See BamaDave Run (and Lift)

[ODB]

Man I wish I was running at that level. I'm struggling to get under 9 min miles for a 5k. Granted it's hilly but I would love to be running that kind of distance in under 7. Hopefully I'll be under 8 by the spring. That's my goal.

[BamaDave]

ODB, I swear by the hill training. It doesn't let you take it easy. Are you talking about running 5K races?? How are the race courses in Little Rock?? I haven't been to Little Rock in a long time, but as I recall, it's hilly to the West and pancake flat to the East. Those hills will definitely whip you into shape for a flat course, no doubt!

[BamaDave]

P.S. Speaking of Little Rock... our local track club President specifically mentioned L.R. as a city that Birmingham should be trying to emulate because of its support of fitness activities (specifically road racing). He also mentioned the Gov. running the local marathon. Birmingham is not supportive of road racing and apparently gives the track club and race directors a lot of grief. They don't seem to get it that a well executed race can bring in out-of-towners who spend a lot of money. They also have no interest in promoting fitness of the local citizenry.

[kuri]

Way to grind through Angie!

Don't worry about your time so much. I think that working on your weaker excercises is key. You prove through your running that your in superb shape cardio/endurance-wise, so I'd say the power output in your Crossfit is not the most important factor.

Keep it up Dave.

[BamaDave]

Kuri, whatever the case... the CF routines always leave me very sore for a couple of days afterward... which must be a good sign that they are doing something!

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WED. 11.16.2005
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 7.15 miles
TIME: 50:53
AVE. PACE: 7:07/mile

Could I have been any more consistent with yesterday's run?? Jeez. Comfortable pace. Cold and windy this morning, which was invigorating. Tomorrow morning, it's supposed to be in the 20's. What a contrast after a warm, muggy morning yesterday. Plus I'll be going from a tank to wintery running clothes in a span of two days. I guess that's pretty typical for November around here, though.

I'm debating whether to do any speed work this week. I would like to run a 9-10 miler with tempo segments, but won't have time Thu or Fri mornings to get that long of a run completed. I may do a workout with 0.5 mile repeats, even though that's probably not optimal late in marathon training... but I still like doing them! My Sunday run is going to be a killer, so I probably shouldn't get too crazy this week. Plus I need to figure out what other workouts I'm going to do! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[BamaDave]

WED. 11.16.2005
PM CROSSFIT WORKOUT

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of Front Squats (185# prescribed) and GHD Sit-Ups.

Somehow I haven't managed to buy a GHD for my basement workout area [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] , so I improvised by elevating my bench slightly using pieces from my wife's aerobic step platforms and hooking my feet onto the safety bar of my power rack. This gave me a good range of motion, although I doubt I could mimic exactly what I was supposed to get out of these. They were fairly hard, especially after 10-12.

I backed off on the Front Squat weight to 165# for all reps. I thought 185# would quickly become too difficult and slow me down way too much.

Split times:

21 set: F-Sq 4:05 (7/6/2/4/2 -- had some bar position problems/wrist bending to correct); Sit-Ups- 6:21

18 set: F-Sq 10:20 (6/5/4/3); Sit-Ups: 12:20

15 set: F-Sq 15:55 (5/4/4/2); Sit-Ups: 17:26

12 set: F-Sq 21:20 (4/1 --ow my wrists again!/3/4) ; Sit-Ups: 22:33

9 set: F-Sq 25:27 (4/3/2); Sit-Ups: 26:24

6 set: F-Sq: 28:00 (3/3); Sit-Ups: 28:40

3 set: F-Sq: 29:24 (3); Sit-Ups: 29:43

TOTAL TIME: 29:43

I think the weight I chose was pretty good - maybe should have gone down another 5 or 10# to increase pace and reduce mini-setting to some degree. Depth was good on the Front Squats. I am certain I have never done anything close to 84 Front Squats in one workout before, and my legs are hurtin' this morning! This workout also had me drenched, and my basement was pretty cold last night. No Pukie visit, but I thought my head was going to detonate for about 10-15 minutes afterward.

[hard_rox]

Great job on the last few workouts, Dave. Keeping last night's workout under 30 minutes is very respectable.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, hard_rox. Yeah, I barely made that 30 minute cut-off!

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THURS. 11.17.2005
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 6.0 miles
TIME: 43:37
AVE. PACE: 7:16/mile

It was freakin' cold this morning - 28 and windy. It felt weird to run in long pants and a heavy sweat shirt, gloves, band for the ears, etc. Slowed down a little compared with the past two mornings. A comfortable pace, but I still think good training for the marathon, since a 7:16 run in my training area takes more effort than 6:45 will on the marathon course.

[kuri]

I can't believe you did all those front squats then ran the next morning! My quads were hurting for a couple days after the FSs.

Great job as always Dave.

I was having similar wrist pain on front squats until I (finally) figured out that you have to keep the elbows real high, bar on fingertips, and the weight resting on the shoulders.

Spend a coupla minutes and figure out the best position for you - it'll pay off.

[BamaDave]

Kuri, I didn't do the whole workout in 16 minutes like you did! And I didn't do all of those 185 pounders. My quads are pretty sore, but my glutes are really gettin' sore. I can usually run pretty well the morning after a squat routine...sometimes that second morning afterwards is the killer.

I know what you mean with the F/S bar position. This was the first time in awhile that I had so much wrist-bending trouble. I have also learned to look up toward the ceiling as much as possible - that definitely helps with keeping everything high. Next to O/H Squats, this has to be one of the hardest exercises there is... which no doubt means it's really good to do!

[Buk]

I think having consistent runs is a good thing. I am impressed with your results from "Angie." Your times for the first 50 push-ups and pull-ups are very close to mine, but you hardly slowed for the second 50 of each. I was slowing a lot and opted to move on after 50 of each. 84 Front squats and GHD sit-ups is a lot of work. I think working at a rate of 1 - 2 Crossfit workouts a week is enough to reap the benifits, espically on top of your regular weight workouts and the miles you put in. You are an inspiration.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Coach Buk!!!! My quads and glutes and abs are screaming today after that F/S GHD sit-up workout. I had a feeling it would be worse today! I was thinking about doing Fran tonight, but we'll see how motivated I am by this evening.

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FRI. 11.18.2005
AM RUN
1.0 mile TEMPO SEGMENTS/ REST INTERVALS TO 120 BPM

TOTAL DISTANCE: 6.25 miles
TOTAL TIME: 45:36

1. 1.0 mile warmup - 7:28
2. 1.0 mile tempo - 6:43
3. Rest to 120 bpm - 491.9 feet/ 1:34
4. 1.0 mile tempo - 5:59
5. Rest to 120 bpm - 357.9 feet/ 1:00
6. 1.0 mile tempo - 7:23
7. Rest to 120 bpm - 0.22 miles/ 3:36
8. 1.0 mile tempo - 6:16
9. Cooldown/complete run - 0.87 miles/5:33 (6:24 ave pace)

I'm really sore this morning, so I had trouble pushing intensity on this workout... although I think past the first tempo segment I got better. The course was the same as the one I used a couple of times for 0.5 mile repeats on the road -- generally hilly, including one very agreeable 1 mile downhill that has to be followed by a very disagreeable return up that hill! The second tempo segment was mostly downhill, hence the faster time. The third one (step 6) was almost entirely uphill (0.8 mile continuous uphill), so actually I was pretty happy about the time, because my legs were not thrilled with running inclines today. At step 7, it took me a lot longer to cool down to 120 bpm, primarily because I was walking on a fairly steep incline and that kept my HR up -- also recovery from step 6 simply took longer due to higher intensity. The last tempo segement felt really good, and I guess I must have been in a hurry to get out of the 28 degree weather in step 9, because my "cooldown" step was better than most of my tempo steps!

This felt like a good workout, but I am hoping to be able to do some of these out to 9-10 miles if I can get them done before work. Sunlight is limited this time of the year!

I am hoping between marathons to get some quality tempo work done on the hills to help boost my time for the Birmingham Marathon. I hope to eventually finish that one under 3 hours. Last year, only 11 out of 678 finishers were sub-3 hours! If I can tap into my hill training, I may have a shot. This year, I'd like to at least get close. I'm completely obsessed right now with the two upcoming marathons.

[BamaDave]

SAT. 11.19.2005
AM RUN

TOTAL DISTANCE: 7.5 miles
TIME: 50:25
AVE. PACE: 6:43/mile

Another comfortably-paced run. I ran a less intense route this morning, since I have a 20-21 mile run planned for Sunday morning... so my average pace was faster. My legs were still really sore when I started. Damned CrossFit! They have felt much better since my run this AM. I'm hardly going to be well-rested for this long run tomorrow!

I'm planning some weight training tonight, but won't do anything too obnoxious to the legs. Fran is on my list, but I may wait until sometime next week. After Sunday, I start tapering back the running leading into the Huntsville Marathon.

[kuri]

Fran isn't too hard on your legs Dave. It's 45 front squats with 95 lbs basically.

And it's short enough so as not to drain you that much.

Good luck on the long run - enjoy!

[Marykaa]

Just dropping a note to say that I love reading the training part of your log. It's as interesting and motivating as a Race description.
[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[BamaDave]

Wow, thanks, Mary. I am glad you enjoy my rambling!! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Kuri, yep I went ahead and did Fran...

SAT. 11.19.2005
PM WORKOUT

I. CROSSFIT "FRAN" 21-15-9 reps of Thrusters (95#) and Pullups

Screwed up with the lap button on my watch (hit stop - I tend to do that now with my old watch, which has the lap button on the opposite side of the stop button as the Forerunner), so my watch was stopped during the first 17 pullups in the first set [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img] My time minus the first 17 pullups was 8:02. I'm guesstimating my actual total time was ~9:20 . 95# is a little heavy for me on Thrusters for keeping a pace. I did okay on the first 21 -- just had to pause a couple of times in the second half (although I was definitely at failure by 20-21 and am not fast at doing them with this weight). The squat portion is not a problem -- it's the overhead press where I fail. For the second set (15 reps), I actually had to put the bar down a couple of times and re-start, so I lost a lot of time. For pullups, I mixed up using overhand and underhand grips, which seemed to help somewhat, but I was still mini-setting pretty badly, esp. in the 15 and 9 sets.

Lap Times:

21 Thrusters- 1:21
21 Pullups - ?? 0:24 after I restarted my watch after pullup 17 to pullup 21
15 Thrusters - 1:55
15 Pullups - 1:57
9 Thrusters - 1:12
9 Pullups - 1:11

II. WEIGHTED DIPS: +25: 6; +25: 4, pause, 2 (and why did I think I would still have upper body strength left after Fran?!?! [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] )

III. MILITARY PRESS: 110- 3; 4 (see above about upper body strength)

IV. SINGLE-ARM DB ROWS: 100ea. - 7;6

V. OVERHEAD SQUATS: 100 - Hahahahaha. Yeah, right... CANCELLED! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

VI. DECLINE BENCH RUSSIAN TWISTS: +25# db: 6 ea. side; 9 ea. side (ow!)

VII. BICYCLES: +20# ankle wts: 40 each side

VIII. PUSHUPS: 20; 13

Gettin' ready for my long run... definitely a personal challenge, but I am not going to completely kill myself to finish it this close to the marathon. Should be nice and cool! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[kuri]

Nice job on Fran D. That's a good time actually and sounds like you pushed thru without too many breaks.

I know how the mini-setting on pullups can be. Little breaks end up costing big time. H ad the same problem yesterday with "Mary".

Let's hear about the run.