A Lean and Hungry Look

50 minutes on the bike while watching "24".  Saw the chiropractor again today and he advised me to take a couple of weeks off of running.  The fact that my knees buckle due to back pain when I sneeze suggests an inflamed disc that needs a rest from the pounding.  

50 minutes on the bike watching "24" in the basement. I set up an appointment today to meet with two of the Crossfit trainers at Brooke's gym to talk about incorporating kettle bells into my marathon training.

First kettle bell workout with Dave at Crossfit NRG.  I feel incredibly uncoordinated, especially after learning the Turkish Get-up maneuver.  We spent about 45 minutes going through some of the basic exercises (two-arm swings, one-arm swings, goblin squats, and Turkish Get-ups), interspersed with some lunges and other exercises intended to help me make improvements to my form and understand better what muscles the exercises are targeting.  After that, Dave had me walk a very short lap while holding a kettle bell in my right hand above my head, repeated for my left.  I nearly fell over by the end of my truncated left-hand lap.  While sweating like a pig, Dave asked, "Are you ready for a workout?"  Oh, brother.

Fortunately, the workout was extremely short, but it also gave me extreme difficulty by the end.  I'll write it down here in hopes that I can look back in the not-too-distant future and laugh that it gave me any trouble at all.

15 two-arm swings

10 goblin squats

5 Turkish Get-ups (kettle bell in right hand)

Repeat but do the Turkish Get-ups with kettle bell in left hand

I believe the kettle bell was 26 lbs.

By the last two Turkish Get-ups with each arm, I could barely lift the stupid bell over my head, and I had to take a couple of short rests. When I finished, the mat was covered in sweat. The workout took about 5 minutes.

Hopefully the humiliation of being weak and uncoordinated in the beginning will prove worth it. My objective is to increase speed, strength, and durability in support of another attempt at 2:30 by next Fall. The plan is for Dave to work with me individually for the next several weeks until I have a solid handle on the exercises and form so that I can go with Brooke to the 6 a.m. WOD (Workout of the Day) class but do my own thing while the real beasts do the WOD. Dave is going to review my training plans for the past few marathons, compare it with his, and will then come up with a new training plan for Ogden that incorporates 1-2 days per week of kettle bells.

If nothing else, this will mix things up while providing a basis for some better all-around fitness, which I am sorely lacking as a result of my narrow focus on running for the past number of years.

60 min on the trainer while watching 24.  Hamstrings still sore from kettle bell workout, but not too bad.

Spent about 4 hours last night and another 6 today tearing out acoustic tiles, acoustic walls, and drywall in our basement family room in preparation for a remodel.  Neck and shoulders are feeling it.

50 min on the trainer while watching 24.  Back pain is definitely less than it was last week, but I still feel it when I sneeze.  I'll probably take the rest of this week off of running in hopes of putting the issue to rest.

60 minutes on the trainer while watching 24.  The hardest part of the workout was when Netflix went down about 45 minutes into the workout, which made the remaining 15 minutes seem like an extra hour.

I went to the chiro again today and he told me to lay off running for one more week. 

50 minutes on the trainer.  Jack Bauer is getting tortured right now.  Pretty rough.

Second kettle bell workout with Dave.  Today we focused on the mechanics of a kettle bell snatch.  To help me get the feel of it, we worked on dead lifts with a barbell (to establish my "hinge"), did a million kettle bell swings, tried some dumbbell snatches, and did several other things.  By the end, I was finally getting the feel of the snatch, which ends with the kettle bell resting against the forearm of the hand that is straight up.  I did it wrong so many times that my wrists were pretty bruised by the end (when it's done correctly, the kettle bell lands on the forearm very softly).  We finished off the session with the following quick workout:

15 swings (44-lb)

5 squats while holding a 26-lb kettlebell in each arm (can't remember what this exercise is called)

Repeated 4 times

It's amazing how tired these workouts can get me in 5 minutes or less.

First run in two weeks.  I took Maja on my standard U campus 5-mile route.  At around 3.5, I picked up the pace for half a mile or so due to a good song on the Shuffle (the Rocky IV training montage).  The SI joint was mildly painful during the run but didn't bother me the rest of the day.  Right achilles tendon felt somewhat better but is still giving me some concern as I contemplate Ogden training in a couple of months.

Easy 4-miler with Maja.  I saw the chiro again and he's having me wait two weeks between appointments this time to see how the SI joint handles my resumption of a running routine.  The adjustments seem to be smaller and smaller each time (the pop he got out of my SI joint the first time was audible and significant, but now the most he gets is a tiny little pop, usually after trying a couple of times).  I suspect that I need to focus more on doing my stretches and core exercises and wean myself of the weekly adjustments.

U campus route with Maja.  Right achilles is a little sore.  I think I may go back to the PT for some ASTYM treatments on it once I'm done with my weekly appointments with Dave for kettle bell training (he's going to put a program together for me that I can follow on my own, but not until I've got the techniques down cold, which will probably be a few more weeks).  I did my core exercises and stretches after the run.

Third kettle bell workout with Dave at Crossfit NRG.  After 45 minutes of "warmup" (dead lifts, several dozen two-arm swings with various weights, single-leg squats, Turkish get-ups, then some single-arm presses and some squat presses), Dave had me do the following:

21 squat presses (12 kg) (I misunderstood and did 21 with each arm--big mistake)

21 toes-to-bar

15 squat presses

15 toes-to-bar/knees-to-elbows

9 squat presses

9 toes-to-bar/knees-to-elbows

By about the 4th toes-to-bar on the first set, I was wasted.  Things deteriorated from there. Unfortunately, my forearms seemed to be giving out first, so I didn't feel the burn in my hip flexors or abs on the toes-to-bar like I probably should have.

I'm still struggling mightily with the first motion of the Turkish get-up, as I try to use my abs too much instead of my hips and hams.  Hopefully the form will start to come more naturally the more I do it.  The single-leg squats are an amazing balancing/stabilizing exercise that really highlights my lack of balance/stabilizer muscles.

After I showered, I talked briefly with James, who encouraged me to start coming to the WOD (Workout of the Day) sessions.  I told him I was scared to do that after what Brooke has told me about them.  James laughed and said, "Well, she's pretty intense."  It was awesome.  I'm not sure I can humble myself enough yet to do the WOD while people wonder who the pansy in the running shorts is, but I can definitely see the benefits of adding some strength to my one-dimensional fitness.

U campus route with Maja.  Slippery sidewalks required a slower pace on the downhill sections.  SI joint still bugging.

I used to tease my dad that he didn't get into a rut, he got into a groove (he is a man of habit).  I guess I inherited that trait from him, because I seem to be in a groove of running the same route over and over and over.  U campus today without Maja.  Felt a little sluggish but nothing too bad.  I'm still feeling the SI joint pain.  It's not bad, but it's definitely still there.

Kettle bell workout with James at Crossfit NRG. Dave wasn't available this week, so we were planning to skip a week, but I didn't want to go two weeks between workouts so I texted James to see if he could squeeze me in for an hour.  We worked mainly on two-arm swings and Turkish get-ups.  He worked on speeding up my two-arm swings (using an elastic band), doing more reps (we did multiple sets of 50 reps each) and focusing on "hips and grips" (need to remember to start engaging abs at top of swing to increase speed).  He also focused on a couple of the positions in the Turkish get-up and helped me get a little less awkward, particularly in the first step and in coming back down and bending over to put my hand back on the mat.  I was pretty fatigued by the end, but the motions were starting to feel better.

James is trying to persuade me to participate in the WOD (Workout of the Day) sessions.  I'm starting to warm to the idea, but I'm still a little nervous about making the jump from being the wimpy new guy working one-on-one with the personal trainer to the wimpy new guy who can't do half of the exercises involved in the WOD.  Probably time to start getting over myself.  We'll see if I can do it.