Run!

Brent ran with me, that was nice (it was EARLY): :25 easy.  Might try and do a longer one tomorrow morning if I can get myself up and out the door....

Run!

Just :30 easy as we have a 7am (!) breakfast reservation.  I am hoping I am going to look back and say "this was the summer I really finally made myself into a daily runner" - it makes everything go better....

Run!

Friday and Saturday were a disaster - family obligations and heat wave Friday (plus a late night Thursday and pre-travel necessities), then one of these travel Odysseys that particularly wipes me out.  But I did get up early enough to run half an hour before breakfast - we are at Disney, it is clear that if one doesn't run first thing, it doesn't happen - and I think I can do better tomorrow....

:30 easy

Happy :45 run

Not the brain-bustingly intricate numerological one David wrote for me, as I didn't get up early enough - I will do that one tomorrow!  This morning, just :45 easy - it was hot but there was still a freshness in the air, the humidity isn't terrible.  Have spent the day helping my mother with shopping and prep for birthday dinner, and am writing currently from the cafe at Chelsea Piers - about to lift (upper body) and will then hasten downtown for last-minute arrangements.  It is Jenny's powerlifting team family dinner - my mother asked me who I would like to invite and I couldn't think of a nicer group to celebrate with!

:45 run
1hr upper body

Bliss!

I am in a ridiculously good mood - precipitated most immediately by low humidity and sunshine.  Rode bike down to gym and had another great squat session with Josh - new shoes!  Did just a token treadmill run (time and vim were both short) and rode bike home.

1hr squats (5 x 3 @ 95, then 3 x 3 with bar and 4-second tempo 2-second isometric hold, kettlebell squats 3 x 10)
:10 treadmill
1hr bike

Bench/non-run!

Very good upper body session at Chelsea Piers - the dynamic of who's working out when and the team as a whole seems to be highly functional just now.  After that I sorta meant to run home but it turned out walking was more realistic!  I am not going to abuse the privilege, but really given that "100 runs in 100 days" is purely for myself I think I can count it instead of a run - that puts me back at parity....

3 x 10 @ 80

close grip: 2 x 6 @ 75

rows: 5 x 10 @ 42.5

100 face-pulls

4 x 15 skull-crushers

100 triceps pulldown

c. 5.2mi walk home (c. 1.5hr)

Run!

That was really nice - thunderstorms in the early evening led to temperature and humidity dropping overnight, and this was pretty much perfect summer running weather.

1hr easy

Deadlifts!

My favorite day of the lifting week.  I hemmed and hawed about the weight but Josh said that though I can make adjustments on volume sets, I need to do the heavy lifting or nothing will improve.  Really I know he's right - I shouldn't second-guess before I start warming up anyway.

5 x 3 @ 206 deficit pulls

3 x 3 tempo @ 165

100 shrugs @ 52.5

4 x 15 band hip thrust

Skipped abs as back was slightly sproingled by that point.

1hr lower body

Clawing my way back to run parity!

It's slightly eccentric, I feel, running so late in the evening (only a handful of other runners still out in Central Park, and then a lot of people glued to their phones playing Pokemon Go!), but it suits my schedule better than some of the alternatives.  Still very warm but not as steamy as it would have been a few hours earlier.  Jogged to north end of park and did just the upper 5, for total of about 1:20.

Day 55, runs 53 and 54!  Have to achieve parity before  Disney trip as it seems more likely that I will miss one while I am there than that I will fit in an extra one....

A lick and a promise...

A phrase that perplexed me as a very young reader of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, which often used it to describe what Ma did to Laura's hair in the morning before she went to school - why would you lick someone's hair with your tongue?  Was it like how mothers annoyingly lick their finger and wipe away a smudge of dirt on your face?

Anyway, I have a long one on the schedule, but didn't get out the door soon enough (need to be showered, fed and exited before cleaner arrives at 12).  Just did :30 easy in "my" bit of the park and will hope the humidity's a bit lower in the early evening for a good long one....

Midday swim, evening run

Met up with L. at John Jay for the 12:30 TNYA "Low Pressure Zone" swim. In fact I didn't end up doing the workout as a second coach was running a butterfly clinic in two lanes, and that sounded more fun!  Thoroughly enjoyable - I guess I will always rather be learning something/thinking about something than simply pounding it....

It has been unpleasantly sultry over the last few days, but the humidity seems to  have dropped this afternoon, and I had a really nice 1hr run just now along the river.  Breezes and all!

1hr swim clinic (fly)
1hr run

Run!

Weather is disgusting, but clearly I have sufficient base fitness that the workout can be done regardless, if more slowly.  That is a good one.

:55 with 6 x (1:00 fast, 2:00 easy) and 6 x (:30 fast, 1:30 easy)

Run!

Ah, grotesquely steamy, but it is all about embracing conditions and making it work.  :50 very slow in "my" bit of park (more shade, though psychologically counterintuitive to loop back over same ground that has already been covered - I really prefer the out-and-back wherever possible).

Run!

Almost didn't happen - I had a meeting with an acquaintance I'm helping with graduate school applications, and I also spent a very hot and sweaty hour mid-afternoon taking over about 12 bags of clothes etc. to the Columbia "Clean and Go Green" donation dumpsters!  And have to leave in about 3 minutes if I am going to be on time for dinner (haven't yet showered).  But - it was good....

:30 easy

Squats!

This lift has been a thorn in my side - I think at one point last year I had a rather dodgy 1-rep max of 185 but really it was so unreliable and wonky that we retested and left it at a more genuinely controllable 135. Josh and I have been working on it very patiently, and have made some minor tweaks in recent weeks plus one big one - raised heels! Currently with a minor hack, but I am awaiting an order of shoes that I am hoping will let me get rid of the mats. Anyway, a very good workout this morning.

4 x 3 @ 85
singles up to 135 (video below)
3 x 15 @ 2 18lb kettlebells (held)
band curls: 4 x 25

The thing we will work on next: having the bar stay really over the forefoot....

1hr bike
1hr lower body

Ride and lift

Ah, this is good - the weather is so beautiful right now, it's almost uncanny (I mean, it's still hot, but the humidity is low - very different from normal July NYC weather!). Rode my bike down to Chelsea Piers and had a great workout. Today I finally felt reconciled to the fact of this not being a particularly productive summer, writing-wise - life just has other things sometimes (this is HERESY to JMD but there you go, it is the reality of the situation).

5 x 10 @ 75
100 ring rows
3 x 30 face pulls
5 x 1:00 tempo medicine ball wall bounce, 1:00 recovery
4 x 20 band curls

1hr bike
1hr upper body

Run!

Feeling better after a night in my own bed, but there is the inevitable post-travel lethargy. Just did :30 easy.

Knackered!

I am completely wiped out - that was a tiring weekend (my own fault for sociable drinking in the evenings that then seriously impaired sleep quality!). Was home by lunchtime, so tired late afternoon that I almost didn't get out the door for powerlifting (but I don't think I've ever missed powerlifting just out of inertia, sometimes I have a conflict and sometimes I'm sick but really it's my favorite thing, would be utterly self-defeating not to go!). Cabbed it down and had what was then a very good workout, tho with some modifications to weight. Was set to run at least part of the way home but I set out walking and just couldn't motivate to speed up, that's OK, I'm going to count it as a run just for once.

Deadlift: 3 x 10 @ 161 (had 200 on the board, tried 181 but though it was going up OK I could tell I JUST DIDN'T HAVE IT IN ME - still a good set)
Tempo deadlift: 3 x 3 @ 111 (5 seconds up and down)
100 single-arm row each side (did 10 with 42.5 and 20 with 37.5 but really that was still heavier than Josh meant and I switched down to 27.5 for the rest)
100 abs
4 x 10 goblet squats @ 17.5

1hr lower body
1.5hr walk (5.2mi)

Run!

1hr easy. Bit of a weird weekend, pretty inertial with much napping and general holing up in cave-type bedroom (I am very prone to this), but happy to have done my three runs as suggested. Home tomorrow, don't think I will be up early enough here to run before I leave so will have to make sure it happens later in the day in NYC (along with powerlifting - and an acquaintance of mine is giving a reading from her new book near Chelsea Piers at 7, I would quite like to go to that if I could)....

Run!

I was very lazy and inertial, but didn't actively NOT feel like running, just passive, so I dragged myself out of nap in the late afternoon and got out for a true quality session! It is rare the terrain at a random conference hotel is so u niquely suited to the particular workout on hand - this Quincy Marriott is on a sort of a bluff in the middle of an industrial park with a very decent sidewalk leading up the long hill up to the hotel.

:20 easy, then 4 x (2:00 hill, 1:00 hill, :30 hill). About 1hr total. Woo-hoo!

Note to self - much less back soreness than I have had in recent weeks. The obvious difference - I spent no time on a computer at a desk today. Must limit desk time (I can easily work in bed instead!) and see if this helps...

Run!

The news this week has been making me sick to my stomach - waking up this morning to the Dallas coverage was the last straw. I was a state yesterday morning for completely idiotic personal reasons - stress at upcoming travel mostly (especially when I am trying to eat clean and drink infrequently, four nights in a hotel at a science fiction convention is seriously contraindicated!), and anxiety about when I will start working properly on book stuff.

When I checked in last night, the clerk looked at me very dubiously when I asked about possible running routes, especially a route I could take on foot to a trail or park or similar - then he brightened and said, "You can run around the industrial park!" But actually it's not at all bad - I just had a really nice 40 minutes (the weather is significantly cooler today), and already in the taxi coming in yesterday I spotted a hill that will be PERFECT for the workout Coach David suggested for tomorrow. I think exercise may have given me fortitude for human contact! There is a quite reasonable little gym and pool too, but I couldn't lay hands on goggles at the last minute (I did pack bathing suit) - one of Brent's friends has some he might trade off to me if we are not swimming at the same time, it's certainly a possibility...

:40 run!

Warm run

Hot and hazy out there, and I need to leave for the airport in forty-five minutes - legs tapped out from squatting - can't say I really enjoyed that. But I was in a horrible mood at the beginning and I don't feel so low now, and also I saw a cormorant diving for fish, so certainly it is better to have done it than not!

1hr very slow

Squats!

Ah, that was good. I didn't run beforehand, needed to save legs, but friend Lauren was here and had a tempo run workout so we set up on adjacent treadmills. Did about :40, 2mi. (Not going to make a habit of counting a walk as a run for the purpose of 100 in 100 days but today I am going to allow it as legitimate as it was in the good cause of maximizing subsequent workout!) Then a very good hour with Josh. Still elevating heels, still focusing on those useful cues - going to get a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes to see if we can get the raised-heel effect that way instead, it seems very helpful for not folding towards the front.

5 x 3 squat with bar + chains (20lb each)
safety squat bar: 4 x 10

Then did tomorrow's bench work set as I will be in Boston: 4 x 10 @ 65, 85, 85, 85. Good set!

:40 walk (counted as run)
1hr strength

Deadlifts!

Just worked up to a few heavy singles. I haven't deadlifted for a while and have fallen into a bad habit with the "hitch," which would lead to disqualification at a meet - did a couple with hitch at 240 and then switched out 10s for 5s for a couple less hitch-y ones at 230. I am ready to make some strength gains, but the next eight months or so are going to be completely erratic in terms of training, so I think I had better reconcile myself in advance to mostly staying in the same place and perhaps improving technique!

c. 50min strength (heavy singles, plus 3 x 10 front squat with kettlebell @ 18lb)

Run!

Just did :30 easy instead of hill workout as we are (anomalously) deadlifting later and I am squatting with Josh tomorrow morning - back still very tight and I need to save it for lifting! Will adjust other runs this week as appropriate. Spending Thursday through Monday at a science fiction convention just outside Boston, preliminary research suggests that it's one of these hotels marooned on a highway where there are no sidewalks to get to a real running place....

:30 easy

Yoga!

Ah, that was good - I hate these holiday weekends, the library is closed and there is no powerlifting, but though the gym was due to close early there was still a limited class schedule, and I rode downtown for 5:30 yoga. Very nice!

10mi easy bike
1hr yoga

Run!

If nothing else, I am hoping I can look back on this summer and say "That was the summer I finally really and truly made myself into a daily runner." Lungs still rather junky, but the weather is beautiful - when is the humidity EVER this low in NYC over 4th of July weekend?

:30 easy

JMD v. lungs...

Actually count it a win. They were raw-ish by the 1hr mark but I figured I'd just finish it out anyway. More troublesome were sore hamstring and BACK, but it is still a victory: I ran/jogged everything but Cat's Hill (back really needed a break by then), using lungs rather than back soreness as gauge. Gotta do something about this sore back, it's plaguing me!

1:33 total (my house to park, then full loop, walked home off the clock)

Run....

Ugh, this lung situation won't go away! I didn't go downtown to lift Thursday afternoon as I was feeling pretty poorly, and it was clear yesterday that though lungs had moved from the very painful tight tender stage to the stage known as "full of junk" that they would really prefer me NOT to run. Today, though, I felt like I just couldn't do without it, so I did my :45 easy and will hope that tomorrow morning I'm in reasonable shape for a Central Park loop. Ready for this stupid ailment to be gone!

:45 easy