Run!

Ah, such a nice run!  The weather at this time of year makes me really happy (at least when it is not FREAKISHLY HOT AND HUMID).

12:00 easy, then 8 x 3:00 as (2:00 hard/purposeful, 1:00 easy), 12:00 easy

:48

DL!

That was good.  Main set: 10 x 3 @ 67% (166) with eccentric tempo descending on final rep of each set.  Deficits: 3 x 3 @ 72.5% (but I think I may have switched out the 2.5s for 5s rather than 10s, which would make it 171 rather than 181).  Goblet squats: 3 x 8 @ 22.5.  3 x 10 stationary lunges.

1hr lower body
1hr easy bike

Run!

Just :30 easy - that was what was on the schedule, I'm sorry not make up one of the intervals I've missed on very warm recent days but I left it late enough that I have more vim for dinner than for running longer, although it is the most gorgeous evening (still high 70s mid-evening, but low humidity and altogether sort of like living on a different planet compared to what it's been like the last few days).

I have one more week at home before our Australia trip, and then one week at home again before heading to Oxford for the fall term there - feeling a bit scrambled re: too many different work imperatives (and in practice external obligations to write letters of various kinds will probably impede my ability to get much done on my own two nice projects), but it is all good really....

:30 easy

Run!

Just did 1hr easy, I have no vim for intervals until the weather reaches more reasonable temperatures!  I waited almost till dark to go out, and it probably wasn't as bad as the last few days have been - certainly humidity was a bit lower than when I was out doing errands, gruesomely, this morning. Let it be cooler soon!

1hr easy

Run!

It is so grotesquely warm and muggy that I almost talked myself out of doing any run at all, only I know really it makes me feel good afterwards.  Just did :35 or so easy rather than the scheduled hour -  I have a hot subway trip downtown and family dinner still to come, need to survive all that too!

Run!

It sort of turned into one of those days (I blame heat and humidity in part!) - after the vet visit mid-morning (they make house calls!), I was lazy and dozed and read things on the internet instead of doing my real work.  Finally got myself into gear mid-afternoon (I need to make progress on book planning, and I have an overdue promotion letter), texted Josh to tell him I couldn't come to powerlifting this evening (hate to do that, and it was entirely my own bad time management) and had a work session so enjoyable that I wonder why I procrastinate.  Then had 1hr rather unpleasant very slow run along the river - heat and humidity such that the air feels as though it has the properties of human blood.  Off now to meet up with Liz for Justin Vivian Bond featuring our friend Thomas Bartlett!

Short run

Should have been an hour, but I didn't quite have it in me - I don't think I hydrated sufficiently earlier either pre- or post-workout (the 10mi biking is easy effort but certainly you're losing fluids).  Started out shuffling fairly happily (a bit of general fatigue but no specific soreness except for the right spinal erector which was tingling in its occasional imitation of a phantom hot dog bun along the back), was aware that I was appreciating running in the shade of "my" bit of the park but didn't want to risk doing two loops there instead of the longer out and back (hard to stay motivated for second loop).  But as soon as I came into the direct sunlight of the river path, my mind roundly rebelled and told me "NOPE!"  Shuffled home instead, it's fine...

:30 shuffle

Squats!

Hard to pin down one single cause, but the combination of changes (squat shoes, one-on-one sessions with Josh, some other technique tweaks and warmup hacks) has led to great improvement in my squat - it is still my weakest of the three lifts, but not nearly so far out of whack with the others as it was six  months ago.

Some quality singles at 115
4 x 10 with safety squat bar
Single-leg step-ups with 22.5s

1hr lower body
1hr RT bike

Deadlilfts!

Feeling rather tired - I usually get "enough" sleep but it's often low on quality, I think.  Anyway a good session at the gym.  My highest one-rep max in the past year was 275, but that's almost a year ago and I think at the end of the last training cycle I was more like 251 - had to recalculate my working weight after doing a first set at 80% of the higher number and realizing it was just too heavy for current strength/fatigue levels!  I also just haven't been lifting that regularly over spring and summer - too much travel.  Josh is giving us more discretion on numbers these days (I think because Certain People were ignoring him and lifting heavier weights than they were supposed to, he threw up his hands!) which for me is good.

6 x 2-3 @ 80-85% of max (I did 2 @ 220, 3 @ 201, 5 x 2 @ 201)

Deficit pull: 3 x 3 @ 60-65% of max (161)

3 x 8 goblet squats (22.5lb)

And a few lunges - back was twinging a bit and really I just felt tired, so I called it a day. It was a good workout - we now have real deadlift platforms and are using bands over the bar on the initial 5, 5, 3 warmup set, focusing on getting the bar taut against the band before surging up - it really then feels like it flies up when you take the bands off!

Gloriously windy run!

It's very strange weather - we still haven't had any rain, but it's quite windy and the water in the Hudson is turbulent and high.  I felt speedy on my way south with the wind at my back and then adventurous as I battled into the wind on the way home!

12:00 easy, 10 x (1:30 hard, 2:30 easy), easy cooldown
1:05

Long run!

2hr time-on-feet run.  Blessedly low humidity, though it's pretty hot still in sun.  First hour blissfully enjoyable, second hour slightly marred by minor aches and pains but particularly by painful sports bra band chafing!  Off to shower now - I think there may be some (TMI) fungal infection along that stripe, will spray it down with chemicals after I'm clean!

2hr easy (over to Central Park, upper five, then back across 106th St., into Riverside Park at 95th and homeward bound thereafter)

Run!

Ah, that was fantastic - I really think a one-hour run is optimal, short enough that it doesn't feel onerous but a little more substantial than these short ones I've been doing.  It's 70F and overcast - quite humid, so not a beautiful running day as such, but cooler temperatures are a blessing!

1hr as 15:00 easy, 10 x 1:00 faster, 2:00 easy, 15:00 easy

Run!

Just  :40 easy, which was just as well as my quads are SHREDDED from Wednesday's workout with Josh - I hobbled down the stairs into the park one at a time and was still making faces later on as I walked down campus stairs....

(A most beautiful morning, low 70s and low humidity - reminds me that we are about to come into the best running season of all.)

:40 easy

Upper body

I may have slightly overdone it today, either in over-exercising (haven't slept well this week) or in under-fueling - also got completely soaked to the skin mid-afternoon on the way to getting my allergy shots, with no spare clothes to change into (I was just wearing the workout gear I rode down in & would wear for lifting), so I was shivering in the cafe with hot tea and a strong craving for sugar (that I resisted satisfying).  I did an adequate but uninspired job with the workout - my triceps started out already really sore from Tuesday's workout and it kinda went downhill from there! - and the bike ride home seemed so arduous I wasn't sure I was going to make it!  Have inhaled cheese and dried fruit and feel significantly more normal now, so I do think it was fueling - will be more careful in future....

:45 upper body circuit: 5 x 1:00 tempo medicine ball, 3 x 10 flat db press on bench @ 22.5 (I had NOTHING!), 6 x (30 alternating triceps miniband pulldown, 20 pushdown).  Called it there as I knew I still had to ride home and it wasn't going to be pretty!

Bike to swim!

Ah, that was really nice - had one of my favorite lanemates (good personality and good match on speed) and a nice coach, very enjoyable.

Warmup: 200 free waiting three strokes off the wall to breathe; 12 x 100 with first four as 50 back, 50 free, second four as 25 back, 25 breast, 50 free and final four in theory with paddles and buoy (I missed a 50 as I obtained paddles).

Main set: only had time to go one full round on this.

3 x 50 as fly-back, back-breast, breast-free
2 x 100 with paddles (negative splits)
200 with paddles and pull buoy (I did it "plain")

Then we did the first bit, an extra 50 of back-breast and an easy 50 swimdown.

c. 2250 yards - very enjoyable too.

:30 easy bike
1hr swim