Saturday, February 07, 2009
Leg-a-Palooza
Today's Run: 3.0 miles
Run Time: 31:12 minutes
Total Miles to Date: 939 miles
Thoughts on the Run:
Before I share my run, I wanted to point a "shout out" to my daughter. She was recently selected as a spokesperson for the American Heart Association (AHA) so she along with my wife had a short television spot on our local Fox channel talking about the new Go Red for Women campaign. You can enjoy the clip by clicking here ... congratulations Lizzie!
Today I'm going to call "Leg-a-Palooza" because of what I did to my legs. I am wondering how my 6 mile run tomorrow will go, all things considered.
Yesterday was Men's Fraternity. I wake up at 4:45 am and head in early so I can meet with others at our church before going into the office. As I'm not a huge fan of setting my alarm clock for 3:45 am, I usually either do my training in the evening or push it to a double-up on Saturday.
Today was a double-up, that turned into a triple-up. First, my workout was legs. I had a phenomenal workout. I'm getting better with the form and bar positioning on my front squats, and loading a respectable weight. Leg extensions were great (lots of pain and loud sounds emanating from the basement as I did those). Dead-lifts are by far my strongest lift and the one I love to hate. Knocked those out and had a huge jump in strength with my leg curls.
My legs were toast and I could barely walk up the stairs. I had promised my daughter we would go to a local event. A Lego Robotics team was demonstrating what they do (yes, there are Lego robots ... and competitions ... and they have tasks and other interesting things to do). If I was going to get in my run, it had to be right after the workout.
It was "only" three miles so I set out and hit the pavement. I must have looked a little funny limping along at first. My legs did not feel that great and the struggle it took me to reach the end of my block made me wonder if this was an exercise ... in futility (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun). But as I turned the corner and started to "warm-up" (as if the previous 40 minutes of pushing steel wasn't enough to get the ticker going) I started to feel much better and settled into a good pace. By the time I had wrapped up the first 1.5 miles and turned around to head home, I was feeling great. My only mistake: even for such a short run, it was "hot" by my standards (after a sub-30 degrees Fahrenheit runs, the 55 today felt hot) and I did not bring fluids. My mouth was feeling quite dry.
I managed to push hard and made it non-stop with a decent pace. Legs were sore but usable. I enjoyed the presentation with my daughter and how the young team (ages 9 - 14) learn how to work as a team, how to construct the robots and learn things like how you can have a light weight frame and an agile robot but it is prone to falling apart, or a sturdy frame but a sluggish robot, or how they actually program its tasks. Pretty amazing!
As we drove home, we discussed how beautiful the day was and my daughter had her heart set on hiking Kennesaw mountain. How could I resist? So my "triple" workout came when we came home, put on the tennis shoes, and headed back out to the mount for an hour and a half hike. It was beautiful, perfect weather and we had a wonderful time. We really enjoyed the time together and came home exhausted and ready to relax and unwind.
Warmly,
Run Time: 31:12 minutes
Total Miles to Date: 939 miles
Thoughts on the Run:
Before I share my run, I wanted to point a "shout out" to my daughter. She was recently selected as a spokesperson for the American Heart Association (AHA) so she along with my wife had a short television spot on our local Fox channel talking about the new Go Red for Women campaign. You can enjoy the clip by clicking here ... congratulations Lizzie!
Today I'm going to call "Leg-a-Palooza" because of what I did to my legs. I am wondering how my 6 mile run tomorrow will go, all things considered.
Yesterday was Men's Fraternity. I wake up at 4:45 am and head in early so I can meet with others at our church before going into the office. As I'm not a huge fan of setting my alarm clock for 3:45 am, I usually either do my training in the evening or push it to a double-up on Saturday.
Today was a double-up, that turned into a triple-up. First, my workout was legs. I had a phenomenal workout. I'm getting better with the form and bar positioning on my front squats, and loading a respectable weight. Leg extensions were great (lots of pain and loud sounds emanating from the basement as I did those). Dead-lifts are by far my strongest lift and the one I love to hate. Knocked those out and had a huge jump in strength with my leg curls.
My legs were toast and I could barely walk up the stairs. I had promised my daughter we would go to a local event. A Lego Robotics team was demonstrating what they do (yes, there are Lego robots ... and competitions ... and they have tasks and other interesting things to do). If I was going to get in my run, it had to be right after the workout.
It was "only" three miles so I set out and hit the pavement. I must have looked a little funny limping along at first. My legs did not feel that great and the struggle it took me to reach the end of my block made me wonder if this was an exercise ... in futility (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun). But as I turned the corner and started to "warm-up" (as if the previous 40 minutes of pushing steel wasn't enough to get the ticker going) I started to feel much better and settled into a good pace. By the time I had wrapped up the first 1.5 miles and turned around to head home, I was feeling great. My only mistake: even for such a short run, it was "hot" by my standards (after a sub-30 degrees Fahrenheit runs, the 55 today felt hot) and I did not bring fluids. My mouth was feeling quite dry.
I managed to push hard and made it non-stop with a decent pace. Legs were sore but usable. I enjoyed the presentation with my daughter and how the young team (ages 9 - 14) learn how to work as a team, how to construct the robots and learn things like how you can have a light weight frame and an agile robot but it is prone to falling apart, or a sturdy frame but a sluggish robot, or how they actually program its tasks. Pretty amazing!
As we drove home, we discussed how beautiful the day was and my daughter had her heart set on hiking Kennesaw mountain. How could I resist? So my "triple" workout came when we came home, put on the tennis shoes, and headed back out to the mount for an hour and a half hike. It was beautiful, perfect weather and we had a wonderful time. We really enjoyed the time together and came home exhausted and ready to relax and unwind.
Warmly,
Labels: american heart association, lego robots, running, weight lifting
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