Finished week 9 of the intermediate parallettes program. 3 more weeks to go and some of the moves are still beyond my ability. The straddle L-Sits, where your legs straddle your arm, are still very tough to switch from side to side without touching the floor with my feet. I can get 1 on each side clean but when I go for the second round, my core strength isn’t there yet to enable me to tuck back and clear my arm as I move to the other side. There’s been improvement though; at the beginning, I couldn’t even do one on each side without touching in between. Then the L-Sit to shoulder stand is still challenging. I can get into the inverted position but don’t have the strength or balance to extend my legs fully from the inverted tuck position. Still, there’s been improvement there.At the beginning, I couldn’t keep my arms at a 90 degree angle but that has improved. Looking back though, for the past 21 weeks that I’ve been doing parallettes, my core and shoulder strength has improved greatly and I am doing things I haven’t done since my mid 20’s. I’ll see where the next 3 weeks takes me and even if I don’t master these moves by then, I’ll keep doing them as part of the enhanced body weight program I’m putting together for my March through April phase. Then come May, it’ll be time to work in a Rings program and other outdoor stuff on my backyard Ninja playground as daylight starts to permit during the week and on weekends.
After the parallettes today, I threw in a bunch of suspended TRX push-ups, weighted chin ups, pull-ups, weighted dips, TRX rowing, dumbbell squats, dead lifts with the trap bar, inverted handstand push-up on the parallettes with the Smith Bar assist and finished up with hanging L-Sits and tucks using ab straps. Not a bad way to kill 2 hours, since I was too chicken to go outside in this artic freeze and wind, unlike you stalwart runners!
Lol, Michael! Certain runners here are definitely pansies. It rained hard again, so I went with my usual plan B : Precor. 4 miles plus 15 minutes of free weights and a few monster walks.
Lol, only in my dreams MOWC, ;). Although, funny as it may seem, I have visualized in my sleep doing a lot of crazy stuff on the parallettes and my playground!
Pizzagirl, I only wish! And if I try to buy or build one more piece of equipment, I’m going to have to buy my wife a lot of jewelry first :). Although the thought of a climbing wall out back does have a certain appeal…
Steps only today. My two girls are home for the weekend and we went to a baby shower, out for a little shopping and then out for an early Valentine’s dinner - splurged on some delicious garlic and ale mussels topped with bruschetta and crostini! I’m making brunch tomorrow morning here - and then will be spending the rest of the day hopping up and down - both to stay warm (it’s FRIGID) and to burn off some calories!!
Uh oh. dmd, sorry we missed your post in the middle of all the marathon trials excitement. I think your plan is a good one. You are new at running. Consider it your low HR training for now.
I hope MOfWC and other running gurus will chime in with their advice!
dmd, I’m not a runner these days but from a cardio training perspective, what you’re doing sounds pretty good. Don’t worry about going slow now. Consider it your aerobic foundational work that you will need to go longer and faster later. Then once you have that base, your plan is good; a longer slower run for some aerobic endurance work to build up cardio and muscular endurance and some shorter runs with higher intensity intervals that will give you aerobic and muscular strength work and if intense enough will push your anaerobic threshold. Just give yourself the time to grow into your goals. A 10% increase in volume each week will avoid pushing too hard too soon. Now I’ll turn it over to the real running experts :).
I missed that, too. It’s fine for the long run to be really slow- even up to 2 minutes a mile slower than your shorter runs. The goal is to build up the distance and spend the time on your feet.
Many runners (including me) don’t dliw down enough for the long run and the recovery is longer and chance of injury increases.
I’m not a running expert (just a runner!), but MNKat is spot on with his advice. Slow, aerobic level running (70% your max heart rate or can speak conversationally) on your long day builds your aerobic base (mitochondria) that can help you get fast. Supposedly running slow makes you fast. Crazy I know. Time on your feet is more important than miles on your long day. So if your 8-10 miles typically takes you 1 1/2 hours, just focus on the 1 1/2 hours, even if you are only getting in 6-7 miles. Other than that, I like to stay off the streets or hard surfaces for the long runs. Some legs can take it, but mine can’t.
Speaking of Fitbits and step counters, I have made a strategic decision to move my Garmin to my right wrist (since I am right-handed) in an attempt to increase my step count. Will report back on my progress.
Pansy runner here. I’m not brave enough to do the cold weather stuff. Plus a running buddy of mine says he’s never seen Eskimos running.
I was a slacker yesterday - only got my dog walks in and routine errands - but managed to get my 10,000 steps in. I had two days where I fell short last week, but trying not to fixate on that!
Meb looked great yesterday - I saw so many wonderful stories about him - during his warmup he took the time to greet and pose for a photo with a young fan who was cheering for him. Really a class act. I was sad for Kara - is 4th the alternate if one of the top 3 is injured? I had to wonder if Shalane had it in her. It looked really hot!
Bitter cold here today so will be headed to the gym when they open for some treadmill time. 9 degrees is just too cold for me. Wind chill has us in the negative digits. Friday I saw a neighbor running on his lunch break - in shorts. I thought, are you nuts!
4th is the first alternate, and, as we know, injuries certainly can happen!
It isn’t as cold today, but it is 25 with a wind and gloomy. My legs are sore and tired. I want to run 3.6 to get my weekly mileage wrapped up, and I am not sure if I can face the cold. I’m also not sure I can face the treadmill… I’ll wait a little while and see which seems less awful today.
@blankmind , were you training to qualify for the Olympic trials? I thought the marathon yesterday was only the Olympic trials. Was there also a bigger race? I thought the course was pretty grim: Once around a 2 mile loop and then 4 times around a 6 mile loop. Lots of turns. And of course, the unplanned excessive heat. (Never mind! with a little help from Mr Google looks like the big, open, different course LA Marathon is today)
My 800m race is one week from today and I am not near where I was hoping to be training-wise. I feel like there is a continuous cycle of training, feeling stronger, training harder, then having a slight injury which sets me back. Problem is the cycle seems to be shortening.
MoWC, you crack me up. You say the race didn’t go well. But, you came in second and beat last year’s time. I understand you have high standards and it was a really tough race – but from the perspective of (probably) everyone but you, you did awesome!
I’m now in DC. Yesterday’s train ride was agony – sitting is just the worst with a bad back. I spent most of the trip standing and walking the aisles. I got to the hotel and immediately went to the treadmill – and felt better. This morning I ran for an hour and sat in the sauna – and this afternoon I’m gifting myself a massage. Not leaving the hotel at all. Another negative note – the scale at the gym says I weigh more than my scale at home, and the number is above what I like to see. Not sure which scale to believe.
Believe the one at home- of course! Have you tried using a lumbar pillow for sitting? Or- a rolled up towel or jacket behind the small of your back? I’ve had hip/back/SI injuries where I’ve really had to rely on different sorts of support for sitting and driving- even a tennis ball under my butt or hamstring.
When I say the race didn’t go well, I don’t mean the time as much as the fact that I honestly did not think I could make it from one mile to the next. I really considered quitting before mile 2 when we circled back close to the start/finish area before heading up (and I do mean “up”) to Vanderbilt and the park. It’s a terrible feeling to be in a 9.3 mile race when you know it is going to be torture after about 1/2 mile. I’m really pretty happy with my time and place considering how I felt. I even considered going to the medical tent at the finish because I was feeling a little disoriented. Instead I made it to the hot chocolate tent! It turns out that I was probably getting sick. The mild sore throat started yesterday afternoon and continues. Not terrible, but not good. I’ve been in large groups (last week’s retreat and work stuff) with quite a few people with colds lately. I suspect that might have something to do with how awful I felt. Plus, not resting up enough. I just can’t get away with that anymore. In 2013 I ran a marathon on a Saturday, setting a course record for my age group and a half marathon on a Sunday and did fine. Yesterday I was feeling the short runs I had done the previous 2 days! Adjustments have to be made, it turns out.
I’ve tried pillows behind my back, but they don’t help much. Tennis ball under the butt – now that sounds interesting. Right now I’m typing this using an ironing board as my stand-up desk.
It rained hard again, so I went with my usual plan B : Precor. 4 miles plus 15 minutes of free weights and a few monster walks.