31 March 2014

core | bike commute | Breathe Hot Yoga

After a brief hiatus where life got in the way of exercising (not always a bad thing for the body but usually stressful on the mind) I got back into the swing of things today.

Finally went back to Breathe Hot Yoga and loved it. I really need to do this more often.

I have not really wanted to admit it but my left knee is not 100%. Ever since I went heli skiing it has been just a little swollen and achy and some days are worse/better than others. Rats.

Sleep 5
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:30 AM
yoga - 5:45 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 2 x 30 each leg
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 100
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 18/12/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
Results  
Time core - 45 min
yoga - 60 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment commute - Raleigh Mojave 8.0, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing  
Technorati Tags: ,

27 March 2014

Howe Street stairs | walk to and from bus

Hello Howe Street, did you miss me?

Holy hate, these are tough if you don't do them regularly... I was hoping to last one hour and could only manage 34 minutes! Yikes. I guess I'm coming back to improve.

I missed my bus this morning so had to walk to my Plan B route and then I walked home via the usual way. Walking is good.

Not sure what's up with my GPS file? It says my elapsed time is 45 minutes and 34 minutes. Whatever.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food stairs - bottle w/2 scoops HEED
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day stairs - 5:30 AM
Workout Type  
Weather mid 40s, light drizzle, cloudy, calm
Course  
Results  
Time I'm going with 44:55
Distance 1.5 miles (12 flights)
Pace  
Equipment stairs - Brooks Glycerin 11, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing stairs - Fitsok CF2, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks Podium LS shirt, Brooks Podium SS shirt

26 March 2014

core | SRC track workout

Went to the gym this morning and in spite of it requiring a monumental effort to get started, once I did I had a super core workout. What a moral boost!

After work I jogged up the Garfield High School track to meet a bunch of Seattle Running Club people for a track workout. My first one in years!

On the agenda were 5-6 x 1200 m efforts. Ouch. But I did it. No idea what my times were but I DO know that I was the slowest person out there. By a large margin. I guess that makes it easy to improve.

I discovered that a teammate of mine lives very close to me and he also ran to the track. We ran home together. Nice

You can see from my GPS file that my pace was a little slower than 6:00/mile for each effort.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food gym - water
run - bottle w/1 scoop HEED
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day gym - 5:30 AM
run - 6:10 PM
Workout Type  
Weather run - mid 40s, cloudy, some drips but no rain
Course 2 mile warm up
6 x 1200 w/one lap jogging easy in between
2 mile cool down
Results  
Time  
Distance  
Pace these are best guesses/really rough times
4:21
5:03
5:11
5:18
5:13
5:18
Equipment run - Brooks Glycerin 11, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing run - Fitsok CF2, Brooks Equilibrium CoRe Short, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft Active Classic Long Sleeve Baselayer, Brooks short sleeve EZ T III, Patagonia Houdini Jacket, Brooks Pulse Lite Glove II

25 March 2014

walk

Work/life got in the way of exercising today so I logged the one mile walk I do when I take the bus home. I suppose I felt the need to check the physical activity box today.

I did not have a GPS, I didn't go to the gym.

Sleep  
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food  
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day  
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course  
Results  
Time 20 min
Distance 1 mile
Pace  
Equipment  
Clothing  

24 March 2014

bike commute

Rode to and from work today and since it was SIXTY DEGREES out I took the long way home. What an incredible day.

On the way home I ran some errands which included picking up my Sorel boots from a friend's house. Now I know that they do fit in my messenger bag.

My last errand was hitting up Trader Joe's for two bottles of wine. That fit too.

Gotta love these Chrome bags...

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day  
Workout Type  
Weather 60 degrees in the afternoon! And sunny, dry and calm.
Course  
Results  
Time  
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment Raleigh Mojave 8.0, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing  
Technorati Tags: ,

23 March 2014

Seward Park run | urban MTB ride

I'm calling this run a 'road' run and the ride a 'road' ride only because I spent the majority of my time on pavement during each but I also went on some GREAT trails during both. Gotta love mixing it up!

This morning I ran down to Seward Park and then ran on a bunch of trails IN the park. I gotta say, there are some pretty technical trails here and some steep ass climbs...! Very cool. Then I ran home.

ASIDE - it seems like I can't head down Lake WA Blvd without at least one parking lot (sometimes more) containing a car full of people hotboxing it. I have smelled it EVERY time I run down here.

After a snack I hopped on my mountain bike and rode over to my friend Tony Callen's house and we did an urban MTB loop that he has pieced together. We went on dirt trails on Queen Anne Hill, two in Interlaken and one in the Arboretum. Did I mention that we also rode a sweet boardwalk feature in the I-5 Colonnade? Nice!

The fact that I was able to do both the run and the ride in shorts and short sleeves didn't suck either.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 6:00 AM - apple sauce, Udo's Oil, 1 scoop protein powder, handful of walnuts, banana, tea
Lunch 12:30 - banana, almonds
Dinner  
Workout Food run - bottle w/3 scoops HEED
ride - bottle w/3 scoops HEED, bottle w/3 scoops Perpetuem
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day run - 10:45 AM
ride - 1:00 PM
Workout Type  
Weather run - mid to upper 40s, sunny, dry, light breeze
ride - low 50s, sunny, dry, light breeze
Course  
Results  
Time  
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment run - Hoka Stinson Trail, Ultimate Direction Fastdraw Plus, Garmin Edge 500
ride - Performance Access XCL, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing run - Fitsok CF2, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks short sleeve EZ T III

22 March 2014

North Beacon Hill adventure run

Today was just the kind of run that I like if I have to run in the city.

I found a new paved trail, some new dirt trails, some new stairs, ran through a new (to me) neighborhood, went under and over I-5 and basically enjoyed myself. For sure part of the run was through some pretty sketchy sections of town... like the trail through The Jungle; but it was a nice day and I was already running and I'm a guy so I don't think about these things until after I'm done.

Running down Cheasty Blvd S was a blast! Back in the day I used to ride up for some big gear hill training and I never spotted the gravel path that runs along the entire length of the street. Today I was loving that path. For some reason it crosses the road two times but I wasn't fighting it. In fact, it sort of felt like I was in a toboggan run. Sort of. Except it wasn't cold. And I wasn't sliding. Other than that it was just like a toboggan.

I will need to do this route again.

My Garmin Fenix is 'in the shop' as they say and for a minute I figured today would be totally old school as in zero instrumentation. Then I remembered I had a wrist strap for my Garmin Edge 500! Whew... no gap in the stats. :)

This morning was COLD. Of course as soon as I started I realized I was overdressed. Oh well.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 6:00 AM - apple sauce, 1 scoop protein powder, Udo's Oil, handful of walnuts, banana, tea
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food  
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 12:00 PM
Workout Type endurance
Weather low to mid 40s, partly cloudy, dry, calm
Course  
Results  
Time 1:09:02
Distance 8.7 miles
Pace 7:55
Equipment Brooks Glycerin 11, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing Fitsok CF2, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft Active Classic Long Sleeve Baselayer, Brooks Podium SS shirt, Brooks Pulse Lite Glove II
Technorati Tags: ,

21 March 2014

core | bike commute

Oh man... either it was the accumulation of all the beer I drank in the last three days or all the skiing yesterday or all the time in the car or a combo of all of the above. But when I got to the gym I had zero direction and drive.

I stumbled through a few minutes of worthless core activities and then went home. That's the way that cookie crumbles.

At least I rode my bike to work today and at least the sun was BRIGHT and so I took the long way home. Yes.

And guess what, on my ride home I felt super. Gotta like that.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:30 AM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course  
Results  
Time core - 20 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment commute - Raleigh Mojave 8.0, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing  

20 March 2014

North Cascade Heli Skiing

Holy shit.

I have waited 50 years to do this and it was worth every penny.

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Many months ago my friend Tony Callen was asked if he wanted to do this. And that he could invite his friends. Long story short, I jumped at the opportunity.

Tony, Kurt Widmann and I drove up to Mazama where North Cascade Heli is located.

On the way we hit up Owens Meats in Cle Elum which is amazing! I heartily recommend the Landjager and the beef jerky. And not being guys that quit so easily, we also had lunch (and beers) at the Caboose. And then we had dinner (and more beers) at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery. Once in Mazama we stayed at the Freestone Inn which is the epitome of huge winter lodge. Lots of logs, a gargantuan stone fireplace and outdoor hot tub. After getting settled in we had some beers. I know, ouch...

The original plan was to drive up Tuesday, ski Wednesday and then decompress and drive back Thursday while possibly hitting up Stevens Pass on the way home. Except you can't count on Mother Nature.

Wednesday turned into the big wait. The helicopter took off with the first load of customers... and then it returned about 15 minutes later. Visibility was too low to land, drat. The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking, playing cards, shooting the shit with a bunch of ski industry reps and hoping the weather would break.

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Nothing left to do but head back to the Old Schoolhouse Brewery for good and beers. But only after playing about a dozen games of pool (and drinking some beer) at Three Fingered Jack's Saloon. Because it was the only place open! This town totally shuts down in the winter. We saw signs that read, "Open every other Saturday" and, "Closed for the season". Sheesh.

The weather forecast for Thursday was much better and it had snowed most of the night so we showed up bright and early full with anticipation. Yesterday we had participated in the avalanche beacon training and the helicopter orientation so today it was just go time.

Leaving NCHS for the first time.

We were teamed up with Paul (one of the owners) and John (our guide) and it was the total dream team. We skied and skied and skied until the pilot couldn't fly anymore. Then we went back and started planning for next year. It was that amazing.

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My camera was actually up to the task but believe you me when I say it's hard to take pictures and ski at the same time. I had to make a conscious effort to keep pulling it out and not just shoot down the mountain. It's no freaking wonder all these HD hands-free cameras are so popular.

This was my first time on real powder skis - holy crap! They really are that wide. And you know what? They really work well in these conditions. I'd be lying if I said it didn't take me a couple of runs to get used to them but what a blast once I did. Hell. Yes.

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We only missed the very top landing site and our pilot tried for it. As soon as we were about to touch down an incredibly thick cloud blew in and the rotor wash created a whiteout. I think the skids actually touched down for a second but then suddenly we were tipping back into the abyss and banked out of there. Something to come back for without a doubt.

I was dressed perfectly except while eating lunch my hands (and mittens) got really, really cold and I didn't recover for two runs. At least I did recover. Stupid circulation.

It was so. Incredibly. Quiet. Even while we were skiing! I love that.

Here are all the pictures and video.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food  
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 9:00 AM
Workout Type  
Weather mid 20s, some wind up top, mixed sun and snow and clouds
Course  
Results  
Time 5 hours total time?
Distance 9 top-to-bottom runs, perhaps 20+ thousand vertical feet?
Pace  
Equipment Insane powder skis, this was my first time on them ever. They work.
Clothing  

18 March 2014

treadmill run

I tried my first progression run today in ages and I guess I pulled it off but the steps in the progression were super short. That's okay, I will make them longer next time.

Overall I was happy to be able to speed up for 10 straight minutes!

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 5:30 AM
Workout Type progression run
Weather  
Course treadmill - 1% incline
Results  
Time 40 min
Distance 5.4 miles
Pace

10 min at 7:30 (8 mph)
20 min at 7:24 (8.1 mph)
1 min at 7:14 (8.3 mph)
1 min at 7:04 (8.5 mph)
1 min at 6:54 (8.7 mph)
1 min at 6:44 (8.9 mph)
1 min at 6:36 (9.1 mph)
1 min at 6:27 (9.3 mph)
1 min at 6:19 (9.5 mph)
1 min at 6:11 (9.7 mph)
1 min at 6:04 (9.9 mph)
1 min at 5:56 (10.1 mph)

Equipment Brooks Glycerin 11
Clothing Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks Podium SS shirt
Technorati Tags:

17 March 2014

core | treadmill run

Went to Gold's Gym in the morning and the IMA at lunch.

On the treadmill I tried to go a little faster but faded mentally and had to pull the plug with five minutes left. At least my body felt good, just need to work on the focus part.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:15 AM - 180 lb.
12:00 PM - 181 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food core - water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:30 AM
run - 12:00 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 120 [This is hard!]
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 80/20
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 18/14/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
run - treadmill, 1% incline
Results  
Time core - 45 min
run - 40 min
Distance run - 5.6 miles
Pace run
10 min at 7:30
20 min at 7:00
5 min at 6:30
5 min at 7:30 [The plan was to do the last 10 minutes at 6:30.]
Equipment run - Brooks Glycerin 11
Clothing run - Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks Podium SS shirt

16 March 2014

St Patrick's Day Dash walk

This was a fun/novel/cold day!

I joined Shelley and her friend KyLynn Kosoff Hull (and KyLynn's son Elias) and we all walked the St Patrick's Day Dash. This is another of those annual runs that is 5% insanely fast people and 95% very recreational people. To wit, they had four waves this year, only two of them were timed and one was dedicated to walkers.

What was it like? GREEN, that's what. It was also pretty cool to see Aurora Ave closed in both directions and filled with people. Elias? He did really well considering he's five years old and it was wet out! I carried him perhaps one mile and KyLynn carried him perhaps another half mile and he walked the rest. At one point we found a beach ball on the road so kicking that down the street got us at least a half mile. :)

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Shelley gets all the mustache credit.

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In spite of drizzly, cool conditions people were out in force!

Third wave start

At the finish we were looking for a place to eat and everything was closed. Then we found T. S. McHugh's. This place had obviously cornered the post-dash market and it was packed. Not only were people eating and drinking but they were taking shots! I had some quiche (filling) and two glasses of Guinness (more filling).

Then we took the bus home (freezing).

Still, good times.

Here are all the pictures and video.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food  
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 9:00 AM
Workout Type  
Weather mid 40s, light rain
Course  
Results  
Time  
Distance The course was about 3.6 miles but I forgot to turn my GPS off.
Pace  
Equipment Brooks Cascadia 7, Garmin Fenix
Clothing UnderArmour briefs, 2XU Compression 3/4 Tights, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft long sleeve undershirt, Patagonia long sleeve fleece, Patagonia M10 Jacket, SRC knit cap
Technorati Tags:

15 March 2014

Cougar 14 + Bear Ridge

What's that you say...? You went running at 4:00 AM...?! I know, the things we do.

I was obviously jonesing for company today because when I asked Bryan Estes if he wanted to run and he said sure but he had to go early I still agreed to come along. Yikes.

ASIDE - just when doing stuff at 5:00 AM starts to seem 'normal' along comes a guy like Bryan who has to start even earlier.

But you know what? It was fun and I'm super glad I went. And, we were able to turn our headlamps off for the last hour which was nice.

Plenty of climbing on this route today and lucky for me Bryan had run 20 miles yesterday. Sheesh, it seems that if Bryan is tired and I am really fresh I can almost keep up. But I was able to run almost everything except for part of De Leo.

We got to the start so early that the gate to the Red Town Trail parking lot was closed! Neither Bryan nor I had ever seen that before. We had to park at the entrance to the Newcastle Golf Club and run in from there. Which may not have been a bad thing as our cars were under a street lamp so perhaps less likely to get broken into.

I fell twice today - my first falls trail running this year? Luckily neither fall was a big deal and I could just brush off the mud and continue.

We talked the entire time! That is one nice thing about this pace.

I kind of ran out of energy toward the end, it could have been the early start, my lack of a real breakfast or just my state of fitness. I didn't die, I just slowed down.

Sleep 5
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 3:30 AM - Promax bar, water
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food large bottle w/3 scoops HEED, 2 PowerBar Energy Gel
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 4:00 AM
Workout Type endurance
Weather low to mid 40s, dry, calm
Course  
Results  
Time 3:15:32
Distance 18 miles
Pace 10:49 min/mile
Equipment Brooks Cascadia 8, Garmin Fenix, Ultimate Direction Fastdraw Plus, Black Diamond Icon Headlamp
Clothing Injinji Run Original Weight Mini-Crew, Brooks Equilibrium CoRe Short, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft Active Extreme Short Sleeve Baselayer, Brooks Podium LS shirt, Brooks gloves (that I took off pretty quick)

14 March 2014

core | Expresso exercise bike | walk home from bus stop

I just didn't feel like running and the weather was not conducive to riding to work so I hopped on the trainer during lunch.

I started out thinking I was just going to go steady and then really pushed it and got a PR on this course by almost two minutes! I felt pretty good obviously. And my soreness is abating.

Expresso_2014-03-14

Sleep 5
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:15 AM - 183 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food core - water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:30 AM
trainer - 12:00 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 120 [Damn that was hard...!]
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 60/30/10
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60 each side
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 16/14/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
Results  
Time core - 45 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment trainer - Expresso exercise bike
walk - Garmin Fenix
Clothing  

13 March 2014

walk home from bus stop

Work/life got in the way of exercising today, that's the way it goes.

Oh yeah, of course my legs are even more sore today than yesterday. I am an idiot.

Sleep  
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food  
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day  
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course  
Results  
Time  
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment Garmin Fenix
Clothing  

12 March 2014

core | Lake Union lunch run | walk home from bus stop

Yep, after yesterday I am pretty sore... I never learn.

On the other hand when I had to run in order to catch the bus this morning the running movement felt super! And sure enough, from the very first step of my lunch run I felt really good. Funny how walking can be tough but running can be easier?

Today was my first attempt at a tempo run since my injury last August and it went okay. I did fade a bit toward the end and was hating life on all the inclines (which are totally tame on this route) so I still have a long way to go but fun nonetheless. Looking at my watch I saw 7:10 most of the time which was great. I started out thinking I would try for something under 7:15 but that dream faded right quick... I guess sub 7:30 is not bad right now considering I have done exactly zero fast running in the last five months.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food gym - water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day gym - 5:30 AM
run - 12:15 PM
Workout Type run - tempo
Weather run - low to mid 50s, sun, dry, light wind out of the south
Course
on the ball leg lifts 80/40 each leg
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 80/20
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 16/14/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
Results  
Time core - 45 min
run - 1:02:10
Distance run - 8.5 miles
Pace run - 7:19
Equipment run - Brooks Glycerin 11, Garmin Fenix
walk - Garmin Fenix
Clothing run - Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks Podium SS shirt

11 March 2014

weights | errands by bike

For some reason I decided to lift (heavy!) weights today... not the brightest idea if you have not done this in a long while and/or don't have specific plans to continue. Soreness will be had and I will pay for my hubris.

In the afternoon I ran some errands on my commuter and took the long way home after. It was a great day and I couldn't resist.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:15 Am - 178 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day gym - 5:30 AM
ride - 1:30 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
barbell lunges 3 x 10 each leg - 85/95/95 lb.
incline leg press 3 x 10 - 180/230/270 lb.
donkey kick 3 x 10 each leg - 90/110/110 lb.
leg extensions 3 x 10 - 155/175/195 lb.
leg curls 3 x 10 - 160/180/180 lb.
calf raises 10/12/12 each leg
Results  
Time gym - 40 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment Raleigh Mojave 8.0, Garmin Edge 500
Clothing  

10 March 2014

core

Just a quick session at the gym this morning. I can't believe I am still under 180 lb.!

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:00 AM - 178 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 5:15 AM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 25/20/20 each leg
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 70/30
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 14/12/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
Results  
Time 45 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment  
Clothing  

08 March 2014

Tiger Mt circumnavigation

What an amazing run!

Today Dave Swoish and I connected to try and run Arthur Martineau's 'zero peaks' route on Tiger Mountain. The day Arthur posted this I thought it looked really cool and I have never run on half of those trails so go!

Turns out this is an incredibly runnable route. There is plenty of climbing but there is also TONS of relatively flat trail and today I ran more than I have on any recent 'run' in the dirt. And I felt it after, I was tired! The Tiger Mountain Trail on the south side of the mountain rocks.

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Turns out this route does include one peak so I'm not going to co-opt Arthur's name for what we covered today.

Arthur and Dave use the same GPS watch so Dave was able to download Arthur's GPX file, upload it to his watch and then we simply followed the track all day. It worked pretty well except for this one section where Arthur's track seemed a little displaced compared to the actual trails and roads... This caused us to do an out-and-back on a road when it's obvious in retrospect that we should have stayed on the Tiger Mountain Trail all the way. Oh well, lesson learned and next time will be even sweeter.

The weather report said dry all day... and so of course it wasn't. It did start dry and then slowly warmed up until I took off my arm warmers. Then about half way in it started to drip and by the end it was a hard, steady rain. I got cold but didn't freeze. Thank goodness, after last Sunday I was in no mood for another survival run.

Good times.

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[No arm warmers!]

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[We spent a lot of time doing this (looking at Dave's watch) today.]

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[Will this bridge ever get repaired/replaced?]

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[Logs can be trails too.]

 

That same busted bridge on the way home.

Here are all the pictures and video.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 5:30 AM - 2 bananas, 1 scoop protein powder, Udo's Oil, coconut ilk, tea
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food 60 oz. water, bottle w/4 scoops Perpetuem, 2 Hammer Bar, 2 shots of Hammer Gel, several pieces of dried mango
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 7:15 AM
Workout Type endurance
Weather dry, calm start in the mid 40s, temps rose to low 50s and then back to mid 40s and steady rain
Course  
Results  
Time total time - 5:36
moving time - 5:23
Distance 26.6 miles
Pace overall - 12:39 min/mile
moving - 12:10 min/mile
Equipment Brooks Cascadia 8, UltrAspire Surge, Garmin Fenix
Clothing Injinji Run Original Weight Mini-Crew, Brooks Equilibrium CoRe Short, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft short sleeve undershirt, Brooks short sleeve EZ T III, The North Face arm warmers

07 March 2014

core | Expresso exercise bike | walk home from bus stop

Went to the gym in the morning and hit the IMA for a spin on an Expresso exercise bike at lunch. For some reason I'm still not feeling the urge to run so I figure best not to fight it. I did a lot of miles last week so this might just be a good thing for me? Listen to your body and all that.

On the bike I chose this very mellow course. Mellow in that there were no crazy steep climbs. For a change. It was the right call. I started out just cruising. There is a little marque at the bottom of your screen and so while you ride you get all kinds of stats. Once is the leader board and first place looked hopelessly out of reach - I think it was about four minutes faster than my PR on this route. But funny how things change once you get moving.

Expresso_2014-03-07

My 'steady' pace was not that slow and by the half way point I was at least 30 seconds up on my PR.

ASIDE - another cool feature of this bike is you get to ride against your PR 'ghost' every time in addition to a generic pacer so you always see how you are stacking up that day.

With perhaps five miles left I guess I got inspired and picked up the pace. Right away I was one minute up on my PR so kept pushing. Soon I was two minutes up and with about two miles left I started to entertain thoughts of beating the leader but it turns out that wasn't going to happen. Still, by the end I took two minutes off of my best time. It felt good to good hard.

On a whim I weighed myself before and after this ride. Water continues to amaze me. And surprisingly, I am keeping off the weight that I lost while sick for more than the two days I predicted! I'm okay with that.

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:00 AM - 178 lb.
12:00 PM - 180 lb.
12:45 PM - 178.5 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food core - water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:15 AM
trainer - 12:00 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 40/20 each leg
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 50/50 [These are getting harder...?!]
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 60 each side [60! Finally!]
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 12/12/10
wobble disk 2 min each leg
trainer - Pyramid Mountain
Results  
Time core - 45 min
trainer - 38:37
Distance trainer - 13.5 miles
Pace  
Equipment trainer - Expresso exercise bike
walk - Garmin Fenix
Clothing  

06 March 2014

treadmill run | walk home from bus stop

I opted for the treadmill today to 1) give my body a break and 2) to see if I could do some sort of progression run. I succeeded in the first and failed in the later.

When I started it felt like I had not run in months and when that feeling finally abated some I felt pretty tired. Oh well. Another steady state run it is. This needs to change soon or I will be mired in this one speed.

Today was a total sweat fest! It was humid out and the gym felt no different. Plus it was warm. Half way in this guy two treadmills down from me got off so I jumped off too and turned the fan he had been using on myself. It seemed to help at the time but after finishing water was literally pouring off me for like 20 minutes. I also practically drained one entire large bottle of water during my run! Sheesh.

At lunch and after work I did not feel like doing anything else so didn't fight it.

Walking home I went up and over the ridge - I'm still not tired of those stairs!

Sleep 7
Waking HR  
Body Weight 5:45 AM - 178 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day run - 5:15 AM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course run - treadmill, 1% incline
Results  
Time run - 40 min
Distance run - 5.5 miles
Pace run
10 min at 7:30
30 min at 7:00
Equipment run - Brooks Glycerin 11, Garmin Fenix
Clothing run - Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Brooks Podium SS shirt

05 March 2014

core | Breathe Hot Yoga | walk home from bus stop

Bang!

After a pretty epic run on Sunday I got shot down by some crazy but Monday, had to go home early from work and spent all of Tuesday in bed feeling like doo doo. It was one of those fever, aches, weakness, bad guts bugs. Luckily it was quick and by Tuesday evening I felt like eating and this morning I felt fine. Still, I figured it was best to ease back into this exercise thing slowly...

Core felt okay but I'm obviously not 100% yet. I usually weight myself at the gym and in those two days of being sick I lost five pounds. We'll see how long that lasts; my prediction is two days. I also slept a TON these last two days, and it was just what I needed.

Went to Breathe Hot Yoga after work and it felt super good! So good that I signed up again and will try to go at least once/week. My body needs something like this to function properly. For the first time ever I got a compliment from the instructor during class - I was actually doing some of the poses well!

Sleep 8
Waking HR  
Body Weight 6:00 AM - 178 lb.
Body Fat  
Breakfast  
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food water
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day core - 5:15 AM
yoga - 5:45 PM
Workout Type  
Weather  
Course
on the ball leg lifts 3 x 20 each leg
twisters 50 each side - 15 lb.
leg extensions 75/25
back extensions 3 x 40
hip raisers 60
fire hydrants 60 each side
side leg lifts 50 each side
clam knee lifts 80 each side
roman chair knee lifts 40
push-ups 18/10/8
wobble disk 2 min each leg
Results  
Time core - 45 min
yoga - 60 min
Distance  
Pace  
Equipment walk - Garmin Fenix
Clothing  
Technorati Tags: ,

02 March 2014

12 Peaks (modified) on Tiger Mt.

Oh man, add this to the list of stupid things I have done...

  • It rained ALL day.
  • I ran out of food AND water.
  • At least twice I was borderline hypothermic.

On the up side, I warmed up on the last climb and was then able to hammer the last descent and that was FUN. I guess this means my legs were not toast and I just felt crappy because of the cold. Bonus. It was also pretty cool [Hahaha... get it?] to finally get my first introduction to this famous Scott Jurek route.

Huge thanks to my companions who gave me a gel, some Sport Beans and a handful of nuts and a date so that I didn't keel over on the trail.

Here is the turn-off to one peak. Awesome.

12_peaks-03

Saturday night I sent out the, "Hey, anyone want some company for a run tomorrow...?" message and boom. Seattle Mountain Running Group to the rescue. Guess what they had planned, 12 Peaks it is.

To make a long (34 miles, 9.5 hours) story short, everything ended up fine. There were times during the run (which can only be described as such in the loosest sense) that I was seriously worried about my ability to stay warm. I got lucky. Several times I ran climbs that no one else did just to light a fire inside of me. By the end of the run I was eating one gel every 30 minuets and it wasn't enough. Yikes.

My Patagonia Houdini Jacket freaking saved my life! Without that I would have been toast. Burnt toast. I took the hood off for the first climb but after the first descent pretty much kept it all the entire way back tot eh car. out of necessity!

My GPS starting running out of juice around mile 20...?! So I put it into UltraTrac mode and the rest of the run was a total mish-mash. Bummer. Here is what the route was supposed to look like.

12_peaks-00

We actually bagged 13 peaks today. We thought we were headed up South but ended up here.

12_peaks-02

Oops, bonus miles I guess.

I'll be back, but not until it's warmer.

Here are all the pictures I was able to scavenge.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 5:00 AM - applesauce, Udo's Oil, 1 scoop protein powder, banana, tea
Lunch  
Dinner  
Workout Food 70 oz. water, 2 bottles each w/4 scoops Perpetuem, 2 Hammer Bar, 5 gels, 1 package Sport Beans, some walnuts, 1 date, handful of GORP
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 6:00 AM
Workout Type endurance/survival
Weather mid 30s to 40, rain, wind on the peaks
Course  
Results  
Time 9:31
Distance 34 miles
Pace Who cares, it can only get better after this.
Equipment Brooks Cascadia 8, UltrAspire Alpha, Garmin Fenix
Clothing Injinji Run Original Weight Mini-Crew, Brooks Equilibrium CoRe Short, Brooks 5" Essential Run Short, Craft long sleeve undershirt, Brooks Podium SS shirt, Patagonia Houdini Jacket, Patagonia Capilene gloves, OR over mits, SmartWool hat

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