When I started eating my breakfast, it was still cloudy and drizzly. Now the sun is out, but I have to wait for a few moreminutes until big my breakfast settles in. I think I will run in the neighborhood because I want to look at people’s Halloween decorations. 
<p>Today’s run: approx 2.63 mi in 25 min. </p>
<p>MapMyRun officially does not work well with my phone. Since the plan was to run for 25 min, I decided to use my phone to record the distance and use my timer for the time. When I reached 25 min, my phone said I had done 2.03 mi. Waaaah. When I got home and looked at the route, mapmyrun hadn’t recorded the first part of my run. Whew, I didn’t think I had run that slowly. Now I really want a Garmin.</p>
<p>Blankmind, you do need a Garmin. I got mine at Costco just because I figured that if I did not like it, I could take it back to the store. I decided the watch was a keeper. Mine is the model with the funky bezel, but I do not find it annoying, since I rarely touch the watch during my runs.</p>
<p>I got my running in today at a cross country meet. Not a lot, but some hills and more running at a faster pace than I’m use to ;)</p>
<p>30 degrees when I woke up. WHAT??? Waited until 10am and went over to the path to do my 8.5 miles. Gorgeous red and yellow leaves underfoot. Didn’t look at my watch the whole time (except to monitor HR a little bit) because I wanted an easy effort. May have over-dressed a little, but didn’t want to be cold. 45-53 degrees during the run. Done!
Big neighborhood Halloween party tonight (adults only) which tends to be a little wild with lots of bad food and alcohol.</p>
<p>We have a neighborhood party tonight too. Usually we stand around the bonfire and schmooze, but I suspect we won’t be doing that tonight! I just hope we don’t get beaned by a tree on the way over. They are dropping branches like flies. :(</p>
<p>Rats. As soon as I got out of the house, it started to drizzle, then DH called asking for information which was best retrieved with the help of a computer, not my iPhone. I cut my run short, but turned it into a sprint. 4.2 miles in 32 minutes (5K in 24:05, and that included a gigantic hill which knocked the wind out of me). Now I will go and torture myself with some idad’s favorites: side planks, wall sits, butt burners :)</p>
<p>MOfWC, how did the insoles work for you?</p>
<p>Cjane - I’d never heard of a “Hoist” either until moving into our new home last year. The former owners left a Hoist System in the basement. It is very elaborate and scared us for quite awhile - three “stations” for various weight lifting. Now my DH is quite addicted and it has really given him a nice torso. I’m pretty sporadic with it. Maybe three times per week but I’m starting to see just a hint of definition in the arms.</p>
<p>Early Christmas present for me today, a Garmin 210! Now I just have to figure out how to use it before my next run on Monday.</p>
<p>BB- they felt really good, but I still got some metatarsal pain at about 4 miles. I have to curl my toes and try to land on my big toe to get it to ease up. It’s not bad enough to make me stop, but it’s uncomfortable. I’ll have to figure it out. I DO like the insoles, though.
Sounds like you (BB) had a good workout. That’s really fast.</p>
<p>Blankmind- Yay! The manuals are pretty good (or online). Setup is a pain, but not hard.</p>
<p>One of those weird days where it doesn’t look warm, but the temps were actually in the mid-fifties and the sun felt quite pleasant despite all the snow on the ground. This was my first extended walk since the fourteen inches of snow fell Tuesday night/Wednesday, and while it was sad to see how many branches are down, it still felt great. Then I came back and had a really good workout – between bands, loops, sliders, fitness ball, and free weights, I’m finding that I have pretty much everything I need at home except a step. </p>
<p>I did improvise on one that has been giving me trouble at the gym. Stand on left leg, bend over with the right leg extended behind and reach forward with the right hand to touch a small cone, come up straight and lift the right leg up into a 90 degree angle in front and repeat without touching down 10 times. I have a chair nearby for emergency balance, and substituted a Rubbermaid drink pitcher for the small cone. I’m much better with one leg than the other, but this one is just plain hard for me. I’m thinking of just doing a set of them every day to see if it gets better.</p>
<p>I did about 15 minutes of Pilates this afternoon…</p>
<p>arabrab:</p>
<p>That’s a variation on the Single Leg Deadlift move, only making it harder with the knee raise in the front. The most common way to teach it is exactly what you are doing, but reaching towards a wall in front.</p>
<p>Here’s an article with videos on teaching it from one of the coaches at Mike Boyle’s:</p>
<p>[Correcting</a> and Progressing The Single Leg Dead Lift Coach Kevin Carr](<a href=“http://coachkevcarr.com/2011/01/28/correcting-and-progressing-the-single-leg-dead-lift/]Correcting”>http://coachkevcarr.com/2011/01/28/correcting-and-progressing-the-single-leg-dead-lift/)</p>
<p>It’s a real bear. I know that I have huge difference between sides. I’m better standing on my left leg, typical for a right handed person. It was getting tired of falling all over the place on this one that led to me deciding to wage a prolonged jihad on single leg balance.</p>
<p>That’s an awesome site, idad. Explains a lot. Trainer had me do the cross-reaching variant last month – and now I know why. My only question is why the folks in the first few examples have their heads up rather than keeping the head in line with the spine? I’m going to try and work through this series as I get better at it. I didn’t realize quite how good this could be as an exercise – just that it was hard.</p>
<p>Here’s Mike Boyle demonstrating the reaching version:</p>
<p>[Reaching</a> 1Leg SLDL Wall - YouTube](<a href=“Reaching 1Leg SLDL Wall - YouTube”>Reaching 1Leg SLDL Wall - YouTube)</p>
<p>He explains in this video for NFL combine training that he wants the chest up so you can read the t-shirt (to keep from bending over and losing the straight spine). I think that’s why the head stays up.</p>
<p>[Mike</a> Boyle Single-Leg, Straight-Leg Deadlift | STACK TV](<a href=“http://stacktv.stack.com/Football/Mike-Boyle-NFL-Combine-Training/Mike-Boyle-SingleLeg-StraightLeg-Deadlift.html]Mike”>http://stacktv.stack.com/Football/Mike-Boyle-NFL-Combine-Training/Mike-Boyle-SingleLeg-StraightLeg-Deadlift.html)</p>
<p>MOfWC, thanks. My workout was a bit too low on the mileage, too fast on the speed. I did end up torturing my old body with some crazy stuff after the run (even tried kb swings with DH’s 35-lb kb, but only did 10).</p>
<p>Foot pain is no fun. I had to tweak my shoes quite a bit to achieve foot pain-free running (tried different insoles, heel caps, toe dividers, etc.). I saw a lot of this co’s products in a local running store. I bought and used their toe caps which worked great to speed up healing of my blistered toes. Maybe they have something for your foot pain?</p>
<p>[Foot</a> Braces and Supports to Alleviate Foot Pain](<a href=“http://www.pro-tecathletics.com/56980/Foot.html]Foot”>http://www.pro-tecathletics.com/56980/Foot.html)</p>
<p>Tomorrow’s workout: leaf raking.</p>
<p>Thanks, BB. I’ll check out the site. I’m still sort of trying to figure out what’s going on. No pain in foot pad walking, standing etc. Only did 3 miles today- just felt tired.</p>
<p>Shoveled 2.5 tons of snow. No aches, pains, soreness and I did not get tired. This included using the roof rake and leaning out a window to shovel a part of a roof.</p>
<p>MY DH goes insane over snow. He cannot rest until every ounce of snow is off our property. Is there a name for this syndrome? It seems to get worse with each passing year.</p>
<p>Raked very, very wet maple leaves for about 2 hours. Some of the leaves were a foot in diameter and tightly stuck to the ground :eek: The trees belong to the neighbor, but we end up with more leaves than he does. I think I’m done for today.</p>