1300 yard swim and lifting

After yesterday's rest day, I ended today with arms that don't work quite as well as they did this morning and here is why.

I started off with pullups before lunch. I managed to do 4 sets with 5, 5, 5 and 4 reps. Later in the afternoon, I did another 6 sets, with 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps.

I went to gym after work for some Stronglifts, Pushups and Swimming. I started with squats @ 170 lbs, barbell rows @ 130 lbs and bench press @ 110 lbs. Then I moved on to pushups. I did 5 sets with 16, 18, 13, 13 and 20 reps for a total of 80.

Then I started swimming. I ended up with a 1300 yard swim. I did 3 sets of 400 yards with 60 second breaks between and then finished with a 100 yard cooldown. I can see that my 2nd and 3rd sets got slower and I definitely felt slower. Hitting arms hard and then swimming was definitely noticeable.

Big Run and Lift

Today was the first race day of the year for both Shari and I.

We woke up at 7 am and ate some bananas, clif bars and oatmeal. The 5k race started at 9am. Shari's main goal was to finish in under 45 minutes and secondary goal was to finish in under 40 minutes. As we started running, she was on track to finish in about 38 to 39 minutes. But due to some back pain earlier this year, she hasn't had the time to put in to build her endurance. It become readily apparent just after the first mile and she had to slow down to a brisk walk. She kept pushing through varying her running and walking for the rest of the race but we slowly realized that 40 minutes was out of reach. She did a great job though of finishing strong and finished the 5k in 42:02. We rushed over and she downed some chocolate milk and water. I on the other hand had some water and a powergel to so I could get ready for my 10k.

I went over to my bag and switched out my shirt for my shirt with the 10k bib and my Asic GT2160s were replaced with my Vibram Bikilas. This was first first race with them and I was I a little wary of them, due to some foot pain I have had over the past week. I haven't warn the Vibram's since Wednesday or Thursday in hopes of alleviating the pain and as of yesterday and this morning, my feet were feeling great. I started off the race near the 7 min/milers and felt really good through the first 5k. My first split was around 22:15. At mile 4, I heard a familiar voice from behind shout to me , "Andy, is that you?". To my surprise, I was ahead of Whit at that point. He chatted with me for a minute or so. At one point he mentioned that I was by by far the biggest guy this far up in the pack. I guess that means in a battle for speed among fat men, I could win. Whit appeared to have a little more energy than me and he continued to speed up. I was trying to maintain my pace and knew I couldn't keep up with him unfortunately. He took off a little bit but I was never more than 15 seconds behind. At mile 5.5 I grabbed some more water and saw DaShaun go flying by on the other side of the course. I know he was aiming for a sub 50 finish. I checked my watch and knew he was well ahead of that. I started to pick up my speed so I could finish strong and ended up finishing the 10k in 44:21. My goal was 45 minutes, so I was ahead of that. This was also a new PR for me on the 10k by about 10 minutes and 30 seconds. I don't run many 10ks though seeing as this is my second. I finished and felt like I had no more energy left to exert. I knew I had done well and was pretty happy. I ran over to chug 2 chocolate milks for myself, along with some other food. Whit had finished almost 15-20 seconds ahead of me, so he ate and drank with me. Then I found DaShaun and told him congratulations as well. Then we waited for Joe to finish. He came strolling in around 1:04. He was shooting for a 10min/mile pace, so he was right on track.

Shari and I came home, showered and then napped for about 2-3 hours. At this point, Shari woke up exclaiming that she hurt a lot. I told her I was going to the gym as I still needed to lift for the day :). I hit the gym to do my StrongLifts for the day. I did squats @ 165 lbs, overhead press @ 100 lbs and deadlifts @ 200 lbs. Then I came home to do the pushup challenge reps for the day with Shari. I did 14, 16, 12, 12 and 18+2 extra reps at the end.

Overall, this was a great day for working out. Tomorrow I am going to play it by ear. My current thoughts are to take the day off completely, but if I do anything it will be a light trainer ride at night to work the lactic acid out.

Run/Swim

Today, I got the opportunity to try out my new Garmin 910XT.

I didn't want to run today, but I wanted to see how it felt in comparison to the 305 on my wrist. Needless to say, it is much more comfortable and the strap works a lot better. I did a very light 1.25 mile on the treadmill.

Then I put it through the big test for the day. I hopped in the pool and started my swim. I swam 2000 yards. I don't know how to use the intervals and rest periods on the watch yet, but I need to figure out how to do that. I had to start and stop the watch when I took my rest breaks. I ended up with a 200 yard warmup, 600 yard straight swim, 200 yard pull, 600 straight swim, 200 yard pull and 200 yard cooldown. I took 60 second breaks between each 200 yard set.

Friday Lift and Run

I got up before work on Friday and ran and lifted.

I got in a very light 2 mile run.

Then I lifted and did pushups. I did squats @ 160 lbs, bench press @ 105 lbs, barbell row @ 125 lbs. I started Week 4, Day 1, Level 1 of the hundred push ups challenge. My sets were 12, 14, 11, 10 and 16. The last set was insanely hard and I didn't have anything left after that.

Pullups and Recovery

Today was a recovery day for the most part.

Legs tired and I am still fairly tired overall. I still managed to get in 3 sets of 5 pull ups on the first try today. Moving from 4 sets of 4 turned out pretty well.

Tomorrow, I am going to jog a slow 3 mile run, lift and do pushups. I may consider a bike ride on Saturday or take another day off in preparation for the 5k and 10k Ground Hog Runs I am doing on Sunday.

3 mile run and lifting

I started off with a 3 mile run. Tried to keep my pace around 7.5-8 mph for the entire run and everything felt good.

Then I did my Stronglifts. Today was squats @ 155 lbs, overhead press @ 95 lbs and deadlifts @190 lbs. Everything went pretty well, but my overhead press is starting to reach my limit. I will be interested to see how much longer I can add weight to that.

Then I did pushups. I did Week 3, Day 3 for level 1. This required 11, 13, 9, 9, 13 with 60 second breaks. The last 13 felt like there was no chance I would make it and by the time I was done, I couldn't do another one.

I finally broke down and got a scale that does body fat percentage as well. I weighed in with it today. I was 200 lbs with 20% body fat. I have somewhere around 44% muscle and 53% hyrdation. I also have about 6.4 lbs of bone. Interesting stats to follow now.

30 minute trainer ride

Before work this morning, I got on the trainer for a 30 minute ride. I covered 8 miles. It felt like one of the hardest rides ever because I was very tired. I feel like it was harder than any morning run I have ever done.

Around lunch time, I went to the gym at work to do pullups. I manage to complete 4 sets of 4 pullups. That means I have done that 2 times in a row now and I am ready to move up to 3 sets of 5 on Thursday. That should be pretty tough....

3 mile interval run

Today was an easy day with high intensity. I started with Stronglifts. I did squats @ 150 lbs, bench press @ 100 lbs and barbell rows at 120 lbs.

Then I hit the treadmill for an awesome 3 mile interval run. I started with a .5 mile warmup at 6.0 mph. Then I moved to 9.5/5.0 mph intervals for a total of 5 intervals.

Then I finished with my 100 pushups challenge for the day. I did 5 (10, 12, 8, 8, 12) sets with 60 seconds breaks between each set.

Recovery Day

Day 1 of the recovery week was a good start.

I started off doing 5 minutes of light walking while Shari put her back through the test on the treadmill. Then I moved over to do my initial pushup test to determine where I will start for the 100 pushup challenge. I managed to crank out 21. Tomorrow I will start that challenge and I will continue to do so on my Stronglift days.

Then I got in a really light swim. I swam 300 yards easy. Then I did another 100 yards worth of pulls.

Tomorrow I plan on doing Stronglifts, Pushups and a 3 mile interval run.

5 mile run

I started off the morning with Stronglifts. I did squats @ 145 lbs, overheard press @ 90 lbs and deadlift @ 180 lbs.

Then I hopped on the treadmill for a 5 mile run. I started off with a 1 mile warmup at 6 mph. Then I ran the next 2 miles at 8 mph, the following 1.5 miles at 9 mph. Then I ran a 7 mph for .25 mile and finished at 6 mph for .25 mph.

This run put me at my 13 miles of running goal for the week. I came up short of another 80 mile week by a half mile.

This upcoming week will be a recovery week, followed immediately by the groundhog run on Sunday. My goal for the week is to run 9 miles and cycle for 45 miles.

Thursday Rest / Friday Trainer Ride

On Thursday, I took a break from cardio. I got to the gym before work though to do my stronglifts. I did 140lbs squats, 95 lbs bench press and 115 lbs barbell rows. Then at work, I did my normal pullups. I cranked out 4 sets of 4 and then did 1 extra set of 2 afterwards. Hopefully, next tuesdays pullups are an easy 4 sets of 4 and on Thursday I can move to 3 sets of 5.

Today, I did quick check to see what my max reps for pullups was. I was able to do 6 pretty good ones. Thats a pretty big improvement over being able to do 1 just over a month ago. Then tonight, I hopped on the trainer while watching the Ides of March. The movie was alright and the ride was even better. I rode 27 miles in 1:49 while keeping an average cadence of 90 for the entire ride. This ride got me to my week's goal of 65 miles on my bike.

AM Swim and Run

I woke up to my dismay this morning at 5:45AM. I ate an oatmeal walnut raisin clif bar and layed in bed for 5 minutes. Then I jumped over the mental hurdle and started to put my swimsuit on and got ready to go to the gym.

I started off with a 1200 yard straight swim in 22:50. This is definitely my fastest time thus far and I think I can attribute that to starting to kick correctly.

I showered the chlorine off and went upstairs to the treadmill. I set the speed at 6.3 mph and ran for 4 miles. It was a really easy run, which is what I was looking forward too today.

AM Lift/PM Bike

I woke up this morning and got to the gym to lift. I finally got to put 45 lb plates on my squats, so that was pretty sweet. I did squats at 135lbs, overhead press at 85 lbs and deadlift at 170 lbs. The lifts are still easy but I feel like I am going to max out on overhead press a lot sooner than the rest.

Around lunch time, I went to the gym at work to do my pullups for the day. I was supposed to do 4x4 today, but only managed to do 3x4, 1x3, 1x2. My final set I was able to get 3 done before I stalled completely. Then I did an extra set of 2 just to get them in. I am hoping on Thursday, I will be able to do the 4x4 easy and get ready to move to 3x5 next week. The pursuit to do 10 pullups at once is a long road, but considering I could barely do 12x1 about 4 weeks ago, this is a huge improvement.

I finished off the workouts for the day by riding on the trainer for 60 minutes. It was a really nice and easy ride while watching the first half of the Purdue basketball game. I ended with 15.4 miles and an average cadence of 100, great aerobic ride for me.

I felt a little exhausted earlier in the day, but after lunch I was feeling better. When I got home, I had 2 peanut butter packets and a powergel (for the electrolytes) and now I am feeling a lot better.

Swim/Run Brick

I went to the gym after work today. I started off in the pool. I swam 2100 yards. I broke up the swim into a combination of freestyle, board kicks, and pulls. I felt pretty exhausted when I finished the swim today.

I took a quick shower to get the chlorine off before transitioning to the treadmill. Then I got in a light easy 4 mile run.

I can definitely tell, the 15 days of workouts are starting to exhaust me. I have an easy ride tomorrow night and moderate difficulty workouts the rest of the week. Next week, will be my first recovery week and I am definitely looking forward to that.

Lift and Trainer Ride

I got up this morning and my calves were feeling a little sore. Probably remnants of the massage from yesterday. I was intending on today being light day. I avoided the desire to go on the 50 mile GTG group ride which was good. However, I looked at my bike in the living room all day and couldn't resist riding one way or another.

I started off with my Stronglifts in the morning: 130 lbs squats, 90 lbs bench press and 110 lbs barbell rows. Then I came home and had lunch and took a 3-4 hour nap.

Eventually, I broke done and decided to ride while watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I ended up riding 22 miles on the trainer. I tried to keep my cadence close to 90 and my speed close to 16 mph. I ended at 92 cadence and 16 mph. It felt pretty good overall but looking at my speed during the last 3-4 miles, it looks like my legs might have been tiring slightly.

Pretty good workout today though, considering I originally thought about not doing much at all. This week should be another good week, with 2-3 Swim/Run bricks. I am hoping to get another 80 total miles this week between swimming, biking and running. I did 80.16 last week. My main goal for the week will be to run 13 miles total, increasing my mileage from last week by just under 10%.

AM Swim and Run

I started of the morning with a 1200 yard swim. I same straight through in about 23:20. It was definitely one of my faster swims to date.

Then I did a 4.35 mile interval run. I started with a mile warmup up and then did 8.5mph intervals broken up by 6.0mph quarter miles.

Good workout overall this morning with about 10-15 minutes break between the two.

Weightlifting and 30 minute spin

Today was a nice and easy day. I started off with my Stronglifts at the gym, 125 lbs squats, 80 lbs overhead press and 160 lbs deadlift.

Then I came home and got in a 30 minute spin on my trainer.

I also got my new Purdue cycling jersey today. The fit is a little tight as it was a Large and I should have ordered an XL. But it will be fine and I am hoping I can get a little stretching out of it.

2050 yard swim

2050 yard swim with Shari. She didn't swim the same distance as me but she was there to make lots of waves.

PM Trainer Ride

I rode my bike on the trainer for 20 miles in about 80 minutes tonight. I worked on keeping my cadence high and ended with an average of 98 and an average speed of 15.1 mph. This makes my second good brick workout this week.

AM Workout

Woke up this morning to get in my AM workout.

I started with my Stronglifts. Squats @ 120 lbs, Bench Press @ 85 lbs and Barbell Rows @ 105 lbs.

Then I started running. I got in a 3.75 mile aerobic run at about 9:30 min/mile pace. I can definitely tell doing squats before hand is starting to make my runs harder. As I keep increasing my squat weight, I might have to consider moving them to after the run or another time of the day.

1850 yards Swimming

Swam tonight with some of the training I learned from the masters swim last Saturday. I combined my normal crawl with some intermittent breaks and then added some pulling using my new swim bouy. Overall I did 1850 yards Swimming in about 45 minutes. Relatively slow, but not as slow as I was last year.

PM Bike Ride

I rode the martin city route tonight with 8 other guys. We averaged right around 17.5 mph. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch my garmin from running to biking until about 5 minutes in so it split the ride into 2.

Martin City Ride Part 1
Martin City Ride Part 2

AM Workout

Started off with my StrongLifts for the day: 115lbs squat, 75lbs overhead press, 150lbs deadlift.

Then I got in a light 3.75 mile aerobic run on the treadmill. Pretty easy morning, looking forward to nice bike ride tonight.

21 mile outdoor ride

Even with temperatures in the 40s, I still got outside to enjoy the snow free weather and rode 21 miles.

Ride was good, I manage to keep an average cadence of 91 and no single mile average was below 15mph.

6 mile run, Lift and Swim

I started off the morning on the treadmill. I wanted to get outside but I mixed up the Rock The Parkway group run for today, when it was actually tomorrow morning. So instead I went to 24 hour fitness and started with a 6 mile run. I warmed up with a 2 mile run at 6.3 mph, then cruised for 3 miles at 8 mph, and finished with a cooldown mile at 6.3 mph. It was a pretty good and very comfortable run overall.

Then I proceeded to do my stronglifts for the day. I did squats at 110lbs, bench press at 80lbs and barbell rows at 100lbs.

Then I went over to the Roeland Park aquatic center and swam with the masters swim group. I learned a lot about how to train more correctly. They were things I already knew and have been doing for my running already. I basically need to break up my swims better with intervals and other technical training.

20 mile trainer ride

I rode 20 miles on the trainer tonight. I get everything in the small chain and concentrated on 90 rpm. Ended up a pretty good session overall in just over 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Tomorrow is a busy day, run, lift, swim.

Lifting + 3.5 mile interval run

Got up this morning and got in a workout.
I did my 5x5 stronglifts first. 105lbs squats, 70 lbs overhead press and 140 lbs deadlift. Still feels pretty easy, but it was nice to finally get to put some 45 lb plates on 1 of my lifts.

Then I did a 3.5 mile interval run. Felt pretty good, nice and easy.

I was thinking of swimming afterwards but then decided, if I swim today, I would just go later tonight. I am somewhat holding out until I go to the masters swim class on Saturday just so I can get a better technique down.

Total mileage from 2011

Between mapmyride, nike+ and garmin connect I have calculated all my distances from 2011 for biking and running.

I ran a total of 89 hours 22 minutes and 52 seconds over a distance of 607.83 miles. My average pace was 8:47 min/mile or 6.83 mph.

I biked a total of 57 hours 29 minutes and 39 seconds over a distance of 1028.13 miles. My average pace was 3:22 min/mile or 17.82 mph.

I don't have any "real" measurements for swimming because I don't have an accurate way to measure that yet. But hopefully, the garmin 910xt with change that this year whenever it gets released.

Johnny Brusco's Ride

Tonight I rode about 17.5 miles outside with a group. It was an awesome ride and the weather was great. Johnny Brusco's Ride by anelson425 at Garmin Connect - Details

Tomorrow, I am planning on getting in a swim, lift and run in the morning.

Back for the new year

I am back to updating my blog for the new year. This weekend I will post goals for the year as well as my training schedule. I should also be able to calculate all of my workout numbers from last year.

Anyways, yesterday I did a 3.5 mile aerobic base run at a 9:30 min/mile pace. I also did my 5x5 stronglifts for the day. This was session number 11 and I am up to a 100lb squat, 75lb bench and 95lb barbell row now.

I weighed in this morning and the holidays did a terrible number on my weight as I was at 203lbs.