Jun 26

FIT:
To help my knees stop having issues, I did a second weekly strength session yesterday.  A run would've probably been counterproductive anyway, since my legs were still recovering from the previous day's run.  I didn't mind somewhat toning down the number of reps a bit, since it was a double.  I'll probably do a video at some point so show you my weekly strength exercises, but for now, for those of you who are new to the blog, I'll list last night's exercises here.  I do mostly the same routine weekly, hitting all muscle groups.  Weekly seems to be a good frequency for me.  Longer than 1.5 weeks, and the next session becomes harder because I lost some strength.  2 per week would be doable, but I'd be able to do less at each one.  Since I'd rather be running, I'll go about as long as I can without losing any strength, so 1/week it is, normally.

375 crunches per side (front, left, right) - normally, I do 400-475/side.
2:30 plank - normally, 3:00
105/115 adductor/abductor leg lifts
15 divebombers - normally, I do ~30 pushups instead
60s 6 inch leg raise - normally, I do 90s
1:00 straight-arm side planks with 20 hip dips - normally, I do it on my forearm, not my hand
2x60 single-leg quad dips off a raised step (20 each with my dangling leg in front, side, and  back)
Elastic band exercises for my arms in multiple directions
95 lower leg extensions (foam roller under my upper leg)
25 tricep dips
Elastic band exercises in 4 directions for my legs
Pullups (only managed halfway pullups b/c I haven't done them in months)
45 superman (legs lifted, arms do a breast-stroke kind of motion 45x)
100 dead bug with a 8lb dumbell (like crunches, but with legs and arms sticking straight up)

It takes about 55 minutes to get through.   The quads make me sweat.  The rest, not really.

Today's run...
Managed to get up at 5:30 after going to bed at 1:00ish.  I felt kinda bad about waking up my roommate a little bit with my alarm ringing twice this week when I had considered going on AM runs before work and then ending up snoozing through.  So I was going to do it this time.  After the alarm rang, I shifted to the couch to leg rest a little more while my HR started picking back up and blood started circulating.  Wavered in my resolve a bit, but decided to do it.  Had a small breakfast of tofu chocolate cake (the healthiest cake there is - tofu, WW flour, cup of milk, vanilla, baking soda and powder, and agave is about all there is) with Oreo insides as a frosting + skim milk.  Suited, up, then off.

Got to the park at around 6:30 and put on Marathontalk.com's podcast.  My new favorite.  Two incredibly funny Brits who are serious runners and so much fun to listen to.  It was their recap of the Comrades Marathon (26.2 x 2).  Some runners get angry when people ask them how long their marathon was, but I think it's a valid question, if something called a Comrades Marathon is really an ultra-distance.  Anyway... before the run at the start line, they played the theme to Chariots of Fire, and at that point, I was running up a slight grade with the red sun rising in the background, and it was magical.  It gave me chills to hear that song while running.  I may need to get it for my Shuffle.

Other special moments during runs... forgot to mention on my last post, there was someone playing the bagpipes at the park on Friday.  They were only around for my first lap, unfortunately, so by the time I got around again, they were gone.  It was cool and gave me a boost.  Also on Friday, as it was getting dark, there were Lightning bugs.  I've been calling them Fireflies in my mind for the past few days... seems like a more suitable name... but they were lightning bugs.  There was a candlelight run in my town recently, with candles lining the sides, but this is pretty cool, too, with them dancing in front of me in the trail.

So today's run... fairly cool, since it was early.  Rolled my right ankle this time, twice.  Second time was more serious, but I ran it off.  Gotta be careful.  Took it easier, picked it up gradually naturally.  Good run, felt great.   A nice way to start the day.  Refueled with pureed bananas (frozen, from the post-race food I got)... very sketchy looking, but no stomach issues.  They weren't very ripe, so I couldn't make banana whip with it.  Just used it as pure fuel, since there's not all that much going for it in the taste department. 

6.0 in 50:19, 8:18/mi, 490 Cal.
Splits> 6:51, 6:27, 6:19, 6:17, 6:11, 6:08, 6:08, 5:56.

I ran out of pages in my 2011 log book, which I got free from a Publix giveaway at a race expo.  Time to start another one (I have 3 other Publix log books)!  I'll just add, this starts the week on a Sunday, which is all messed up for someone trying to really measure weekly exercise, since you need the weekend days together on the same week, since you'll likely shuffle runs between the two days all the time.  I'm having to use a Moving Average in my excel spreadsheets to get weekly mileage, since the numbers are so inconsistent when I do Saturday runs sometimes and Sunday runs sometimes.  So that's something to look out for, if you ever create your own log or buy a log.

Good run.  Mmmm... I eat miles for breakfast.