See BamaDave Run (and Lift)

[BamaDave]

Craig, I'm not surprised. You probably have the bike hoisted over your head!!! Well, if I wasn't riding up the hills, I wouldn't be getting much out of it, because I don't have any good spots for laying the hammer down on an open road.

Chris, good idea on the Tabatas! The uphills are more like 3 mph. MAYBE. LOL! It was pretty fun though. The "you're not beating me, you bastard" thing definitely kicked in! And the downhills were a blast!

[Lisa~]

Originally Posted by BamaDave

Lisa, sounds good on the step-ups! Oddly enough, I feel them more when the injured leg is the non-stepping leg, even though the stepping leg is supposed to be taking the majority of the weight. When I use it as the stepping leg, I don't notice anything. That's with 2x25#, I just picked up the 2x50# and knew I wasn't going to do any stepping with those!

That really interesting and it reminds me how the lateral lunge steps in the Continuous Warm-up were tougher when you were on your non-injured leg too. It's got to somehow be related. I'm thinking that with the step-ups the forward leg is working glute/hamstring as long as you're driving off the heel, so pressure there doesn't hurt your injured side. When you step up with the other foot, the injured side does some slight pushing off with the toe, even if you're trying to minimize it, so it hits your quads and kicks in the pain to a small degree. Do you think that's it? Or maybe it's just the hip flexor and quad action of simply lifting the trailing leg up? LOL Or don't worry about it and ditch step-ups, lol. It's just a curiosity to me and if we can figure it out, it might shed some light on correct recovery techniques.

I love Kuri's HIIT suggestions. I think jump rope or burpees might be tough on your knee. During HIIT the exhaustion makes it really hard to maintain controlled form. I was thinking of similar stuff, like doing a little circuit of shoulder gliders, renegade rows, and DB swings or snatches. You could throw in anything you wanted that really gets your heart rate up, even single-leg RDLs or other kinds of corrective hip work that are hard.

The bike rides sound good too! And pretty fun. I'm glad you're enjoying the diversity and making the most of this recovery period. You're the poster boy for how to do it all right. You're not letting the injury get you off track at all. I'm impressed.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Lisa! I think you may be right on the heel drive versus the toe drive. Now that I think about it, the pain did seem to occur on "toe off." Maybe I'll have to test it! I did the dynamic leg exercises last night and did better with the injured leg as the trailer on the side lunge walk. I still couldn't get as deep as with the other leg, but it felt improved. I received my Magnificient Mobility DVD, and it was nice to recognize several of those exercises from things you had already recommened to me! Thanks for the HIIT suggestions. I should have plenty of things to work in with the TT.

---

WED. 1.10.07
PM WORKOUT

I. Foam rollin'...

II. Dynamic Leg Warmup Routine

III. Pelvic Drops: 3x20 ea. leg

IV. TT - INTERMEDIATE LEVEL WEEK 1, WORKOUT A(1)
No rest between exercises in superset/ one minute between supersets

A1. DB SPLIT SQUAT [target=3x8]: 2x50#DB's - 3x8

A2. DB INCLINE PRESS [target=3x8]: 2x65#DB's - 3x8


B1. STABILITY BALL LEG CURL [target=3x15]: 3x15

B2. PUSHUPS [target=3x15]: 20; 15; 15


C1. STABILITY BALL JACKKNIFES [target=3x10]: 3x10

C2. DB REAR DELT RAISES [target=3x10]: 2x15# DB's - 3x10


- I moved over to the Intermediate stage of TT. The first superset is hard - it's been awhile since I have done non-Bulgarian split squats. Those jackknifes start to hurt, too! I didn't do any HIIT -- I got a late start, and Tabatas might have taken me an additional 5 minutes. :p Plus I'm planning two cardio workouts today -- short sprints this AM and probably a spin class tonight with wifey.

[Lisa~]

Good job on the TT intermediate workout. If the push-ups are too easy, do them declined. Can't wait to hear how the sprints feel!

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Lisa!

Before I ran this morning, I foam rolled and did the dynamic leg warmup again (which was harder in my new shoes - sheesh). I tried to "sprint," but I immediately felt some pain and noticeable discomfort, so they were more like short "jogs." Unfortunately, this felt worse than 2 weeks ago when I ran the four miles in Louisiana. On the other hand, the short jogs I did have not aggravated the tendon - it feels the same (or better) when I am walking around now versus before I "ran" this morning.

Maybe I slightly aggravated the tendon with something else I have done this week... like the step-ups??

At any rate, this is obviously going to be a slow process getting back into running. Hopefully the next one will go better.

I'm still doing the spin class tonight with my wife, since I don't think biking has aggravated the ITB. I have my fingers crossed for Diana, the hot 40-something ass-kicker instructor, and not the 18 year-old who is way too easy and has to tell us about how she gets moved in Calculus for talking, etc.

[BamaDave]

SAT. 1.13.07
AM DUATHLON

1. RUN (SORT OF )
DISTANCE: 1.07 miles
TIME: 14:10

-- Foam rolled and did my dynamic leg warmup then tried some short running spurts again. Well, the good news is that I was able to run faster this time and a little longer, though all were 20 seconds or less with walks in between. I could still feel the knee pain when running, though.

2. BIKE RIDE
DISTANCE: 8.05 miles
TIME: 42:17
AVE. PACE: 11.4 mph

-- As frustrating as the running was... the bike ride was really good. I'm starting to really enjoy it now that I am getting better with the gears and techniques. The hills are definitely challenging my leg and lung power, which is good. And flying down the mountain at 30+ mph was yet again a blast. Having to power up 1.5 miles of almost continuous up hill was pretty challenging, but I already feel the improvement. And my legs, yet again, feel great after biking. I think I'll have to keep this up once or twice a week even when I am able to run regularly again in 2009 or 2010. :p

[Lisa~]

Next time bike first and run second and see how your knee feels.

[BamaDave]

That sounds like a good plan, Lisa. I'm not sure when my next duathlon will be. I might try some running again on Monday. I'm planning a longer bike ride for Sunday AM and won't likely attempt any running.

--

SAT. 1.13.07
PM WORKOUT

TT INTERMEDIATE WEEK 1, B(1)
1 min. rest between supersets

A1. DB SQUATS [target = 3x8]: 130# (2x65#DBs) - 3x8

A2. STABILITY BALL AB CRUNCH [target = 3x15]: +30# DB - 3x15


B1. DB REVERSE LUNGE [target = 3x8]: 100# (2x50#DBs) - 3x8 ea. leg

B2. DB ROWS [target = 3x8]: 95# - 8 ea.; 8 ea.; 6 ea.


C1. BACK EXTENSIONS ON BALL [target = 3x10]: 3x10

C2. SIDE PLANKS [target = 3x20 seconds]: 30 sec. ea. side; 30 sec. ea. side; 45 sec. ea. side

-- This workout was pretty hard, especially the B superset! I probably need to be a little careful with all lunging exercises, because I could feel the knee a little bit on those. Similar to the Split Squats in the A workout. The DB Squats felt fine. I may sub in Front Squats and get the loads up higher. There certainly is a lot of core work in these workouts -- 3 out of 6 exercises in this routine??? I can certainly feel them - the side planks, I believe, are what I am feeling the most.

[kuri]

Nice going Dave.

Once you get up to 60 secs a side on side planks try keeping one hand over your head and then lift one leg up. Those are fun!

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Chris. You're right, those do sound like fun!

---

SUN. 1.14.07
AM BIKE RIDE

DISTANCE: 17.57 miles
TIME: 1:40:45
AVE. SPEED: 10.5 mph
MAX SPEED: 32.5 mph (fun!! )

ELEVATION PROFILE AND HEART RATE:




-- I was missing putting up one of my elevation graphs. LOL! I wore my heart rate monitor today out of curiosity. The fluctuations are pretty amazing to me. I think even shorter hills shoot my heart rate up, and then it falls back really quickly on coasts. At any rate, biking gets my HR up at times to levels similar to those that I reach when running intervals. Also, my average HR for the ride was 150, which isn't far off from a typical hilly run for me as I recall. So I think this will definitely help me maintain cardiac fitness/endurance while I continue to recover from the tendonitis. It's so warm and humid here today (well into the 70's) that a long run would have been pretty miserable.... not that the biking didn't get really hot at times, but I wasn't nearly as dehydrated and soaking wet from head to toe like I would have been from a run today. The bike ride was probably a little longer than the reading from the Garmin I am using - I have noticed that it tends to be off a little bit on the bike rides.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

What happened at the start of your ride? You see a bear or something? Your HR was up over 200!

[BamaDave]

Originally Posted by twinsavsvikingsfan

What happened at the start of your ride? You see a bear or something? Your HR was up over 200!

LOL!!! I don't know why the heart monitor did that. Unless I had an adrenaline rush heading down the very steep hill at the end of my street. I think it's definitely an error!

[cappuccino]

Originally Posted by BamaDave

I think I'll have to keep this up once or twice a week even when I am able to run regularly again in 2009 or 2010. :p

hehehe, I know how you feel Glad you're enjoying biking. Really fun to explore the great outdoors that way too. You just might get addicted to the speed Watch out for tight hip flexors after lots of biking

[BamaDave]

Don't give me something else to worry about, Cappy! :p Any problems I had were all related to those shoes and are now not a concern. The biking is fun, and it's easier to tell the numerous loose dogs nyah nyah nyahhh on a bike! Close calls with cars are not fun though!

--

MON. 1.15.07
PM WORKOUT

ALWYN'S UNDULATING PERIODIZATION - PHASE ONE - Week 1, Upper Body Wkt. 1

Target = 5 sets of 5 for all exercises; 90 sec. rest between exercises

A1. INCLINE DB PRESS: 75# e/h: 5 70# e/h: 5; 5; 5; 5

A2. BENT OVER BB ROWS: 180#: 5; 5; 5; 5; 5


B1. WIDE GRIP PULLUPS: +25#: 5; 5; 5; 5; 4

B2. MILITARY PRESS: 122.5#: 5; 5; 3; 4; 5 (used leg push on final set )


C1. DIPS: +40#: 5; 5; 5; 5; 5

C2. INCLINE DB CURL: 40# e/h: 5; 5; 5; 5; 5

-- I decided I wasn't feeling Turbulence Training right now, even though I think it's a great program and the e-Books are great. But I decided I am not unhappy with my bodyfat levels and don't want to focus so much on fat loss...and the biking will probably give me enough cardio/endurance work. Jeez, I sure am getting wishy-washy now that I'm 40. Then I started thinking about AC's Holiday Program with undulating periodization that I had tried to do while involved in heavy duty marathon training. And then I remembered that I had seen articles from Alwyn with routines for more days per week of weight training. I found them, and I think this should be a good fit for my current indecisiveness. Lots of basic exercises plus the switch-ups on rep ranges and rest intervals for plenty of variety. The first phase is designed for four workouts per week. I may have to stretch that out to 4 workouts every 8-9 days depending on how much biking plus gradual return to running I am doing.

The very first workout was typical Cosgrove, leaving me pretty well wiped out at the end. 30 sets, but it actually only took one hour. I was ready to finish, though!

Maybe a duathlon in the AM if I can get started early enough...

[GG300]

The upper body WO looks fine but that lower body workout on top of running that should be interesting. Since I started running I have just been trying to maintain my legs using a mix of 3 leg exercises 3 times per week. The lower body stuff that Alwyn has set up would kill whatever leg speed (which ain't much) that I have. Good Luck and I hope your recovery keeps going well.

[Mahler]

Off to a good start, Dave. AC's stuff is sure fire torture, but I know you will love it.