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Exercise and Fitness: sticking to resolutions


Iskaral Pust

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Quite a good, easy 17k run yesterday, in my preparation for March half marathon. The pace was 5:26, which was ok. If I could maintain the same exact pace for the remaining four kilometers, I would make a half marathon in 1:54:38, which is just under my goal of 1:55:00.

And I will probably exceed the distance of 150 km in January, which is my best by far.

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Yesterday afternoon I got back from a week of snowboarding. The snow wasn't that great, hard and a bit icy at some spots. On the other hand, the weather as perfect - cold and sunny, not a cloud in sight. I enjoyed it very much.

Physical activity was great, though I did eat a bit more than usual. :D 

Anyway, it's back to crossfit today.

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Saturday was snowboarding.  Lots of fun but I miss the better snow conditions of the west coast.  No stiffness afterward, although my wife has some whiplash from face-planting at speed.

Sunday was bench press, pull downs, etc.  It went great, despite feeling a bit fatigued before I started.  New PBs on my heavy weights.  Preacher curls aggravated my elbow again so I just stopped and did a different bicep exercise with no problem.

I have a massage tonight but hopefully can exercise again on Tuesday evening before I travel on Wednesday-Thursday.

After coming through all that exercise with no injury, I have a stiffness in my upper back this morning after sleeping on a new pillow.  It's too high for my front-sleeping style and forces my neck backward, but better suits my wife's back-sleeping style.  I keep telling my wife it's ok for us to have mismatched pillows.  Who does she think is inspecting our bedroom to check for uniform pillow thickness?  Sometimes her OCD is out of control.  I realize that's an oxymoron.

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Made it to my first barre class. Been wanting to go ever since I joined the gym but the classes are always super packed. It was today as well but the instructor was great about fitting everyone. I dragged my bf along and he was the only guy in a packed room of girls lol. It was a lot of fun but also kicked my butt. I like it to add some variety to my workout routine, think it will be my Monday night go-to.

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I was hoping to attend the functional training in the newly opened runners club yesterday, but it was already full when I tried to sign up. So I stuck to my usual running route and made 12.5k in the 5:16 average pace. And I did exceed 150k this month, which makes it best January ever. Today I'm going swimming, and will exceed 10k this month, which is also very good.

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I was challenged to vault tonight at gymnastics--vault and I haven't been on speaking terms for several years, but I actually made it over the table, several times, without a spot. It's ugly (no aggression in the hurdle or heel drive, so no block), but it was a major leap forward.

I was also reminded how incredibly disgusting the foam pit is. I keep brushing my teeth, but I can still taste the pit dust.

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No exercise on Tuesday night because I was too tired after working late. So instead I swam at the hotel Wednesday night during my business travel.  Nice to get something done at least. 

I've gained 3-4lbs over the last 5-6 weeks.  I know that when I'm exhausted and/or stressed that I cannot resist late night snacks.  I need to rein that in, which basically means improving my sleep to deal with the underlying problem. 

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This morning I went for a run for the first time in at least 8-9 months. I had no problems with my heart rate or breathing, but my legs felt heavy, even at a relatively short distance (about 7km) and slow pace (5'30" per km). I'll have to do some running over the next 2-3 months, if I'm to prepare for the half-marathon on April 22nd. The current plan is to add one run per week with slowly increasing distances to my schedule, to get some distance in my legs before the race.

 

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On 1/26/2017 at 5:38 PM, Leap said:

All this running has brought out my competitive side. I'm eyeing up some local Strava segments and might aim for a few CRs once this HM is done. Given the local geography, a lot of the popular segments are extremely steep hill sprints <1km long. Looks like fun! No chance getting a CR for the local parkrun though, which is under 15 minutes. 

The trick with Strava is to create a segment in an area where no one else runs. That way you can dominate it and feel awesome about yourself! I did this throughout my town. 

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21 minutes ago, Leap said:

By the looks of it, a few other people in my area have had the same idea - there's hardly any segments in the semi-rural/suburban area I live in, but head out a few miles into the hills and there they are. They seem to have realised that if you put your segment on a hill that no-one in the right mind would ever try to run up, people won't bother trying to run up it. And it works!

Today's run was pretty good, but tough. Even though the majority of it was downhill or flat, there were 4-5 absolutely killer hills in there. In total it was 13.2km in 70minutes, and I got a new personal best 10k time (51:32). That's a minute and a half faster than last Sunday, so I'm really pleased with that because today's run was definitely harder. 

Slight aside, given it's a Sunday lunchtime I saw a lot of people out walking and cycling even though I was running out in the hills for most of it, and I was pleasantly surprised with how many people said hello or good morning. Always makes up for the people who make it awkward for you to get past. 

Right: burned 1050 calories so I'm going to get some food. 

Stealthy Strava segment domination is an art. Knowing where the segments start and end is helpful as well because you can target speed work to those locations. It is kind of dumb but I think anything that acts a motivator is a good thing. I'm heading out for a 10 mile run this morning. I typically put in 20 to 30 miles a week but I've been focusing more on indoor cycling lately so my miles have slipped. The good news is my cycling has improved significantly and the Zwift software I am using to ride with on the Turbo Trainer is addiction. Busted up Box Hill in London in 9:42 from the comfort of my basement! 

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On 1/30/2017 at 7:19 PM, Starkess said:

Made it to my first barre class. Been wanting to go ever since I joined the gym but the classes are always super packed. It was today as well but the instructor was great about fitting everyone. I dragged my bf along and he was the only guy in a packed room of girls lol. It was a lot of fun but also kicked my butt. I like it to add some variety to my workout routine, think it will be my Monday night go-to.

I LOVE barre.  Gf did the same thing to me and I'm often the only guy in class, but it's one hell of a workout.

Got back from vacation and took a class yesterday.  Might try to go to the 7:30 class tonight, but I really hate getting home after 9.  Then I have to take a few days off as I get my one wisdom tooth pulled on Monday.  Hopefully I can get back at it by the weekend.

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Saturday was bench press, pull downs, cable rows and arms.  Really good session.  No more elbow strain, although my usual post-swim strain in my left shoulder was bothering me the last few days.  There's always something.

This evening was lower body: squats, leg curls, dead lifts, leg lifts, calf press and core.  Good workout again.

Workouts are going really well at the moment, I just need to find time and energy to get to the gym more often.  Long days of work travel ahead on Thursday and Friday this week, unfortunately.

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Last night was shoulder press, pull-ups, etc.  Really glad to fit in that workout because my work travel today through Friday has no opportunity for exercise. 

My legs were really stiff yesterday after my lower body session so I spent ~30 minutes of pain with the foam roller last night and they're less stiff today as I have to sit on a long flight.  

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@Leap Quite a wide spread of possible scenarios, man. I'm also running my first official half marathon in less than a month, and if nothing unexpected happens, I'm pretty sure I can achieve my goal of breaking 1:55:00. But at the same time, based on my three training HM runs and few sub HM's (like 17-18k), I'm almost positive I won't be able to break 1:50:00. If I cut a minute or two off of the 1:55:00 result I'd be happy. But of course I'll keep my fingers crossed for you to achieve your best case scenario.

Today I was doing hills, and it went really good. I was able to make the last two or three (out of 23) uphill repetitions in the pace of 3:30-3:40, despite the weather, which was brutal (about -7°C and strong wind). On Saturday I'm planning the last long run before the race, I haven't decided yet if I'm going to make a HM distance or a little less. Hope the weather improves though, today I was pretty frozen after 11k in general.

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35 minutes ago, Leap said:

Helps that I'm currently at a pretty low weight (73.6 this afternoon)

Hah, I was 73.6 Tuesday evening (last time I weighed myself), seriously. :rolleyes: But that means I gained few kilos of late, most of the autumn last year I was about 71-72. Seems running stops to be enough to keep the weight at bay, I need to address my diet as well, I'm afraid. I'll probably have to cut the sweets and snacks.

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Something came up for today after work that I couldn't reschedule so I went to crossfit before work today. It was fun, and I'm not tired right now, but getting up early was a bitch.

@Leap

The main advice I give to first time HM runners is to no let the euphoria and the crowd make you run faster than you plan to at the beginning of the race. When you start the race, you're fresh and enthusiastic, everyone around you is the same, crowd is cheering you on etc. It's easy to forget the race plan and get carried away. If that happens, you will most likely struggle to maintain your race plan in the last half/third/quarter of the race and drop the whole advantage you've gained by running faster in the beginning and then some.

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It seems like a very good advice. My limited experience from shorter races tells me the same exact thing. The worst race I ever run was when I started stronger than I planned, and didn't consider weather, that was warmer than previously forcasted. It was a complete disaster.

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