Run!

Leaving my long one for tomorrow - until the semester's over, Fridays are so demanding that Saturday effectively becomes an unwanted recovery day! Beautiful beautiful running weather - sunny but only in the high 50s, a hint of crispness in the air even in the sun.

:50 easy

Bench!

OK, that was good. Supersets as previously (chest/biceps, back/triceps, shoulders on their own), it's fun and quite different from the way I do my other workouts - wouldn't be bothered with it on my own obviously as it involves wrangling a lot of different sets of weights, many of which are missing/AWOL, but when someone else is organizing it it's pretty darn enjoyable!

1hr upper body

Squats!

In spite of (because of?) having sent my omnibus review Tuesday and taught my last class last night, I am feeling extremely emotionally fragile! Just tired I think. Didn't run earlier, mostly because trying to save legs for squatting but also because of logistics. Took a taxi to the gym as I just couldn't face the notion of subway after the other day - finished some work there, had vague notion I MIGHT run home after workout but of course that was unrealistic! We were disorganized in our workout today - there was some huge gathering of NYU sorority gals having what as far as I could guess was a basketball tournament in costume (angels, devils, unicorns, etc.), RIDICULOUSLY loud. Josh and I are in agreement that my squatting is erratic enough that I need a spotter even at pretty low weights, but I hate asking, and it can't just be anybody as for squats unlike bench it needs to be someone strong and experienced who will actually be able to lift up the bar if necessary!

First I got the wrong workout by mistake (my fault, but we're also just in transition to a much larger group and it can be harder to figure out what's going on), did half of it before switching to my "real" one - then it just took FOREVER, and I only did minimum reps and sets out of the range. Anyway, good getting it done, and my pause squats were good enough....

Mistaken first bit:

4 x 3 @ 75

Real first set:

4 x 2 @ 105

Pause squats:

3 x 3 (3-second hold) @ 95 (I said I didn't think I could do it because of confidence issues, so it was a minor triumph when Josh made me do it and it was fine! Arghhhh, I do not enjoy the mental wrestling I have with this lift!)

3 minutes abs with Tabitha (hook ankles together and use 8lb medicine ball to do sit-ups, passing the ball back and forth)

Bulgarian split squats: 3 x 6 @ 10s

hip thrusts with band: 100

It took about an hour and a half but I should really only properly log an hour, I was standing around feeling miserable for lots of stretches of that! The noise of the basketball folks was making me feel like I needed a Xanax....

Run!

Relieved I finally made that happen - Monday and Tuesday were a bit of a disaster, I couldn't get out the door when I got up this morning but that was partly because I knew there was an afternoon window where it could also happen. Slightly curtailed as I need time to do some xeroxing etc. before office hours start at 4:30, but it is the most beautiful weather....

1:20 (:40 easy, :20 as 10 x :45 faster, 1:15 walking recovery, :20 easy)

Bench

I've been feeling off-kilter all day - it's a result I think of making the big push to finish this piece (and it might be I miss B. a bit too!). Had thought I'd only need an hour this morning or at most two to finish off last typing of corrections and final proof, but one forgets that a long piece will require much more time for that sort of thing, it was really mid-afternoon by the time I was done. I hadn't showered because I'd imagined I'd be able to run by, say, late morning - but at that point all I felt was UTTERLY KNACKERED. Rainy and cool, didn't think I'd ride to the gym (also that bike makes my knees sore!), but I regretted that decision when the subway train I was on was subject to long delays. Only made it to the gym fifteen minutes late, which I hate (was sitting on train in tunnel thinking that possibly when I feel this emotionally fragile it's not even a good idea to try and get to the gym in the first place!). However the session was good, I caught up with everyone else and had some enjoyable work with others (feel like I've been off schedule and haven't seen as much of regular teammates as I sometimes do). We are all KICKED - nobody could make their assigned weights and sets - it's all good, though!

bench: 3 x 3 @ 115

floor press: 3 x 10 @ 37.5

incline reverse fly: 4 x 20 @ 10

incline row: 4 x 10 @ 42.5

A few halfhearted abs but really we got into chat mode and that was nice too! I'd imagined I might run home, but I slightly pronged something in my knee during the workout and it seemed clear that I'd better quit while I was ahead. Hobbled to a taxi that got me home remarkably quickly - am going to go back out now and find something good to eat. Hot shower was beneficial!

DL!

Bit of a funny non-workout - Josh texted yesterday to say that Management wanted to film our session today, and it turned out that we really were just pulling heavy singles up to or in some cases beyond old maxes. It was pretty fun - we have a new member who hadn't tested yet & who is incredibly strong, he pulled 500! I got up to 265 OK (old max is 270) but Josh has a good eye for when fatigue has set in and we called it there.

misc. DL
10mi RT bike

Run!

Just 40 minutes easy - had hoped to fit in a longer one, but I'm down to the wire with my omnibus review & need to head out shortly to see a former student's MFA play production - all good. Very beautiful running weather!

:40 easy

Run!

A particularly nice one, with Liz in Central Park. Liz used to live half a block away and we took up running seriously at the same time, it was a huge luxury to have such a nearby running partner of similar pace and goals, but now she lives in Brooklyn and it's sort of an hour by subway for me to get there! But we meet up sort of halfway at the south end of Central Park - it can't be done in winter, because getting home in sweaty clothes on the subway is too chilly, but we're in the season now where it's realistic again - and I am optimistic that we should be able to do that very regularly in coming months - nice thing to look forward to.

We just did the lower 5 - c. 1:02, 5.2mi, 12:00 pace.

Bench!

I know I always say it - but I was a genius for setting up this Friday session! Very taxing day as always on a Friday - four cases, just about wrote all four up though it was touch and go whether I really was going to make myself do the fourth one (but if I held it over it was going to scupper the OTHER huge thing I have to finish this weekend!). Then highly satisfying workout with P. at the Columbia gym. Which is underventiled, dingy and overcrowded, but only a few minutes from my home!

Another superset variant workout where we cycled through chest/back, triceps/biceps, then shoulder on its own. So first set 5 x 5 alternating bench (95) and heavy shrugs, etc. Highly enjoyable!

1hr upper body

I am tired! That said - taking yesterday off from exercise made for an EXCELLENT squat session this morning. I have two stumbling blocks for the squat, one is purely mental but the other is physical - I don't have a solid enough foundation of technique to overcome fatigue, and will be folding over as soon as I get tired. Fresh legs made a big difference.

(B.'s getting here from the airport momentarily - thus my desire to be at home rather than at powerlifting in the early evening!)

1hr lower body

5 x 1 @ 115

5 x 3 @ 45 with 5-second hold at the bottom

Bulgarian split squats (using configuration of 2 benches to make sure I stay very upright and get full range of motion), 10lb

Also 10mi bike - the most beautiful weather in NYC just now, hope it lasts for a bit....

Tuesday run/bench

Just did :30 run midafternoon (with 4 x 1:00 hills) - there was a longer one on the schedule but I hadn't looked at it properly in advance and didn't leave enough time. Then nice powerlifting club - bench day came as a bit of light relief after yesterday's deadlifts!

bench: 10 x 2 @ 90

board press singles: 115, 135, 140 (didn't quite get all the way down, was a little nervous, but did lock it out on my own?)

single-arm row: 5 x 10 @ 42.5

5 x (25 face pulls, 25 shrugs @ 52.5)

3 x 10 skull-crushers (football bar plus 5s)

100 abs

:30 run
1hr upper body

Deadlifts

Ugh, I was too tired, it would have been better if I'd had more recovery time after yesterday's run I think. Also work stress just running very high at this time of year!

Did a single at the weight Josh had suggested for the work set (220) and knew I just didn't have it in me, Josh watched me do another one and sent me back down to 181 which the other fellow on the bar was using also.

4 x 5 @ 181

Walking lunges: 4 x 10 @ 12.5

Land-mine rows: 3 x 10

Shrugs: 100 @ 52.5

1hr lower body

+ 10mi RT bike - first week the weather is really warm enough....

Modest victory from jaws of defeat!

Really I've just been working too hard - Fridays always require a massive effort of willpower (four cases in our morning meeting and then four chair reports in the afternoon - it's basically at the outside limit of what I can do, even though I have an unusually high capacity for workload!), and then I was working so crazily yesterday too almost until midnight....

Anyway I've had two good nights of sleep in a row but as I headed out for notional long run I felt discouraged - had taken allergy medicine that left disgusting aftertaste in mouth, lungs still very raw because of all these wretched flowering trees, general feeling (as I wrote in an email to Brent earlier) that in the grand scheme of things if given the choice between doing a long run and eating a piece of cake I would fall down fairly easily on the side of cake.

I really almost called it at the 15-minute mark - had reached Central Park and started toiling up Harlem Hill and just couldn't do it! Switched to a walk and was thinking about bailing altogether. (It's also quite warm, mid-70s and already a little too hot if you're running in direct sun.) Then I channeled my delightful running coach and thought - you know, if I do the whole loop and just do a mix of walk-run, jog most of the time but switch to a walk on the longer hills, that's six miles, plus a mile each way to and fro - walk-run will make that up to about two hours and it's not going to kill me! David will be MUCH happier if I do that, even if it's mostly walking, than if I don't even try.

And that was what I did. The funny thing is that though inevitably there were quite a few stretches of walking, I don't think the total workout was as different from a normal current-slow-speed long run as you might think - my body probably doesn't really know the difference, especially given that I'm not training for a run event just now.

Anyway: 1:51 run-walk, maybe about 8 miles with hills - in this case, VICTORY!

Run!

I meant to do my longer one today, but I needed a long sleep and then got dug in on this funny huge work project, was late enough heading out (and with a huge amount of work still to do this evening!) that I thought I'd better just run shortish/easy and see if I can run long tomorrow instead. So, :40 easy along the river. It is very beautiful weather!

Bench!

Ah, my Fridays this semester are extremely demanding, but we got through all four cases at our meeting and I wrote up all four reports and then had my just reward: a 4pm session at the gym with P.! We were working on 5-10-15-10-5 model today. Very good! Work crunch in full force but this shouldn't affect running or lifting (it means swimming is probably not going to happen much or at all for another couple weeks - I've also been avoiding it because of allergies/lingering cold, the pool chemicals are dangerous for tender lungs!).

1hr

Squats

Non-exclamatory - I started out OK but I think I was working with a lot of fatigue to begin with and couldn't come close to doing the assigned sets. Technique problems linger also - I worked out a lot of the minor points pretty well, but my torso still has an unhelpful tendency to lean forward especially once I'm growing tired. Allergies plus the time in the school year are both also bringing me down!

So I think it was instead:

6, 4, 3 @ 105

And the rest of the workout was a bit of a grind too, none of the exercises that I find especially enjoyable (the logistics of tethering ankles with bands are a pain!):

3 x 8 Bulgarian split squats @ 10lb

4 x 25 hamstring curls with bands

100 hip thrusts with band

200 abs with band

1:20 or so lower body

Now I had better go and get some serious food before I have a total meltdown!

Run!

Really I am procrastinating on a big job of work and am foolishly letting the day slip through my fingers - but it was a very nice short run!

30 min with 5 x :30 faster, 1:30 easy

Run!

Not very inspired - I am full of phlegm and generally without much vim - but it is absolutely beautiful weather today, perfect running weather. Turned back a little early, anxious to get home (my Wednesday teaching day starts late but comes on with a vengeance once it's started). Promising myself that come May when my schedule opens up I am going to become more ambitious again about running....

1:20 easy

Bench!

Logging this some hours later after dinner with friends, should be right in broad outlines at least....

bench press: 4 x 2 x 105 (pause at bottom)
dumbbell floor press: 4 x 5 x 37.5 (pause)
150 face-pulls
single-arm rows @ 42.5: 10, 10, 15
3 x 20 skull-crusher with football bar
150 triceps rope pulldown

1hr upper body

Short run!

I was in the depths of fatigue last night when I got home, and basically just huddled in bed until I could fall asleep, but slept long and hard and felt quite a bit better today. (Lungs still full of junk though!) Just a half-hour easy...

Deadlifts!

I took a reluctant zero yesterday - spent a good chunk of the day at my office trying to get on top of a mountain of work stuff (there is one job that truly is almost too big for me to get my head around it!), lay down for a brief rest at 4:30 and woke up THREE hours later, feeling admittedly much better but completely disinclined (it was dark already) to go out for the long run.

Have a work commitment later that means I can't go to powerlifting, so I set up a midmorning appointment with Josh - it's way too many weeks since I powerlifted (I lose grip strength more than I lose actual strength!). Had meant to run home after but lungs were too full of junk and the postnasal drip too is making me crazy - I'll do a shorter run later if I can.

The lifting session went really well. Work sets I think as follows:

Deficit deadlift: 7 x 2 x 195 (bar, 20kg bumpers, 10lb plates and a 20lb chain on each end so that the load's heavier at the top of the lift)

Volume deadlift set (no deficit): 10 x 155, 12 x 155

Farmer's walk: 3 out-and-back @ 37.5

Bar shrugs @ 95: 4 x 30

Rainy run!

Ah, that's perfect - dear friend and longtime training partner Lauren is here from Atlanta, she came over and we had a lengthy debrief and then a decent hour's run in the rain!

1hr run!

Upper body!

I think setting up this Friday afternoon appointment was pretty much the smartest thing I did this semester. I felt AWFUL beforehand - still battling the wretched lung junk/postnasal drip, particularly demanding morning meeting, general vibe c. 3:30pm of being huddled in bed and desperately hoping P. would text me to cancel! (Which he has never done.) But I got myself over there and literally one minute into the first set I felt better...

(We did another one of these funny bench ladders - I need help as it peaks and goes back down, it's incredibly challenging, moreso than it sounds - where you do 10 reps with bar, then add pairs of 5s up to 85 and keep on doing 10 reps with basically no rest....)

1hr upper body

Squats!

Great relief to be back in the supremely soothing atmosphere of powerlifting club (it was a particularly calm day). Felt somewhat under the weather all day, not sure if it's allergies or lack of sleep or both, but I do feel better now that I lifted and ate some food. Josh had me on the safety squat bar again doing a different main set, I think the total workout was as follows:

safety squat bar: 10 x 3 x 95
goblet squats, 32.5lb with 5-second hold at the bottom: 2 x 10
100 hamstring curls with mini-bands (curiously much harder than the dumbbell hamstring curls I usually do)

I am pretty happy with the functionality of my squatting just now (and the safety squat bar, for whatever reason, corrects the tendency I have to swing the right end of the bar around at the bottom). Also, my knee finally got better! I haven't been having any of that IT band or spasm-type stuff and ALSO I just suddenly realized while squatting today that it's been several weeks since I noticed the pain of turning over in bed (there is a name for this!). Happy about that, obviously - it was quite painful in November but has still been impinging on things since then, good riddance!

1hr lower body

Short run

Rainy but very mild - I like that combination (also, the park is virtually deserted). Just did thirty minutes easy. Feeling unpleasantly tired - couldn't fall asleep till 3am and slept only very lightly thereafter, can't tell how much of face feeling off is fatigue and how much allergies, probably a bit of both! Will be very relieved to get to powerlifting later though I am experiencing a strongish urge just to go back to BED.

:30 easy

Intrepid run!

Hmmm, pretty wintry still, I had a light windbreaker but I could have used gloves (can hardly type right now!). And lungs are FULL of phlegm - I ignored prescribed intervals as trying to do the first one led to a ton of coughing and spitting! But - very nice. Current (slow) place gets me almost to the Intrepid at 45-minute turnaround, which is good too - an Intrepid run in more than just name?

1:30 easy run

Run!

My Centre College visit was lovely, but I am incredibly relieved to be home. Slept for 3hr this afternoon (my airport pickup this morning was 5am and I hardly slept), couldn't make myself get up to get to powerlifting and decided that was for the best. Just had beautiful easy 30min run in Riverside Park instead. Will run longer tomorrow....

:30 easy

Recovery!

This trip has had a few minor disasters, the most unpleasant of which was that I was hit with a minor stomach bug in Pittsburgh - only very narrowly missed (by grace of my own timing and my fellow panelist's generous willingness to switch spots with me) actually violently upchucking on the podium! And my cold hasn't gone away either - lungs full of junk. Yesterday afternoon, stuck in Pittsburgh airport (first flight delayed long enough that I missed my connection in Charlotte and had anxious waiting to see if I'd get a standby spot on a mid-evening flight that was ALSO delayed by an hour - I had a guaranteed spot on the 10:40pm but the idea that my poor host would have to pick me up at Lexington airport at MIDNIGHT and drive me to campus in Danville was just too dreadful!). Anyway I ate a proper dinner last night with relief and my stomach seems back to normal, even if lungs are still full of junk and nose needing a lot of blowing. Had breakfast and lunch with faculty and visited a few classes (very fun), then came blessedly back to my room, slept for two hours and got out, woo-hoo, for a LOVELY RUN! I had a good route pointed out to me, over from the Centre College campus to Millennium Park and round a couple-mile loop there. Overshot campus back into town so that I could look at the famed Burke's Bakery. It is the sort of place where I would like to eat EVERYTHING, but I limited myself to one small treat (I still had to run home with it bouncing around in the bag!)...

Anyway 1hr very nice run on an absolutely beautiful day in Kentucky greenery! Huge relief (and I will be home tomorrow, and hopefully cold remnants won't linger TOO much longer....)

Now I need to shower and get ready for 7pm pickup for 7:30pm talk....

Victory from the jaws of defeat!

I couldn't up at all when I meant to, inevitably, but it worked out OK - I stuck the PRIVACY sign on the door, wrote down the opening paragraphs of my talk and organized the rest of the material, then got down to the fitness center for a brief but quite sweaty workout.

:30 treadmill intervals: :10 warmup at 4.8mph, 5 x 1:00 @ 6.0mph, 1:00 walking recovery, 5 x :40 @ 7.0mph, 1:20 walking recovery

And a bit of upper body (would have done more if eye hadn't been on the clock - still need to shower and dress and get to an 11:30 panel): dumbbell press 3 x 10 @ 35, single-arm row 3 x 8 x 40

Should have more time tomorrow and Sunday for actual runs in the world - the hotel fitness center option is a good time-saver tho....