Never-ending Quest to be Leaner, Stronger and Faster.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

Man! You're becoming addicted to those 5k races! lol Awesome. Good luck Saturday.

[GG300]

Friday September 15 I was fired up about todays workout and I was hoping to better my last outing with these PR Zones. I started out with Some Cardio on the eliptical 5 min WU 20 min of HIIT and 6 min CD. I am adding the HIIT on my running off days to help with my endurance and assist with losing the summer # I put on. The lifting started with a WU of 12 incline DB benches then I went into the PR Zones.

PR Zones are 15 minutes with 5 minutes rest between.

1st PR Zone

Incline DB Benches @ 65# 5,5,5,5*,4,5,5,7,7,7. Total of 55 Lifts
Bent BB Rows @ 105# 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,7,7,7. Total of 56 Lifts
* I switched back to my normal weight of 60# after some dufus was done doing his Half Ass Tri Kickbacks with the 60# DBs.

2nd PR Zone

BB Military Press @ 85# 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,2. Total of 62 Lifts
Standing DB curls @ 30# 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,2. Total of 62 Lifts

I was trashed after this session. The HIIT session prior plus the unexpected weight bump on the Incline bench took it's toll. I rested for five minutes just to take the weights back after my last set.

John I think I have learned my lesson about ditching the training sessions but time will tell.

TVFan I am getting a big kick out of running in the 5K's. I enjoy the whole atomsphere even if I am not very good yet. We have a trainer at my gym that runs in Triathalons and she said she is going to help me with some of my training. Never hurts having an attractive trainer and it sucks even at my age not to be able to keep up with a girl, even if she can run 26 miles, bike 100 miles and swim too. I am hoping she can get me ready for a Half Marathon next May in Eagle River. Pretty high hopes considering I still can'y get under 30 minutes for a 5K. I am really looking forward to my run on Saturday in Monroe, WI for the Cheese Chase 5K. I hope that I don't get beat by any mascots this time not like the Sausage Run.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

How'd it go??

[GG300]

Originally Posted by twinsavsvikingsfan

How'd it go??

Saturday September 16

The Monroe Cheese Chase was definetely not my best effort. The course was hillier than I have run before and we had a few too many Beers during the previous nights festivities. Along with that they had no course markers showing distances and I had not down loaded a map of the course. I ended up having enough energy at the end that when I turned the corner and saw that I only had two blocks to the finish I was able to muster up an all out sprint(for you TVF and Bama that is like a easy run pace). I ended up finishing at 34:34 according to the official race results posted on the internet although I had it closer to 35. At least no one from the 10K finished ahead of me. I have the "Race for the Cure" next sunday and I am going to run the course on Wednesday night and I will not be drinking until Oct 22 so I will have no execuses for not turning in a good time next week. The race was definetly a WI classic, after we finished the run they had a hospitality area for all participants. They were serving several kinds of cheese sandwiches on rye, apples, the local soft drinks and 4 types of beer. All for free sponsored by the local Brewery and Soft drink company. Only in Wisconsin but it was a great time. The category winners all got placks and a 2 pound chunk of cheese.

[GG300]

Monday September 18 today I offically kick off my fall fitness swing. No more tailgates, festivals or backyard bashes to sabbotage my efforts. Just me the gym, running and a whole lot of healthy eating. I have to make 185# by my November 10 so that I can celebrate my Birthday at my lowest weight since I was 16. My starting weight as of today is 205# so I have my work cut out for me.

Today starts my third week of EDT training and my last week using 2 PR Zones per WO. Next week I will be switching to 3 PR Zones and I will be adding some leg work back in as well. I started today with a 30 minute session on the Eliptical doing a 2 min WU 20 min of HIIT and 8 min CD. I did a set of 12 Bench Presses @ 135# to WU as well.

1st PR Zone

BB Bench Press @ 165# 6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5. Total of 65 Lifts
WG Low Cable Row @125# 6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5. Total of 65 Lifts
Increase of 5 lifts over last WO
5 min rest

2nd PR Zone

Plate raise @ 40# 6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,3,3. Total of 77 Lifts
ST Arm Pulldown @ 62.5# 6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,3,3. Total of 77 Lifts
Increase of 2 Lifts over last WO

I felt great this morning and thought I would try to go with 6 reps instead of 5 at the start of the WO then drop to 5 to try to finish. The ST arm Pulldowns get very difficult near the end so I busted the last couple sets down to 3 to try to keep up some speed and proper form. 2 new PB's to kick off my fall season felt great, next week I will up the weights on all 4 exercises in this WO.

[GG300]

Tuesday September 19 This is the week that my running schedule starts to ramp up my weekly mileage totals. Instead of 3 - 3 mile runs I will be doing 3 - 4 mile runs with some speed work inserted on Thursday. I have another race on Sunday so I will probably run back to back on Thursday and Friday to get my mileage in. As expected todays time was less than spectacular but I did finish the 4 mile effort but it took damned near an hour, 49:43 to be exact. I kept all runs longer than 1/2 mile and walks down to 1/8 mile with the exception of the last one which was a 1/4 mile walk finished with a final 3/4 mile run. The WU and CD were 1/4 mile walks that are not included in my time. After the run I finished with 3 Giant sets and 3 super sets of ab and core work.

Giant set

Swiss Ball Planks 60 sec 60 sec 60 sec
Swiss Ball Crunches to Presses 15@25# 15@25# 15@25#*
UB Russian Twists 12@25# 12@25# 12@25#*
Reverse Crunches 15 ea side 15 ea side 15 ea side

Super Set

Standing Rope Crunch 15@165# 15@165# 15@165#
Plank Knee Crossovers 15 ea side 15 ea side 15 ea side

* bumped up to 25# plate because someone was using the 14# ball

After the run I felt pretty strong still so I know I need to put more energy into these. I will also need to find a few courses for the different distances because running 16 laps around a track is just slightly better than being on the treadmill. I do like running in the cool air but this morning pushed even my comfort level. It was 49 degrees at 4:30 and wearing shorts and a tee was a little cold. During the run it wasn't bad but after working up a sweat the 1/4 mile CD walk was down right cold. Looks like I will have to invest in some cool weather running gear.

[twinsavsvikingsfan]

Looks like I will have to invest in some cool weather running gear.

Cool. I hate shopping and spending money unless its on running gear.

[GG300]

Wednesday September 20 My standard day with the trainer and he must have been to some new classes because he had new cable exercises for me to do. They were good exercises but more isolation work than I usually. It was after we hit all the important work. I started on the elipitical with 2 min WU 20 minutes of HIIT(1m 8MPH+1m 5 mph+) then a 3 min CD.

All exercises done in single sets with 2 minutes rest in between

Bench Press 24@135# 5@225# 5@225# 5@225# 5@225#*
Swiss Ball Seated Shoulder Press 12@45# 12@45# 12@45#
Lat Pulls WG 12@112.5# 12@125# 12@125#
Bicep Pulldowns on Bench ** 12@100# 12@110# 12@120#
Assisted Dips 12@50# 12@50# 12@50#
Push Downs Freemotion Cable 12@65# 12@65# 12@65#
Cable Flys Freemotion 12@70# 12@70#

* Trainer assisted on last 2 lifts of the 225# sets
** Lying on your back you grab a ez curl cable bar set above your head, with elbows back you curl the bar down until it touches your forehead. Interesting exercise really hit the Bi's.

I know it is a lot of isolation stuff but it is also a longer workout than I normally do. He always has my arms sore for the next day.

[GG300]

Thursday September 21 I ran a new 4 mile course this morning that I layed out through the streets near my house and through the neighborhoods that I grew up in. I expected to do the standard walk run scheme trying to stretch out the runs as long as I could. My first landmark was to get past my High School (.3 miles) and I passed that with ease. I next set my sights on 76th street (.8 miles) which I have driven down thousands of times but I had not crossed the intersection on foot since 1977 when walking to High School. I still was feeling good and I just kept putting one foot in front of another and focused on keeping my breathing calm. Pretty soon I had run the first long stretch of the course (1.39 miles) and I still felt good. As I ran the 3 blocks to take the turn back home I passed the Library that I did my homework at as a kid, my Grade School and the Local Fire Department that I had also visited in my youth. When I made the turn back home I kept blocking out new landmarks that I had not seen on foot in over 20 years. I passed old friends houses the park I played tackle football in and a few areas I had biked through but had never been to on foot. Pretty soon I was at the 2.5 mile mark and still running. I thought to myself you cant quit now even though most of the last stretch was up hill. I had to get past that mystical 5K mark that has eluded me since I started running back in May. I did it, I was by my house which I was pretty sure was at the 3 mile mark and I still had more in the tank. So I pushed on past a few bars that I had staggered home from on a regular basis just 4 short years ago (1 bar more recently than that) and I still was running. Now I had to make it just 2 hilly blocks and 3 more down hill. When I hit the last block I was just amazed I thought to myself " you did it you actually ran 4 miles" After the first day running the 4 miles on the track I wondered if I would be able to do this by year end and I did it. Then I looked at the watch 48:49 and I said to myself "you have to start working on bringing that time down". You would think you would take a moment to enjoy what you had just accomplished but I guess that is just not the way we are wired.

[gobbla]

do you roll your eyes at your co-workers conversations about running a mile?

[ParanoidAndroid]

nice job hitting 4 miles. It's awesome whenever you break a personal record and do something you've never done before.
keep on running and your times will take care of themselves!

[GG300]

Gobbla if anyone in my office did any exercise I would give them credit. The most exercise I ever see or hear about is the daily receptionist dash for the time clock. As an update I am on week 3 of the EDT training and I am really impressed with the workouts. After 8 weeks I will post a more in depth account of my expierence.

PA thanks for the support I am using a program off the Nike Running web site and they have more distance increases as well as speed work planned for the next several weeks trying to get me down to a sub 30 minute 5K time for a race on Thanksgiving Day.

[GG300]

Friday September 22 I am feeling a little burned out today not sure if it was from yesterdays run or my body adjusting to the first week of cutting down on calories (and no alcohol). I started out with a 25 minute HIIT session on the elipitical (2wu-20HIIT-3cd). I also performed 1 set of 12 Incline DB bences @45#. Almost postponed the rest of my lifting at this point but I already had my DB out and the BB set up and I just could not put everything back without doing a lift.
Each PR Zone is 15 minutes followed by a 5 minute rest.

1st PR Zone

Incline DB Benches 7,7,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,4. Total of 62 Lifts
BB Bent Rows 7,7,6,6,6,6,5,5,5,5,4. Total of 62 Lifts

PB - Increase of 7 lifts on Benches and 6 on Rows

2nd PR Zone

Standing BB Military Press 7,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5. Total of 63 Lifts
DB Curls 7,6,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5. Total of 63 Lifts

PB Increase of 1 lift on each exercise

I tried a new lifting strategy by adding extra lifts at the start of the PR Zone to cut down on positioning time and it seemed to help with the 1st PR but I was unable to add much on the 2nd. I felt smoked after the first PR Zone and just kept pushing on the 2nd. In fact my form in the last couple of sets of curls started to look as bad as some of the muscle heads that I laugh at.

[BamaDave]

Good job sticking to it, GG300! Those Zone lifts remind me of some of the CrossFit workouts -- do as many as you can in a certain amount of time! Hard stuff!

[GG300]

Thanks Dave, The EDT program is tough on the body but easy on the brain. I don't like getting into the gym and having to count my rest periods to the second, lifting tempo and everything else many of the programs require. The nice thing with EDT is you just set your watch for 15 minutes and then it's just lifting. As a side benefit I don't seem to get the degree of DOMS that I got with other workouts.

[GG300]

Saturday September 23 Today is my scheduled off day for the week but with the Run for the Cure 5K on Sunday I thought I would get in some non impact cardio and my core work so that I could relax in the morning before the run. I started with 20 minutes on the elipitical with a 5 - 6 mph pace increasing the tension every 2 minutes and a 5 min CD. My core work consisted of 3 Giant sets of 4 exercises followed by a super set of 2.

Giant set with 2 minutes rest between

Swiss Ball Planks 60 sec 60 sec 60 sec
Swiss Ball Crunch to Press 15@14# 15@14# 15@14#
UB Russian Twists 15@14#ea 15@14#ea 15@14#ea
Reverse Crunch 15 15 15

Super Set with 90 seconds rest between

Standing Rope Crunch 15@168# 15@168# 15@168#
Plank Knee Crossovers 15 ea 15 ea 15 ea

Saturdays are also weigh in days until January 1st. This is the first week back to getting serious about my eating. I assume everyone has a similar gimme week their first week of being good and my loss for the first week was right where I expected at 5#. The rest of the weeks are not nearly that easy. I expect to trim 2# per week for the first 6 weeks and then that will taper to 1# until the end of the year.

[GG300]

Sunday September 24 I was very psyched about the Race for the Cure 5K after my training run on Thursday. I downloaded the race map so I would not have any surprises at the Mile markers like I have had in the past and I did not have any drinks in over a week so there were going to be no execuses for a bad run. My main focus was to finish the whole race running and not to be to concerned with time. I set out with a very casual pace and as allways it seemed like the majority of the runners passed me within the first 1/2 mile. I kept a steady pace and focused on my breathing until the 1 mile mark. The timer at the mile marker was at 12:37 not great but I was feeling good and I knew I could pick up the pace. Unfortunately we were on a walking path pinned in between a lagoon and a slippery grass hill so I just stayed behind 2 nice looking young ladies who we