Grumpy run, grumpy day

I am not making a happy transition to summer/sabbatical! It has been TOO DARN HOT, and today was classic early summer FAIL. Didn't get up early enough to run before de-clutterer arrived at 10 for 4hr session. (Well, I just about had enough time, but since de-cluttering is weirdly mentally exhausting I decided to spend it eating breakfast and reading things on the internet.) We had a productive session, I took about 6 big bags of books to the guy who sells books in front of Milano Market and we got the living room into about 100 times better shape. But it was all very hot and sweaty work, and I felt utterly miserable afterwards - too hot and tired to do anything, and utterly unmotivated for ambitious exercise plans. Went to hardware store and ordered 2 massive air-conditioners - a more powerful one to replace the inadequate on in my bedroom, and a big one for the living room, which I have never cooled before but which I feel may improve my quality of life (my fantasy - central air! - but it is not to be, not at least while I live in this apartment!). Scaled back exercise plans and finally just lay in bed dozing and feeling utterly miserable. (In the meantime I am in running clothes and haven't showered yet, with patches of heat rash on insides of elbows, under chin, etc. etc.)

Anyway I did finally get out for half an hour easy run, made me feel a lot better and have further self-castigation for not having done it earlier, OR any work. Sweetgreen FAIL - I had ordered salads online to pick up after, but they had run out of an ingredient and I waited grumpily and warmly and itchily for 15 minutes past the time they were supposed to be ready before it turned out nothing had been made. Requested a refund and came home re-grumped! Anyway, I promise myself that tomorrow will be a better day!

:30 easy

Run!

Finally did my 'long' one, belatedly. It is not that hot (mid-70s) but it is DISGUSTINGLY humid!!! Central Park loop.

c. 8mi, c. 1:40

Short run

I am just a little annoyed with myself as I feel that if I'd handled things slightly differently, I could have had a very nice long run after all - it's lower humidity than yesterday, though still pretty warm. But I was so wildly overheated almost all day yesterday, and only got home after 11 from Philadelphia - the AC unit in my BR is not really working properly (it was always borderline too small for that room and I think I've just used it past its limits for too long), and it didn't occur to me to turn on AC in office as I sat and ate breakfast and read things at the computer. So by the time I finally got my act together to get out, it was peak sunshine and I was already so hot and tired I felt as though I could burst into tears at the least provocation! And I also want to go to masters swim later, so there was another reason not to blow it all on an overwhelming hot one. (As I say, really once I was out I didn't think it was that bad, but I'd already mentally made the call.)

So, just :30 easy in "my" bit of the park and I will do my longer one in Central Park tomorrow.

Glorious hills!

It's really hot and humid again, I do not approve! I liked those 1-minute hills so much the other day that David has agreed to give me a LOT of them - really this run was on the schedule for tomorrow but I'll prefer to do the long one on a more leisurely day (need to get out of here in half an hour, go downtown on the subway and meet up with G. - we're taking an Uber car to Philadelphia to celebrate my brother and sister-in-law's tenth wedding anniversary).

:47 as :15 easy, 8 x 1:00 hill = recovery, :10 easy

Run!

:30 easy. It's definitely summer, the sweat is pouring off me though I was running easy....

Run-bike-swim extravaganza!

It is HOT outside though! And Fleet Week is messing up the bike commute from here to Chelsea Piers - but it was glorious! Not going to go back to the gym for powerlifting as Josh is away, a substitute will cover but we're only doing conditioning and I really did enough of that already today.

Run: :45 as :20 easy then 6 x 1:00 hill, recovery, :10 easy

Quick breakfast at home then took bike to Chelsea Piers (10mi total). Was a little late getting there due to aforementioned Fleet Week issues (a stretch of at least a quarter of a mile where you had to dismount and walk the bike).

Masters swim! Nice day to be in cool water. I need to swim more, I am currently too slow for most slow lanes! I'm fine on the IM but really fall behind on freestyle esp. once it has modifications (evil pull buoy).

Warmup: 2 x 50 kick, 100 free (300)

10 x 100 basically three sets of descending with pull buoy and paddles - I ditched both after the first couple hundreds, shoulders feeling effects of too much paddle work last night but also the pull buoy horribly slows me down! I think I probably did four of the 10 as the whole hundred and otherwise just swam 50s. Call it 700 total. (700)

100 easy recovery (100)

3 x (100 IM kick streamline on back, 25 fly, 50 back-breast, 25 free) (600)

100 swim down (100)

1800 yards total

Bike-swim!

Mostly today I was having that annoying feeling of "The semester is over, why am I still dealing with the semester and also the misc. life stuff that got put off till I had more time?" (Best glimpse of future was a quick stop at the library to pick up two requests and do a quick shelf pickup of some things I need for a piece I'm writing in June.) The weather got ridiculously nice today, it's almost too warm (but low humidity), and it was certainly the first "summer-feeling" day I have had. I rode my sedate bicycle to Chelsea Piers, did just the first hour of masters swim (this was deliberate, don't want to overdo it - but also I'd said I'd meet Mimi in park cafe uptown at 8:30, and I needed that time to get back uptown). So, nice swim, nice meetup with friend and food and drink at what was formerly known as the Hudson Beach Cafe, bike ride in the world - authentic run-bike-swim day!

10mi RT bike
1hr swim as follows:

400 free warmup (400)

3 x (2 x 100 as 25 free, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 free [I did some fly drill instead of breast as set progressed], 3 x 50 as 25 fly, 25 free [again, I enjoy the intensity for a while but probably did fly drill for the last couple of the final set) (1050)

I was in the slow lane with 2 faster swimmers, so I had to modify the next bit - set was given as 4 x (2 x 125 easy, 2 x 75 moderate, 2 x 25 hard), with first set just paddles, second set paddles and buoy, etc. etc. I turned the 125s into 75s as I had really not had enough rest on the first warmup set and also missed the second pair of 75s due to CHAT with coach! And the clock was then at 7:30 so I decided I should call it - was having marked foot cramp just as I got out and suspect there would have been more of that sort of thing if I'd stayed in (also, that was quite enough paddle work for my shoulders). So,

paddles:
2 x 75 easy
2 x 75 moderate
2 x 25 hard (350)

paddles & pull buoy:
2 x 75 easy
(missed)
2 x 25 hard (200)

2000 yards total - that sounds right. Going to go to noon swim tomorrow also - J. is out of town, a substitute will supervise a conditioning workout for our powerlifting team but I don't need to save my legs for squats!

Run!

1hr v slow/easy. Couldn't fall asleep till after four & was not surprisingly only groggily dragging myself out of bed around 10, got out the door closer to 11. Beautiful day but already warm! Loose plan for summer months is ALWAYS do some kind of run before I do anything much else....

1hr

Circuit-jog-walk

I slept really badly last night - couldn't understand it at the time as I felt exhausted but of course in retrospect it's the way the heavy lifts jack up your central nervous system. Anyway I felt slightly awful again today - didn't get up early enough to run before organizer lady arrived for ongoing project of getting my apartment down to minimalist splendor, then huddled in bed briefly and thought about actually not going to powerlifting before realizing that this would not help the situation! By that point it was late enough I had to take a cab, it sort of just has been one of those days.

Workout was the inevitable circuit stuff which we do for conditioning when we are recovering from heavy lifting, it was fine and I finished it in about forty minutes which was good as I still hadn't done my run and was keen to make sure it happened.

(Original plan for the day: run in am, lift, masters swim, but when I am feeling so absolutely dreary and full of despair it is not actually a good idea to overdo it on exercise, although it sometimes SEEMS like a good idea at the time! I have grown older and wiser....)

Today was first day of "100 in 100" - 100 runs in 100 days! Not a streak as such, as there are days (usually involving airports/travel) where it genuinely doesn't make sense, but that means I will have to start doubling up! Actually just writing that brought a smile to my face, I guess I do feel a bit better now that I exercised. (Am going to spend evening reading a novel in bed.)

(1) :40 circuit

7 x
(a) 10 ring rows
(b) 5 pushups
(c) 20 abs (band)
(d) 10 curls with band
(e) ? (possibly we only went through (f)!)
(f) 10 medicine ball slams
(g) 20 abs (sit-ups)

(2) :30 jog

(3) :50 walk (rest of the way home)

I want to start using that trip home for actual exercise - unfortunately I am fairly sure that riding my commuter bike makes my knees sore, so maybe doing this kind of a run-walk split will be the way to go? Only works if you're not carrying too much stuff - don't mind it with a small pack but it stops being a sensible thing to do if you are, say, carrying a laptop and another set of clothes!

2 hours total exercise, hoping to hit that six days a week for the summer months?

Low day

Ugh, just a day of huge mood swings - I had a couple urgent work things I still needed to do, and a couple meetings on campus, felt tired and a little overwhelmed but also elated when I finished final TRAC report. We were testing today in powerlifting and I really hoped I'd do well after a weekend off from exercise, but of course it was a VERY TIRING WEEKEND in Ottawa helping B.'s mother with things and I really faded after we did the first lift. Also it's just very chaotic these days, with a ton of people and too many things going on - this is probably more like what a meet will be like, so not bad to get the sense of those conditions, but not conducive today to me performing as well as I'd hoped. Anyway, as they say, IT IS WHAT IT IS.

DL: 255, 275 - hitched it up the last bit of the way at 275, but I'd lost my arch and it pretty certainly would have been a DQ, so it is only a starred PR

bench: pretty poor I felt! Got it up at 120 but with a distracting lift-off, didn't quite make it up at 130 (lost mental focus).

Decided to cut it at that rather than staying and doing a bad job with squats - I'll test that one-on-one with Josh sometime soon to see where I am. It was already 6:30, the place was in chaos and I had a strong feeling of wanting to cry!

Am feeling pretty much the same now, although I took a cab home and have eaten some chili - going to get in shower and take a novel to bed after writing a few more emails. I have been running myself pretty hard on work and life stuff, it's not surprising I should be feeling so low.

(But also - I really don't think I will compete in a meet this year. I just registered for one in September, although I'm not sure you are really allowed to compete in it without qualifying, but J. wants us if we're competing to cut out all other exercise for that ten-week cycle, and that's just not something I can do!)

Short run

Ah, my back's still really tight, not sure what prompted that in the first place but it's annoying! Just :30 so slow that I sorta might as well have been walking!

Double header!

Not a very exciting one, but I felt good (hungry!) afterwards. Wouldn't usually run to the gym on a Thursday, as it's squat day, but taper week means nothing is as it usually is and I won't have much chance to run this weekend in Ottawa so I figured I'd do a longer one while the going was good. It was slightly horrible - my back was just INCREDIBLY tight, not agonizing/painful but just getting more and more sore and tight the longer I ran/shuffled. Tendonitis also rather sore though nothing in comparison with the back. But our powerlifting session was devoted exclusively to mobility work and stretching, so it all felt much better after the second hour!

c. 1:08 shuffle
1hr mobility (lunges, hip flexor stretch, foam roll, abs - did 7 x :30 plank, :30 recovery)

Run!

Ah, that almost didn't happen - got up too early to write the two reports I should have drafted last night, worked for long session with professional organizer on quest to get my apartment into the beautiful tidy minimalist mode it SHOULD exist in, then fell into bed around 3:30 and slept DEEPLY for 3+ hours, oh dear.... Woke up groggily around 6:45 and really didn't feel like anything other than dinner, but knew that getting out for my run would be hugely helpful in terms of mood and tonight's sleep (well, that may be a lost cause), and am feeling happy with myself that I did it!

:40:00 as 10:00 easy, 10 x (:30 faster, 1:30 easy), 10:00 easy

Taper workout #2

Ah, it is enjoyable but I am still sorry I missed the heavy week last week! Should now really be going to masters swim but am anxious to get home and write the 2 reports I need to post tonight. I guess I am waiting one more week before I start up properly with swimming (we are testing at lifting on Monday and I'm in Ottawa late Friday-Sunday so won't have a chance to do much exercise over the weekend - this is probaably for the best if I want to get a real test of where I am currently on the lifting).

4 x 1 @ 105

facepulls: 75

triceps pulldown: 100

abs: 3min side-to-side 8lb ball

1hr upper body

Run!

Slept way longer than I meant to, but yesterday was overwhelming so it's not surprising. What can you do but roll with it? Very nice easy 30-minute run just now....

Lift!

Good to be back at it - I missed it! Funny week though as three teammates are tapering for meet - I feel like I already had my taper this past week, but there you go, that's how it is. Will be in Ottawa for a couple days this weekend and that too will inadvertently produce a taper of sorts, so it should be a fair test when we look at numbers on Monday. For today, just very light things to stay supple and remember how to do it:

squats: 8 x 3 x 45
bench: 8 x 3 x 45
deadlift: 8 x 3 x 111

Run!

Just a short one, but very nice. Davidsonian running weather - forties and sunny, but VERY windy!

:30 easy

Run!

Ugh, travel and life reentry were overwhelming - I had a very demanding day Friday and then Saturday was essentially spent in a state of collapse! Feeling very happy now tho to have had a good run with Liz. Our plans for the loop were thwarted by a HUGE charity 10K walk, so we ran along the outer edge of the park instead until we could reenter at the north end. Nice, though! Good running weather - lower 50s, windy with a few sprinkles of rain. Omelets afterwards at an overpriced place on Columbus - unfortunately I think next weekend I will be out of town, but I am hoping we have a date for the following Saturday....

6.4mi, c. 11:45/mi avg pace

Yoga!

I don't know why I do the hot when I like the "regular" (i.e. "flow") so much! Another very good class today, with another of my favorite teachers. I like how both J. and C. in totally different ways integrate little snippets/hints from the hot yoga sequence....

1hr flow yoga

Yoga!

This is a funny short trip (Saturday to Thursday - I can't miss a Friday meeting, we're almost but not quite done for the year and have final full meeting on the 20th with secret slot reserved [hope we won't need it] for the 27th). And that made it really not realistic to have my usual "spa week" priorities. That said, yoga this morning was GLORIOUS - yoga is the crucial component of spa week!!! I really need to figure out how to add both swimming and yoga to my regular NYC schedule - I like them both so much....

(Toying with idea of masters swim this evening, as B. has a triathlon committee meeting, but I should probably quit while I'm ahead - always tempting to overdo it once the schedule opens up, really I should just make sure to get up in time to do a longer run tomorrow. Josh just sent the week's lifting work, got to see how where and how I can fit that in! It is a bit of a conundrum, hmmmm.... or maybe I just get started on it this afternoon/evening and forget the idea of swimming - various possibilities....)

1hr flow yoga

Run!

Hahahaha, that is a lesson to me - I did get up, but not as early as I intended to, and I was only out the door at 6:15am when the sun is already over the horizon. HOT! Let me see if I can get out more like 5:45 tomorrow....

:40 warm minutes

TM!

No weekend exercise - I flew early Saturday and there was just no opportunity, and Sunday was my nice day at home with B. (also had to write up my reports from Friday meeting), it didn't make sense to prioritize. It was then utterly beyond me to get myself out of bed early enough to run before the sun comes up (I've basically been getting up at 8:30 absolute earliest but often more like 10:30!), so I did a good one on the treadmill at the gym just now instead. When I'm only here for a few days, it's hardly worth worrying about converting schedule to early & acclimating to heat and humidity....

:40 as :10 easy warmup, 5 x (1:00 @ 6.0mph, 1:00 walking recovery), 5 x (:40 @ 7.0mph, 1:00 wr), 5 x (:40 @ 8mph, 1:00wr)

Bench!

Bittersweet - last one! (I have two more Friday meetings, but next Friday will be a scramble as I'll only just be back from Cayman and have two different sets of friends and family in town who I need to see that afternoon and evening, and the following week the gym is nominally closed for recreation.) This arrangement has worked really well. I was lucky to get such a good trainer - I don't think most of them are that great! (Paul is graduating from law school and won't be here past the end of the month in any case.) ANYWAY - just a great hour of quite challenging upper body work! More of these supersets, mostly "triples" this time - so, i.e. initial pair of exercises:

bench: 2 x 10 @ 95, 2 x 12 @ 75, 2 x 15 @ 55 with triceps in between (I think it was skullcrushers, 15 x 20s)

Squats!

Josh was happier than I was with this workout - I think the trouble is that my numbers are so out of whack with what I can do on the other lifts that I have a hard time appreciating even these possibly substantive improvements on form. Certainly the last couple weeks seem to have gone more smoothly, squat-wise - I think I should try and have a one-on-one squat session with Josh every month or so, and Intern Brad spotted me very happily today so I didn't have to worry! Just grumpy I guess that I am not lifting much more than this - i.e. how can I be squatting only as much as I bench?!?!? Anyway -

4 x 4 @ 110

6 x 2 @ 85

lunges 6 x 2 w/ 12.5s

100 abs with band (should have been 200 but I had to get myself off downtown to ladies' dinner!)

Short run!

Nicer than yesterday - I like this cool blustery weather. Just trying to get through this really tough last bit of the semester!

:30 easy

Short run

Had a very hard time getting out the door (should have done it earlier but was too frazzled) - operating at max capacity re: general emotional and life/work stuff. Cannot say it was the most enjoyable run I have ever had - felt very slow, back and lower calves very tight, and had to pee quite badly, having drunk 2 seltzers just before going out! Also, ready for lunch (am now eating chili). But I knew I would feel better afterwards if I just got it done - Coach Dave is a good influence on me...

:30 slow

DL!

I had horrible sleep last night (I'm overextended on what you might call affective labor just now - the semester cannot end a moment too soon!), didn't feel energetic, but it was actually a pretty good workout. (I was glad I didn't try to swim yesterday - though in fact I wouldn't have felt OK walking out of the meeting I was at in any case, so it was moot.)

work set: 6 x 2 x 201 (felt pretty good too!)

three seconds ascending & descending: 3 x 3 x 171

3 x 10 lunges with 10lbs

100 hip thrusts with band

50 abs with band (I was DONE - supposed to do a 100 but I didn't have it in me!)

1hr lower body

Run!

As soon as I got out the door, I abandoned my vague plan to run in Central Park - no vim for hills - and took the nice quiet route north along Riverside Drive and up the west side path to the Little Red Lighthouse. Actually great running weather: high 40s, a bit rainy, park virtually deserted which always makes me happy. Didn't do any speed intervals as I am basically at the point in the semester when just getting out there is the main point!

1:40 easy