Jul 29

FIT:
Jul 27 - 60 min reclined bike - 13.2 mi - 548 Cal. Bit achey today so had to take it easy. Finished reading Ultramarathon man. Ate lots of carby, salty junk b/f. Not stuffed but felt tubby. 102lb post workout w/o shirt. Wore Dri-fit Nike soccer socks - really did stay dry.

Jul 28 - 55 min mat - mixed it up w/ divebombers and situps this time. 3 min plank, 35 slow pushups, 150/side crunches, 30 leg lifts, 15 min of leg exercises - 40 reps calves, 60 reps dips. Look pretty cut. Calves been getting bigger.

Jul 29 - 60 min reclined bike - 13.9 mi. Fought thru knee/butt joint pain last 15 min - maybe not wise. Read Galloway's Marathon. Went 0.8 mi in teh last 3 min, fast. The rest was kinda slow. Pecs sore today from yesterday.

Jul 26-p

FIT:
Yesterday - 60 min on the reclined bike. 14.2 mi? and 582 Cal. 100.5lb afterwards w/o my sweat-soaked shirt. Felt good and strong today. Once I was going, my HR was 160-168 bpm, as it has been for the past week or so. Watched stage 20 of the Tour de France again. Met neighbors for the first time - a nice couple w/ a cute baby. It took about 9 min to get from 11.6 mph at the start to something over 13.2. The warmup effect. I think 9 min is about right for my running warmup time, too. Left butt started to shoot a bit of pain during my cool-down walk on the treadmill (I've been doing that lately, to try to regain walking strength - don't even get started on running strength). Walked about 1.5 mi.

Today - ended up doing some exploring. I had heard about a spongy trail, but that it was only half a mile. Sad. I wanted to see if the 8-ish mile trail had grass by it, though, so I explored in one direction. It only went about a mile, but it was actually about a mile of sponginess, plus about a half mile of a field that I can use to extend the run. In all, the run was about 2.5 miles. THE BAD: smelled like asphalt, so much that I'm a bit concerned that any health benefits of running on sponginess will be offset by whatever toxins there are in the air, not scenic at all (construction, junk-yardy storage on one side, a somewhat nasty looking creek on the other), the path was graded for rain drainage). THE GOOD: Very spongy, way moreso than tracks, even though it looks like track material. 2.5 miles for a round trip is pretty good... I could potentially do that 4-6 times for a nice 10-15 miler. Yeah, that's tolerable. And hopefully, it was just the heat worsening the smell and how I was baking on the asphalt at 3pm (90ish degrees). I wore a pack today, since I hadn't planned on running, but I just had to see how long it was. I happened to be wearing workout clothes... okay... I always wear workout clothes. So it was a nice little run, although my body's having some growing pains getting back into running.

Jul 24

FIT:
Yesterday, 40 min mat. Immune system felt down again. Dead tired after a 6:30-3:30 workday. After dinner, I conked out for a 2 hr nap, had ff chocolate ice cream with cocoa almonds, then did strength. It included a 2 min plank, 150 crunches/side, 25 and 35 leg lifts, plus leg exercises to prevent injury. My right knee felt all wacked up after the first plank - worrisome since it was pretty bad, but it was okay afterwards. It was all tougher due to the tiredness.

Today, 45 min bike - couldn't do 60. Was drained after 45 min. What am I low on? A mineral? immune system? Watched the Tour de France. Did pretty well, 10.7 mi and 442 cal. I've been feeling physically down since the hike on Saturday. Strange. Garlic seems to help, though (it's scientifically proven to fight colds), so I've put lots on my salmon.

Jun 20

FIT:
3 days ago - 7 mi hike at pretty slow pace, limped (i couldn't tell but my fam could) but okay besides downhill pain on my knees aaah, left calves almost inperceptibly sore the next day. Also did strength, including 4 min plank! and 130/side crunches, 40 pushups, 25 leg lifts. Strong.

Yesterday - 13.8 mi, 570 Cal, 60 min on reclined bike, reading a/b the Boston Marathon in Fodor's Traveling Marathon guide. Excited to beat the last mileage by 0.6 mi.

Today - felt like my immune system was down, took a nap, decided not to work out, started reading Ultramarathon Man, was inspired, did 14.1 mi, 580 cal, 60 min on the reclined bike, still felt down afterwards, 101.5 w/o the soaking wet shirt afterwards, really like to ice b/f and after workouts now, makes me feel so much better, also trying to stretch more to recover and avoid injury in the future.

Jul 16

FIT:
2 x 30 min reclined bike (both times' stats exactly the same - 150 Cal, 7.3 mi). While watching major league lacrosse. 11pm at the hotel fitness room. Last night in Roch.

Jul 15-p

FUN:
Yesterday, meeting LD's nice fam, seeing where she grew up, peaceful farmland, German Settlers!



FIT:
Today, I did the run into downtown. I must've started off super slow with my shuffly gait. Today, my left quad has been super tight and knotty. Right leg seems okay during the day, though. At the start of the run, my right thigh seemed to threaten booing me, but it worked out. My knees felt a little poundy during the last mile.

As for the run, a little past where I turned around last time (at the Staybridge hotel on the Genosee River), there was a great view of the city. I went in, and at the turnaround point was the Dinosaur BBQ, where I had had lunch in a building that used to be a mill or something, which overlooked a bridge with trees going down a dam. Then, more grassy wonderfulness to the U of R, then back to the asphalty, weedy part that I walked back home.

7.1 mi in 1:01:50. Slow. 8:42/mi... eh... permissible considering the circumstances, I guess.

Jul 13-p

FIT:
20 min elliptical. HR from 155-185. Set out to do 30 min but wore out by 20. No water. Hip felt fine.

Decided to go on a walk. Turns out the Holiday Inn by the Rochester Airport is right by the Eerie Canal. At the point where I enter, there's a berry tree. It looks like blackberries or something, but I'm not sure if it's poisonous, so I pick them and put them in my camera case. Also in my drawstring bag are a GPS running out of batteries and a cell. I follow the path, and when I get to the Genosee Park about a mile later. I see a sign that says Rochester - 4 mi. I think that this is the absolute worst time to be injured. I'm in a beautiful place with all kinds of wildflowers and waterways, in running distance to a city I could have explored. It's close enough to run but too far to walk to - 10 miles. I started trying spurts of running again on the grassy sides. At first, I could only take about 20 ft at a time before my inner thigh gave out. Soon, though, I could manage a continuous shuffle. The air smells like cross country. Grassy and humid. The temperature is incredible, too, must be in the 70's. I follow the wrong path for a ways (I saw a sign saying, "now leaving rochester"), then run across two runners who point me in the opposite direction, so I retrace my steps and find the way to the park. I follow the path, asking for directions to downtown every now and then. It seemed like I was running a long way, but I was going slowly and trying to poke my way through a new place. Finally, I realize from maps that following the river will take me right into the heart of downtown. If I don't head back now, though, I won't make it in time for the 9:00pm close of the hotel's restraunt, so I decide to save the rest for another day. In all, it's 4.8 miles, but it was untimed. My gait is all screwed up. I felt like I was bounding semi-laterally on two crooked sticks. My legs were just so unused to the motion of running. I walked back and had salmon with mounds of baby carrots and fries. Literally huge mounds.

Jul 12

FIT:
I rested yesterday b/c I wasn't feeling 100% and didn't want to risk injuring myself and losing what little workout abilities I have left.

I felt stronger today (calves still a bit sore, but glutes were fine and super-toned after 2 hrs of biking, haha). I did 13 mi in 1 hr, at an ave of 13mph... hey I just realized that since I'm doing an hr, the mileage I do is the ave mph! I'm so slow. So my estimate was good. The other two times, not so good, haha. It was harder to go the whole hour w/o water today but I did it. I read Fodor's the Traveling Marathoner today, the section on the Disney Marathon.

Jul 10

FIT:
I did 30 min strength on Jul 1 and Jul 6. Still no running, just limping and pain even when walking. Dunno what caused it. Knees are a bit testy too, maybe from compensating. Strength's okay, even with the likely bit of weight gain from being so sedentary. It's so hard not to run, but the posters in my room, books, and videos (Beijing 08 Opening Ceremonies and highlights) have kept me excited.

In the apt, I went to the gym after a while to check out the cardio, but alas, 2/3 of the machines were unusable, and I was mad. Was it all just for show? The only one that worked was a treadmill... great... Jul 8, however, new equipment came in, and it felt so good to sweat again. I biked 13 mi, 1 hr, 560 Cal. Level 15-17. Last 4 min were at 15-17 mph and b/f that, usually 11-12 mph. Left quad cramped first few min but otherwise felt okay. Butt so sore after. Read 60 pgs of the Track and Field Coaching manual while biking.

I did strength again the next day. Only 3 days since the last one. It helped clear out whatever made my butt sore. Knee joint (right) not so great. I did faster pushups this time, rather than the slow ones I've been doing. That allowed me to crank out 40ish. Glad to know I haven't lost it. I did 200 crunches per side. Probably strong.

Jul 10, the next day, another 1 hr session of 13.2 mi on the bike. Level 16 mostly. Ave 13.5-14.5mph. Butt mostly fine today. Just remnants of soreness. Still can't run, limp (tho not post-exercise, since the sore butt predominated). Wore the XC singlet, which was absolutely drenched, wring-out-water to the end. Breathed hard. I wore the Garmin to track my HR since the bike's is really inaccurate. I went from 155-185, about linearly with time over the course of the hour.