Run!

Ugh, this cold may have only been 50% virulent but it is still proceeding through the predictable unpleasant stages - woke up to find it was LUNG day, mucus running wild and itchy and making me fantasize about sticking a pencil down my throat to scratch alveoli! Anyway just did :30 easy, it's another beautiful day.

Run!

With fireflies - it's that time of year....

I had hoped to do a longer one, but I still have this cold and lungs are a bit dodgy, kept it at :40 easy. Very nice too - much less humid than it was earlier, very beautiful running at sunset along the water.

:40 easy

Squats!

A productive technique session with Josh. I was going to stick with 3x rather than 4x lifting for the summer, given the 100 runs in 100 days plan and the fact that I will not be competing in the foreseeable future - but then I thought the better of it as my squat will hugely benefit from fresher legs of Wednesday morning vs. Thursday evening and from one-on-one work with Josh. Will use the Thursday slot for second upper body. Anyway, we just played around with some stuff and it was AMAZING....

-high bar
-elevated heels
-wider stance
-chest out as if presenting logo
-rear up from the chest
-TUCK CHIN - if you're hyperextending, you think you're more upright than you are

Josh is going to research the Olympic lifting squat shoes to see if they might help - it was almost miraculous how much everything improved with this tweak. I am ready for this lift to get itself a little more in line with my others....

1hr lower body
1hr easy bike

Bench!

Skipped intro circuit (snuffly - didn't want to do anything to get HR too high) and just did main work set. Narrowly missed dropping bar fully on my head on last rep of last set, I AM AN IDIOT!

About :30 upper body:

3 x 12 @ 85
rows: 5 x 10, first two @ 42.5 last three @ 47.5
band triceps pulldown: 100

1hr RT bike

Run!

Got home yesterday afternoon around 3 and realized to my chagrin that I was feeling much too seedy to make it downtown to lift. Took a deep three-hour nap which scuppered any chance of sleeping well overnight! Less raw and sinusy now and more just summer cold. Did my :45 easy run and am hoping to lift upper body later (it's less strenuous than deadlifting!).

Run!

Beautiful weather. Minor sinus infection continues, hoping I can just train through. :30 easy.

Run!

Hahahaha, I am an IDIOT to do it in the middle of the day - it's beautiful weather, low humidity, but that doesn't mean it's not still pretty darn hot in the sun! Hamstring heavily activated by hills, walked as needed.

Ran over to park and then did the full CP loop, turned off the clock and walked home up 110th St.

1:37 total

Shorter run

Switched out the long and short days as I left it a little late to get started. Beautiful weather, though warm in direct sun. :45 easy along the river.

Run!

It is the most beautiful day - low 70s, low humidity - I was slightly sorry (not really!) that I only had 30 easy on the slate! Back felt OK, I applied heating pad and advil last night and it feels more or less normal this morning. Now I am just hoping weather stays like this through tomorrow for my longer run....

:30 easy

Ugh....

Nobody was excited about it being another conditioning workout! It was also clear to me as soon as I got it underway that (a) I am overly fatigued and (b) my back and hamstring REALLY are causing me trouble!

I had resolved after this week's runs that I had better try some physio, it's impeding my ability to do hard running workouts - called for a doc appointment earlier today (I need a prescription from my primary care doc in order to get PT prescription, it's all somewhat irksome esp. given that copay for each appointment is $30 - I would think given that copay they would trust you to go ahead and make the PT appointments yourself) and the first one available isn't till the first week of August, that's annoying (but I took it, nothing to be done - maybe I will call back and see if she can write me the prescription before the appointment, but I haven't had good experiences with that, the practice is very understaffed and I have pretty much found you need to see the doctor in person to get anything to happen).

We were supposed to do 7 x, but I bailed after the third one and did 20 minutes of stretching. In retrospect I probably could have cut the prowler sooner and done all the rest, but I felt like I was bumping right up against where you get hurt. I have just eaten hot dinner at the gym cafe and feel a lot better - underfueling may have been an issue as well? Gotta get back on top of nutrition, I can see that carelessness with day and early evening eating almost invariably leads to unfortunate eating choices later on.

About :25 circuit (3 x (10 x goblet squat @ 32.5, prowler down and back @ 50lb added, 10 x walking lunges @ 12.5, med ball slam, lat med ball slam))

:15 stretching concentrating on back and hamstrings

Run!

I am just going to have to embrace my inability to get up in a timely fashion and make sure I get in a good stretch of evening work time as well....

Nice overcast morning, humid but cooler - that's good. First time out in a new pair of running shoes - exactly the same as the old ones of course, but I like the stiffness of the soles when you get into a new pair and the feeling of superior cushioning. The previous model of this shoe (I have a pair in Cayman still) was superior to the current one, which has a wider heel area that leads to huge chunks of foam being eaten out (not blisterage, so not inherently problematic, but it looks awful!).

Away for a long weekend in a couple weeks and tempted to write up a very stringent work and exercise schedule for intervening days....

1hr easy

Orlando Pride run

Was glad I went - it is meaningful to have a communal observance. We started at Columbus Circle and ran the counterclockwise loop, with quiet and solemn observance. I peeled off at 110th and walked the rest of the way home as my hamstring was not quiet. 42:00 easy. That puts me at Day 30, run 29 - if I do one more double in coming days, I'm back where I should be....

Hills!

Better late than never edition. Wasn't full of vim but it's a beautiful morning. Pondering whether to get a prescription from my primary care doc for some physio - the back/hamstring stuff is ongoing nuisance, I know what to do to make back slightly better but the hamstring is obdurate and mysterious! Anyway:

:50 as :20 easy, 8 x 1:00 hill, :10 easy

Bad circuit!

Not really, I don't mind it (even perhaps quite enjoy it), but inevitably when I get to lifting and find out that we are only having a conditioning session I think grumpily that I could be swimming or running instead! About :40 total (which was good, as I needed to leave a bit early).

7x

10 ring rows
10 bench @ 65
20 shrugs @ 52.5
20 triceps pulldown
:30 plank
:30 medicine ball bounce

Run!

I do not like the feeling of parting from B., but I am very grateful this morning to be back in NYC: clement weather, beautiful Riverside Park to run in, 2 funny cats, Butler Library (and later, powerlifting downtown). :30 easy - very nice!

Run/yoga!

I did leave early enough to have notionally had the full half-hour run, but I was waylaid by the very nice stray dog I saw yesterday - it's still just hanging around at the gas station....

Anyway :20 easy and 1hr power yoga, very nice. When I'm here in August I think I need to do the 6am yoga, otherwise if I run/shower/yoga/shower it takes up way too much of the morning.

:20 run
1hr yoga

Longish run!

A little shorter than it should have been - left the house at 5:45 rather than 5:30 and was keener to meet B. at Cafe del Sol at the appointed hour (7) than to extend point of run turnaround!

1:25 (8 x 5:00 as 3:30 easy, :30 faster, 1:00 walking recovery)

Hot yoga!

Overwhelmingly hot! Past the point of being enjoyable. 1.25hr very hot yoga.

Run!

Didn't sleep well, but really I'm on an early schedule now (it will evaporate as soon as I am back in NYC unfortunately) so I got up and did my easy :40, then met B. at Cafe del Sol for a mixed berry protein shake and a restorative Perrier. Going to go to 10:30 hot yoga I think....

Run plus double yoga!

Ah, true spa morning! :40 easy run early, then double yoga: 1hr hot, 1.25hr flow. (Ideally one does this pair in the opposite order, but I had to work with the actual schedule - brought a dry shirt to change into, but towel was pretty sodden!)

Has been a singularly unproductive week for work - really I still am just feeling post-school desire to exercise a ton and read novels. Better get focused soon or it will not be pretty....

Run/swim/yoga!

True "spa week" morning (which I have now rather counteracted by eating one of Cafe Icoa's delicious cinnamon rolls for breakfast). Ran over to the pool at the Cayman International School (:20 easy) for 6am masters swim. There was a lot of chat and not a ton of swimming (post-race dissection), but I really like doing this kind of technique work - more to the point for me currently and perhaps in general than massive fitness sets. Got first breakfast at Cafe del Sol and then went to a flow yoga class at Bliss - pranayama-focused session, very good.

:20 run
1hr swim (but only c. 1000 meters - warmup of 200 swim, 100 kick, 50 one-arm fly, 50 double-arm back, then 400 kick alternating hundreds of board and streamline on back, then a technique set that involved doing a 50 with outstretched arm placed on pull buoy - to feel lats and connection to core, then 25s of swim with the same cue).
1hr yoga

Yoga!

I was thwarted in my desire for a double - but the flow class was extremely satisfactory, and included a warrior one-half pigeon sequence that seemed extremely well suited to addressing ongoing right lower-back and hamstring issues....

1hr yoga!

Run!

:40 warm and easy.

Flowers

The weekend of the Flowers Sea Swim is a somber occasion for me as well as a joyful one. Nothing gives me the feeling of adventure so strongly as these open-water swims, particularly the longer ones with smaller numbers of racers - but it was in June six years ago at the Flowers one-mile sea swim that Brent's sister died, and when I have the opportunity to swim the event now I do it in her honor and her memory. (Here was the story in the paper at the time.)

Saturday's swim, then, was fun but hot. I wore a new rashguard-style suit that gave me decent sun protection but mega-chafing, and decided to wear a regular suit for the longer swim yesterday. The other equipment problem involved goggles - it's an old scratched-up pair I keep here, for one thing, and they kept on fogging up annoyingly so that I couldn't really see at all how much longer I still had to go. In retrospect I should have replaced them on Sunday, but they're vision-correction goggles (I am both short-sighted and also, metaphysically speaking, the kind of person who can't recognize visual landmarks and never know whether I'm going in the right direction) and I didn't think I'd be able to find the right kind locally....

(When I told Brent my sighting woes Monday afternoon, he suggested that I should get a pair of these!)

I jogged over to the start for Monday's 5K (it's a 5K and 10K, the latter mostly with elite racers and the former with fast local swimmers) as I am doing well on my "100 runs in 100 days" plan and I knew I really wouldn't feel like running later. Call it :17 easy.

It was a beautiful morning - it's more fun for me doing a race like that early in the day before it gets too hot, and there was good cloud cover to protect us on the swim as well. This was the view south along the beach (in the opposite direction from where we'd swim) when I got there just before six:

There were quite a few junior elites there, fun to watch them getting ready and to observe the pre-race customs and rituals, and we went off in four groups - men's 10K, women's 10K, men's 5K, women's 5K. I knew I'd be bumping up against the announced 2.5hr cutoff for the 5K, but none of the marshals mentioned it and I was hopeful (justifiably so, it turned out) that they wouldn't enforce it - they didn't need to, really, given that the course cutoff for the 10K was 3.5hr, and it's much harder to organize these time cutoffs when you aren't sending all the racers off in a single group.

There were only one or two other swimmers even ballpark as slow as I was - I'm slow at the best of times, and I haven't been swimming a lot (I registered for the 5K in February as motivation to get back to serious swim training this spring, but after a good initial burst that included some lessons on technique my work schedule got the better of me and I only got back in the water a couple weeks ago). I figure I'm good for it - I regularly do a couple-hour run, and I have a lot of muscular strength from lifting - but that's not the same as doing major yardage day in and day out! So I knew in advance it would just be a matter of plugging away for a long time - best-case scenario was something like a 2:20 finish, but it would probably be slower. If you have never done a long swim like this - that's a LONG time in the water, especially in salt water!

My most pronounced woe on the first loop was that I really couldn't see exactly where I should be going. The buoys were far apart and I just don't have the knack for it. Also, goggles kept fogging up - I'd pop up my head and take 'em off and run my thumb around them to clear them, with on-course support asking if I was OK and me assuring them that I was but that I couldn't really see where I was going! One fellow said to me at the penultimate buoy on the outward loop something incomprehensible that I only realized on the second loop must have been "you can sight to the cabanas" (this was the course, which we swam clockwise - 2 loops for the 5K swimmers, 4 loops for the 10K, with a feeding station for elites just after the turn back along the shore - I liked seeing all the duct-taped cup-on-a-stick devices people had made!), but I had that unpleasant feeling of disorientation and even when the goggles were clear enough there was often something obscuring my view - random other buoys, other boats as well as course support vessels. There was no way you could get lost as such, but it was easy to swim on non-efficient lines - the other swimmer who finished just before me said her Garmin showed she'd swum at least an extra kilometer, and I am sure I did the same.

By the end of the first loop (roughly 1:20), my right lower back was very tight to the extent that it was troubling me, but I felt I was swimming solidly and didn't think about bailing (well, you always THINK about bailing on a multi-loop course, but I would not have actually done it). The second loop was harder. This time I had a better idea of the course, which was helpful, but my right hamstring started to bother me after a while and most of all - this was my only real complaint, the others are minor - I was growing increasingly queasy. A lot of salt water had gone into my mouth over the course of the first loop and I really was feeling pretty sick, to the point where I worried that I was going to start retching & a course marshal would tell me I had to stop! Few twinges towards the end of impending calf cramp but it was fine as long as I didn't kick hard - really the nausea was the main problem.

I got a good mood boost well into the first leg of the second loop when I saw a gorgeous sting ray beneath me, and it didn't seem that anyone was getting antsy about cutoffs, but it definitely took mental focus to keep on plugging away. Once I'd turned past the buoy at the far end of the course I knew it would be fine, and a paddleboarder escorted me to the finish. I came out with a huge smile on my face - I was clearly the last 5K finisher, but really there weren't many 10Kers left either! Stumbled back to my stuff (first and probably only time I will ever got to leave all my race stuff on a beach chair - the Grand Cayman Beach Suites were a hospitable race venue!) and rapidly realized that my stomach not stable - found a low wall to sit on and inconspicuously retched a bit into the sand.

One of the Canadian racers kindly went and fetched a lifeguard for me - he got me to drink an electrolyte drink and stayed with me for a few minutes until he was sure I was OK. Actually as soon as I emptied stomach and drank orange drink I felt immediately better - I wasn't overheated or overcooked like I was after the Mercuryman swim in January, just a bit oversalted (and even today I can still feel that my tongue is a little bit swollen and prickly from excess salt). Hung around for a bit to watch prizes given out, then hoofed it home feeling distinctly smug and satisfied (the distinct conviction one holds in the last stretch of a race for which one is considerably undertrained - "I am an idiot, why do I sign up for these things?" - having evaporated the moment I got out onto the beach). Won't know my finish time till results are posted online, but it was a mildly epic day!

It has been a sad year, too, for the Flowers family. Mrs. Eve Flowers died a few months ago of leukemia. It was particularly meaningful for me, then, to see that the Flowers family decided this year to dedicate all of the money raised by the race to a new fund at the Cayman Islands Cancer Society, the Eve Flowers Bone Marrow Donation Fund.

I am going to make a donation here to that fund, but the difficulty of finding a match for a mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity patient has been known to me for a long time. My dear friends Miguel and Felicia Sancho - his heritage is Puerto Rican and Costa Rican, hers is Finnish - have long sought a bone marrow donor for their son Sebastian, who suffers from CGD. Though they couldn't find a bone marrow match, they did ultimately get a good enough match for a cord blood stem cell transplant which is now underway. You can read about their journey here. My mind was very much on the Sancho family throughout the weekend - listen to this message from Sebastian's sister Lydia and think about whether you might be able to make a donation to the Eve Flowers fund or to the Children's Organ Transplant Association.

Run/yoga!

:40 easy early, then an hour of flow yoga. I'd have liked to do a yoga double, but I only had a protein shake between running and yoga and I could tell I needed breakfast more than I needed more yoga. Will see if I can manage nutrition timetable better tomorrow....

:40 easy run
1hr flow yoga

Run!

Out latish (relatively speaking) last night, and the sea swim yesterday (and attendant time in sun before and after the race) took it out of me - I decided last night that I wouldn't try and run long this morning but just do the usual. I think that was the right choice. Nice :42 easy, met up with Brent at Cafe del Sol for the usual mixed berry protein shake and Perrier after!

:42 easy

Sea swim!

Flowers one-mile sea swim. Very nice too. Finished in about :45 and am hoping that I will make the 2:30 cutoff for the 5K Monday! Only complaint - neck chafing....

1mi swim, c. :45

Run!

Despite David's exhortations, it really just wasn't psychologically possible for me to run yesterday! The timetable isn't conducive - I miss a night of sleep when I take that early flight to Cayman, get into the airport around 1:30 and go straight to lunch, then B. is home from work at 4 (5 NYC time) and it is longstanding tradition to go immediately to Fidel Murphy's for Friday happy hour. Shockingly but happily I was able to go to sleep at 7pm when B. did (yes, our schedules are opposite to each other!), slept till about 6:15 and then got out for a nice half-hour run and met B. at 7am at Cafe del Sol for traditional morning mixed berry protein shake. IT IS GOOD!

(Now I have two runs to make up, but I think I can do them this week if I run early outside and then do a short treadmill one at the gym in the afternoon before lifting.)

Got the one-mile Flowers swim this afternoon and the 5K first thing Monday morning. Shooting to get to masters swim 6am Thursday and Saturday. Want to do two yoga classes each weekday morning starting Tuesday and some light lifting (maintenance rather than build) and short treadmill runs in the weekday afternoons.

Serious SPA WEEK!

:30 easy

Squats!

I knew I was overdoing it with swimming, and it was predictably not a very good workout! I did better on the isometric hold ones with less weight. I am discouraged to think that really I might never compete in a meet (if I do it while I'm training with Josh he wants me to promise him 10 weeks with no other exercise - this may be somewhat negotiable, but really that's not an option for me!). The squat is much more strongly affected by fatigue from other activities than the other 2 lifts, so maybe we can come to a compromise agreement about a push-pull meet...

squats: 5 x 3 @ 100; 3-second isometric hold, 2 x 2 @ 45

Bulgarian split squats: 3 x 10 @ 10s

single-leg hip thrusts: 4 x 10

abs: 110

1hr lower body. Now gonna ride bike home - have eaten a bar as a precaution as low mood often also signals underfueling....

Bike-run-swim

After yesterday's strange weather it is the most extraordinarily beautiful day today, more like April than June - up now to a high of around 70, but low humidity and generally putting me into an extremely good mood. (Also will see B. tomorrow, early flight to Cayman!) Was a little late leaving the house and had to shorten pre-swim run, but it was a good workout regardless (I like the playful yet efficient feel where you have one set of garb and can work out continuously, it's one of the things I'm keen on re: triathlon):

5mi bike to gym
:20 on treadmill as 1mi warmup @ 12:30 pace, then 3 x 1:00 @ 6.7, 6.7, 7.0 alternating with 1:00 recovery
1hr swim (c. 2200 yards)

Had lunch with a friend and her daughter, got my haircut and am back at the gym for powerlifting 5-6. Then I will ride home, shower and have dinner with my friend/former student/catsitter. Still slightly anxious about when I am ever going to get back to working properly, but it must have been a needed respite....

Glorious swim workout!

I pretty much wrote off the afternoon, went and got an industrial-grade pedicure and then to masters swim. Woo-hoo! We only had two lanes and I was worried at first, as even when there are three lanes I am essentially slowest in the slow lane, but really this lane was on the same kind of pace the other slow one usually would be, no worries. I put on fins for the long main freestyle set, because there is no point struggling to keep up on too little rest and it made a lot of sense to do it that way (I had done enough paddle work but others were still using them) instead of skipping 50s - thus the slightly higher yardage than usual.

Also tried a new kind of paddle that really helped with the feel of entry.

Along these lines:

3 x 200 as (1) free (2) buoy (3) paddles

5 x 50 as fly down, flutter kick on back

4 x 100 of something I can't quite remember now (1250)

14 x 50 with paddles as 2 x (5 x 50 easy cruise/long strokes on 1:00, 2 x 50 fast/strong kick on :55) (700)

Main set: 3 x (3 x 100 free on 2:00, 2 x 100 as 25 free, 25 kick on back, 25 free, 25 sprint non-free [I did fly]) (1500)

Last bit was written as 3 x (2 x 50 on 1:05, 4 x 25 sprint on :30), but I just did the first two 50s and a pair of 25s, then swam 50 easy and got out (time was up and I had taken off the fins, couldn't get quite enough rest after the 50s to do a good job with the full set of 25s). (200)

The fins for the main set are of course a bit of a cheat, but it is nice to be able to keep paying attention to technique. I feel that I have now been in the water enough over the last few weeks that it's not insane for me to think I will swim a 5K on Monday!

1.5hr swim, c. 3500 (I think I must have missed a couple 50s in there somewhere)

Run!

Actually a very nice one. Disorganized morning, didn't get out before 11am meeting which ran much longer than I imagined it would. By the time I was done the rain was already starting, and it soon progressed to thunderstorm - but retreated enough that I ventured out. Lovely chilly driving rain - I like this weather! Clearly I am not going to fit in an extra long run before I go - human maintenance issues (haircut tomorrow, and I think I am going to go and get my more-or-less annual pedicure tomorrow - I am planning on doing a lot of yoga next week and it is borderline unseemly how awful my toenails look!), minor work tasks, other exercise. This daily running thing is going really well, I am thinking a lot about whether I could become a lifetime daily runner (day 16, run 15 - coming days do not provide good opportunity to make it up - tomorrow has swim and squats as well as run, Friday I am up sleeplessly early to fly to Cayman, Saturday is Flowers sea swim 1-mile edition, Monday is Flowers sea swim 5K edition - but hopefully I can fit in two one day this week and not miss any more of the daily ones between now and then!).

:40 easy

Bench!

Not as exciting as deadlifting but pleasant nonetheless.

Close grip bench: 10 x 3 @ 80, 1 x 2 @ 100, 1x 2 @ 110

Floor press: 4 x 12 x 27.5 (next ones up had gone missing)

Circuit: 5 x 25 shrugs @ 52.5, 10 lateral raise @ 5, 10 front raise @ 5

100 skullcrusher with football bar

5 x :30 plank :30 recovery

Run!

I got up early (fueled I think by anxiety about DHL delivery of my British passport, scheduled for today) and had a nice run, except that I got a message from DHL to say that instead they will deliver it TOMORROW, and now I am in one of those minor frenzies of anxiety that is entirely purposeless! Couldn't arrange to pick it up at depot because I'm out of town from Friday early for ten days and it wouldn't have been pick-up-able TILL Friday, and held there only for 7 days before being returned to sender. I am not travelling on this passport so it is not an actual crisis, but I will feel a lot better when I have it in my own hands!

That said, nice run. I did tomorrow's today because I was HOPING I could do a long midmorning one tomorrow, but if I am waiting for DHL that will not be the case!

:20 easy
6 x 1:00 hill
:10 easy

for about :47 total

Bike/lift/swim!

As I rode home from the gym I felt as though I was impersonating the kind of child I never actually was - the footloose and fancy free child of summer who bikes to and from the pool and generally is carefree!

What is traditional for me at this time of year is that I am making myself slightly crazy by NOT buckling down to work properly on anything in particular, but I think that's a stage and I just have to ride it out - got one more session with professional organizer tomorrow and it should be that having the apartment in good shape helps facilitate passage to work mode? There are worse things you can do than too much exercise, especially when as today it's really just tooling around low-intensity stuff mostly....

Anyway:

10mi bike (beautiful weather - lower humidity finally)
1.25hr lower body
swim lesson with Tabbitha!

I get a sticker for the swim but won't log it otherwise as a workout. The deadlift session was good:

deficit DL: 6 x 3 @ 161 (range was 155-185)
front squat: 3 x 6 @ 55
band hip thrust: 5 x 10
abs

Run!

Quite nice too. Just did :30 easy rather than trying to make up the hills I didn't do yesterday.

Swim!

Very enjoyable masters swim. I guess I've been back in the water enough again now that it seems more familiar - also, good other swimmer at similar speeds in front of me (I am faster on the straights but her turns are much superior) so that I didn't feel so far behind as I have occasionally! Feeling much more confident that it's not insane to do the 5K sea swim as well as the 1-mile. Flying to Cayman early Friday, ready for SPA WEEK with B.! (After the swims are done I am hoping to do 2 yoga classes every day....)

No hope of reconstructing that, though I can remember bits. I am guessing around 3000 total?

Warmup: 400 choice (I did 350, mostly free with 50 back), 150 kick with board, 150 kick without board (650)

3 x (2 x 50 drill choice, 200 swim with paddles and buoy - I did 150) (750)

6 x 50 as 25 fly, 25 free (this is a nice set for me!) (300)

6 x 50 with fins alternating fly and free (300)

3 x 200 with third 50 race pace (I skipped final 50) (450)

100 race pace (100)

300 swim down (300)

That only comes out to 2850, maybe there was one more bit I'm leaving out? c. 3000 anyway....

1.5h

Run!

I bailed on the scheduled hills - my legs just have NOTHING after the last few days of exercise, I did an extra five minutes of warm-up but self-assessment still told me that the only way I'd be running fastish up a hill would be if a bear were chasing me! Also the rain that had been moderate when I set out had gone to just one gradation short of torrential. I decided it was suitable to call it a 30 minutes easy day. Will make sure to get to masters swim later - I was so tuckered out after yesterday's hot and humid one I realized there was absolutely no way I could get myself downtown to swim....

Run!

Ah, that was actually quite nice. It is very warm and humid, unpleasantly so, but I see the benefit of running every day - haven't dropped any weight in the last month, but thought this felt easier than it would have a few weeks ago. I was set to meet Liz at 10 at Tavern, but foolishly didn't check my phone before setting out (email is my primary modality), so only got her text when I was there saying that she couldn't make it. This was fine, I am happy to run on my own and I was also happy that the IDEA of meeting her had gotten me out of bed which was where I otherwise certainly still would have been!

Turned off my watch accidentally at one point, so times are approximate, but it was slow - walked a few hills. Stopped after 30 mins for gatorade #1 and at Tavern after the full initial loop for gatorade #2 (6.1mi), then ran on time back up the west side and fell into a cab when I was done! Huge blister on the bottom of one of my left toes....

Close to 1:50 I suspect, 8mi, good heat acclimation for Cayman!

Short/easy run

Just :30 easy. Gotta get myself downtown for family dinner (extra-special version with Texans)...

Strength!

Glorious workout with Josh. Instead of just doing upper body we did everything and it was super-fun! Several hours ago now so I am not sure this is correct but along these lines:

Deadlift: 4 x 5 @ 135 with 2 chains on each end, then 1 x 10
Bench: 3 x 20 (!) @ 65
Goblet squat: 3 x 12 @ 27.5

Got on a treadmill afterwards (I didn't run yesterday, arghhh!) but after 3 minutes realized it was just not going to happen (underfueling? very tight hamstrings? whatever the case, I just didn't have it). Got into pool for very short technique swim, then showered and ate lunch (not enough of it, either, which made me then unable to resist the fact of National Donut Day!).

1hr strength
c. 400 yards swim (100 swim, 100 kick, 100 as RaLaCuBa, 100 as 50 shark, 50 swim)

Shooting to run in another hour or so, have said to myself that if I do a full hour that I can combine that with abortive treadmill one to substitute for yesterday's and today's easy half-hours....

Squats!

Ah, that was so nice! I barely made it there - I had a minor disaster (first world problems) last night, having devoted a good deal of dollarage and energy to acquiring 2 new air conditioners and having them installed (one for the living room, where I have never had one, and a stronger one for the bedroom, where the current one really no longer seemed adequate). The guys from the store were great, everything went fine - and then when I went to bed, the unit didn't work at all! NOT AT ALL! Context is that I am not a good sleeper and have grown so accustomed to only sleeping in a very chilly room with AC chugging away that I basically just couldn't sleep, though it wasn't a hot night. Dozed lightly for a few hours here and there, sent Brent a lot of frantic emails between about 4 and 5 and charged over to the store at 8:30 to see what could be done. It was COMPLICATED, though it all worked out OK in the end, and in the meantime I was having another decluttering session with the organizer, and hadn't exercised, and was hot and sweaty - one of THOSE days.

Anyway I forced myself out the door and in fact it was lovely. Great to have Josh back and to be doing "real" workouts again! Only problem is that I have not yet done my run for the day, and tomorrow isn't especially propitious to do two either - I think I'm going to shower now (I am disgusting) and then see if I can't get out for half an hour easy later on. Otherwise will have to double up one of the next couple days....

New system Josh is experimenting with: telling us sets with RPE rating and leaving it up to us to figure out the weights. Today's RPE for the squat sets was 6 (on scale of 10).

Front squats: 3 x 10 @ 55
Squats: 6 x 3 @ 45
Band hamstring curls: 5 x 20
Lunges (6-second eccentric): 4 x 15

Had intended to run partway home but just didn't have it in me, that's OK.

Swim!

Finally made it to masters swim - the hot weather and logistics have made it complicated, but really I think it's just a hard habit to recreate when I've let it go for so long. Anyway it was very nice! I was too slow but there were only 2 others in the lane so it was easy to skip a 50 as needed, and I was glad I stayed in for the last segment as I finally seemed able to keep up. If I swim 2-3x week I will be enough faster that I can do everything, that is worth working towards....

Not sure I am at all getting this right. Need to start taking my phone to document the workout on the board!

250 free (I did 200)

3 x 100 as 25 kick, 75 swim (I did 250)

2 x 150 (c. 300)

something else (c. 300)

4 x 100 as free, back, breast, free (c. 400)

4 x 400 alternating varieties of free and stroke along these lines (1000)

(1) 400 free easy (I did 300)
(2) 400 as 25 stroke sprint, 75 easy (I did 4 x 50 fly-free, 200)
(3) 400 as 50 back, 100 swim, 50 back (I did 300)
(4) 25 as sprint 4 strokes then easy, 75 recovery (200 - didn't really need that much rest but it was best way to arrange it)

8 x 25 free sprint, 25 kick back (I enjoyed this one) (400)

Call it in the region of 2850? It may have been a bit more than that, I eyeballed the board after and thought it might be more like 3200. Anyway it was good! Coach Michael thinks I will be fine for the 5K, and I do too - it is a two-loop course so if I am feeling awful for some reason (hot, queasy are the two most likely) after the first loop I can always get out and take a DNF.

c. 3000 yards
10mi bike

Happy run, happy day

"The Grand Old Duke of York, he had ten thousand men, / He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again...."

I finally got a good deep long night of sleep. The humidity is lower and I am determined not to have a lot more days like yesterday! (1) Better temperature regulation and (2) less self-castigation!

:50 as :15 easy, 8 x 1:00 hill, :15 easy