So today is Bounce Back day. After allowing my knee to recover by resting for most of the day on Monday and all day Tuesday, I decided that my knee felt a bit better – so I intend to pump up the volume today.
Morning Training Schedule:
4am – 1 hour tempo run. I’m looking to shake out my legs at the start and then fall into a rhythm and crank out mileage for 60 minutes. The pace will be slightly uncomfortable, and slightly quicker than my normal pace per mile. My tempo runs are usually completed on Mondays – but last Monday was FUBAR (Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition), so I need to make up for the lost effort.
5am – I’ll transition from running to strength training. This is important because it will burn out my arms and back before spin class. Since the Ironman could take me more than 15 hours to complete, I am trying to break out each training session into several parts, with each part burning out a core muscle group. Then the last section of my routine would require me to continue to perform at a decent level while my legs and arms are already sore or fatigued. I need to get used to this feeling.
6:30am – I’ll transition to spin class and try to get at least 45 minutes in at a pace over 20mph on average. By the time I finish this portion of the workout, I should be spent.
Since Wednesday is speed work day, I’m going to throw in an evening run after work. I’m going to do something that one of my spin class instructors told me about, called Hurricanes. Hear’s what the workout boils down to:
- You find a hill. You find a crappy, annoying, stupid hill.
- You run up the hill. Why? Because hills suck, and I am learning to embrace the suck.
- Once you hit the top of the hill, shoot over to the closest patch of grass and do one set of a core exercise. I’m going to simply hold a plank for as long as I can.
- Then you waddle on down the crappy, annoying, stupid hill and you do it again.
- And again.
- And again.
- Until either a) you want to kick yourself in your own shin for simply getting yourself off the couch to do this to yourself, or b) you heave all over your Asics.
- NOTE: According to this absolute BEAST of an instructor (and you know I reserve that word for dudes / dudettes that kick royal ass 24/7/365), if you want to make the workout even more challenging, throw in a second exercise at the top of the hill. Maybe I’ll try that tonight. Shoot up the hill. Hold a plank until failure. Then pushups until failure. Then waddle down the stupid hill and do it again. Like Judas Priest said: here I am….rock me like a hurricane.
Results:
The run was awesome. Why? Because I shot down Broadway from 72nd Street to the bottom of Madison Square Park (23rd Street), before heading up 5th Avenue, then to Central Park South, into Central Park and over to the gym. The pace was solid, consistent, and uncomfortable due to pacing. The knee hardly barked at me at all. Once in a while, it would send a message to my brain: “look, I’m still here – but I’m diggin’ this run so I’m keeping my mouth shut for now”. The highlight of the run was a conversation with a tourist that was looking for the closest greek diner at 4:30am. My response: sorry, dude, but you’ll need to take he train to Astoria.” A close second was being offered a Bud Light from a couple of guys that were in the process of trying to figure out how in the blue hell they were getting back to their dingy hotel with no money (they apparently spend their cash on booze). Note to those bombed yet jovial amigos – you were drinking in the bar NEXT DOOR to your dingy hotel. You’re welcome.
I hit the gym and went straight to the locker room to change shirts and shorts. I run every morning with a backpack, so I have spare clothes to change in to so that I am not a disgusting sweaty gob of humanity by the time I am sharing space with other human beings in an enclosed area. Then it was straight up to the weight room to knock out a strong lifting session. By the time I finished there, I felt something that bodybuilders call The Pump. It’s kind of awesome. If you do heaver weights and really push the last few reps of each set, the blood gets pumping in the area that you are exercising. It’s kind of cool. hasn’t happened to me a long while – and I want to do that again manana.
I then headed up to the cycling room to spin. Cranked out 22.whatever miles in an hour of work. I left feeling absolutely jacked for the remainder of the day.
This evening, I cranked out 8 hurricanes. Up the hill. Hold a plank until failure. Pushups until failure. Waddle on down and do it again. By the time I was done, my chest and abs were screaming at me. They used words that would have made a sailor cringe. They used compound curses. My left oblique even swore at me in Italian and, while it sounded awesome at the time, I have to admit that my feelings were left slightly bruised.
Until tomorrow, my friends: if your dreams don’t scare you, then they aren’t big enough. Now go scare the crap out of yourself.
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