still managed more than 14 miles for the week which was good. Next week I will need to get outside more.

Happy running.