tinkerer

Awesome news! More later but wanted to post something quick to say this is awesome!

How are bears less exciting than snow? I understand less desirable, pleasant, safe, etc. but they seem pretty exciting!

Oh no! In terms of getting carrots you are working on the wrong goals! Glad that your running is still going well and congrats on the big run! Keep us posted on the achilles situation. Race day sounds like a pretty hard scenario. I can certainly understand how watching that would be hard for him but on the other hand it would be important to you to have him there. It sounds like you two are pretty good at communicating about the subject though so hopefully that will see you to a good conclusion. Thanks for sharing the insight.

Being home again is one of the best parts of traveling! Hopefully, recovery comes quickly for you! I know what you mean about the elegant vs. inelegant routes. There were many fun, tricky, mentally engaging routes at our last gym but the one we go to now has mostly just straightforward stuff with smaller holds to make it harder. They are both good training but the more technique-heavy routes are what I prefer.

Week 2 Summary I'm happy with what I accomplished this week. I was eight minutes under on my easy-running goal but I also got an extra day of climbing in. I think I'll call that a wash. Goal 1: Complete 1 Max Strength / Core Workout each WeekWeek 1: Done!Week 2: Done! Goal 2: Go Rock Climbing each WeekWeek 1: Climbed indoors with friends.Week 2: Climbed indoors twice and finished my project route Goal 3: One Zone 3 Hill Climb each WeekWeek 1: Done, Accomplished with the combination of a Zone 1 Hill Climb and a Zone 3 4 mile run. Week 2: Done! New best time accomplished with a 30 pound pack. Goal 4: One Hike each WeekendWeek 1: Completed with a 45 pound pack.Week 2: Completed with a 30 pound pack. Goal 5: Accumulate Zone 1 TimeWeek 1: 250 Minutes Done! Actual: 273 MinutesWeek 2: 275 Minutes Done (enough) Actual: 267Week 3: 300 MinutesWeek 4: 210 Minutes Bonus Points:As part of the mountaineering class, I'm encouraged to schedule training hikes, runs, etc. for the other instructors and students. I would like to do at least two of these this month.Week 1: No ProgressWeek 2: No Progress

Week 2 Day 5 - Rest We had friends visiting from out of town so we just enjoyed their company after work. Week 2 Day 6 - Hill Climb After our friends took off, my neighbor and I headed to the mountain near our house. We both put some weight in our packs and hiked up the hill at a good pace. It was a pretty yucky day weather wise (at one point it was blowing rain and my head got cold enough that it hurt) but still enjoyable getting outside. We were both excited to beat our previous time up the hill of 52 minutes with a brisk 47 minutes. Week 2 Day 7 - Hiking With another couple of friends, went on a 7 mile hike. It was supposed to be along a ridge, over a peak and to another peak. However, the road turned out to have a foot of ice and snow on it so we hiked to the trailhead from the point at which the car could not continue. It was still nice. Instead of pouring rain, it snowed. The forest was beautiful and I'm really looking forward to a return trip. Glad to have you! It was a fun weekend though! We also got in a game night! The routes are continually reset, they probably come back to each area of the gym every three months or so. I think there is pretty good crossover in terms of strength and technique but not some of the less tangible things. For example, the way that plastic holds and rock feel are obviously pretty different. The result is that it takes some adjustment to transition from one to the other but that the practice indoors helps to stay pretty well trained through the winter.

How are things going, Bambooroo? We haven't heard from you in a while...have you had any more outings with your fancy new Miuras?

Oh man, I sympathize with anyone who can identify with Dilbert comics...any time I have that feeling I know it's been a bad day (or at least a bad meeting). I think you are off a good start on your NOS goal. It does make sense that the impending quit day would be something that weighs on your mind though. Is it harder in some ways to know it's coming than it would be to have it over with? Not having experienced quitting makes me hesitate to offer comments for fear of sounding trite or foolish but I'm definitely behind your effort and support the goal! Is there a way to reconfigure your thoughts on quitting in the next week, to modify your attitude on this goal to the straightforward path to success you employ on all the rest of your goals? I've been really impressed at your "if I do this, I'll see the result I want, so I'm doing exactly that" approach with your training and eating goals...it's hard to imagine you not succeeding when you put your mind to something.

It sounds as though you have inadvertently stumbled upon a new training method to train your stabilizer muscles more completely and add in some additional strength training as you run. I predict marathoners will be purchasing rocking treadmills in the near future to capture these benefits. I'm also glad I'm not the only one with a 180 playlist for running. I need to add some songs to mine, however, as I only have about 50 minutes and have to repeat it on longer runs.

Well that's disappointing! On the other hand, getting that belay class accomplished will be a huge step on your climbing - so that should be really exciting. I offer this as a pre-course instructional video.

Rest is a good thing...but I'm also excited for the next episode of "Against the Odds: Running in Alaska in the Winter."

First of all, congrats on the climbing accomplishments. Your day of climbing, walking in the sun, and eating under the stars sounds amazing and makes me eager for summer to arrive. My recommendation is to consider which of your goals are the most exciting or important to you and then to restructure around that. In the past, I've picked 6 things and really only cared about 3. The action of refocusing on the 2 most fun and 1 most important helped to reinvigorate me to launch back into the activities. Where I've failed in the past is when things change and I didn't adapt my challenge to the changes or where I've just abandoned my goals because I missed them for the first two weeks. With a couple of weeks left, maybe you could pick a climbing goal of completing a route that's challenging to you now or add in a running goal toward your half-marathon...

Week 2 Day 4 - Running and Climbing My weekly run with coworkers was yesterday and I had a nice time. One of my employees was the only other person to show up so we had a nice visit and run. Good zone 1 training. 2.93 miles in 31:40. After work I went climbing with my wife and met up with another friend. My wife hasn't been climbing for about three weeks so it was a lot of fun to go with her again. On top of that, I climbed pretty well. I finally climbed a 5.10d route that has been giving me trouble for a couple of months now. When I first tried it, my wife wanted to know why I was climbing so stupidly. It was true, I just couldn't figure out the moves. When I finally got it yesterday, she didn't even realize it was a difficult route for me. It's been fun to improve on something that was so challenging at first. I also was able to figure out the sequences on a 5.11a that bucked me off for the first three attempts. This was at the end of the day and I was pretty pleased to make it to the top given the level of fatigue I was experiencing. I've been really enjoying climbing lately and can't wait for the weather to break so we can get outside! To meet my goals for the week, I need to go on a hill climb and a long hike this weekend. I also need 210 more minutes of zone 1 training, so if I won't get that during my hikes I'll go for a run too.

I always feel kind of guilty for going running or working out when I could be at home. I'm not sure the feeling is justified as my wife has been very supportive, but it's nonetheless something that occupies my thoughts. Is your boyfriend pretty supportive of you running and taking the time for the long training runs? I'm always curious how the time-management elements of fitness training work in other people's relationships, if you don't mind sharing. Way to go on the loan stuff! As you've mentioned before, oftentimes the feelings of dread end up being far worse than sorting out the actual issue. Hopefully that was the case on this issue too.

Thanks GymlessRanger and Waldo; very interesting discussion for me to try to interpret being a lot less technical in the anatomy field. My overall goal is to improve the strength of my back for climbing and life in general. My AMRAP (20 pullups goal) is a vanity thing that I've just always wanted to accomplish. What I'm hearing in all of the videos (and in contrast with my "natural" technique) is the importance of setting the shoulders properly. I actually think the cues to consider while working on technique are really helpful and I'll seek out some more that seem to resonate. It also sounds like the "chest to bar" (while not a bad thing) isn't required to engage the lats correctly. So my game plan moving forward becomes: Identify cues to focus on that improve form for proper muscle recruitment Practice until proper form becomes routine Reassess need to add/remove difficulty for progression toward strength and/or reps.As an aside, my posture definitely resembles a desk worker. I'm going to look into the other exercises you mentioned for that, GymlessRanger. Again, thank you both for the feedback and feel free to correct me if I'm summarizing incorrectly.

Thanks for the reply! I haven't had a chance to watch that video yet but I'm hoping to do so tonight. I've been posting at lunch while at work and youtube crashes on my work computer (probably an ok thing ) I guess I should clarify that I wasn't asking if this is the cause of my stagnation but rather how important the "chest forward/up" position was for recruiting the larger back muscles into the exercise. The follow on question would then be, if I'm not recruiting those muscles, is that a potential explanation for the stagnation. It sounds like this may be answered in the video.

I hope I didn't sound preachy as that wasn't the intention...more that you have a lot of company in your feelings. Hopefully you have a great time climbing! To me, it is always a sort of "bonus" if I'm able to get climbing in while I'm traveling. The logistics just seem to be a lot if I'm going to a strange place and don't know anyone.

I think if you had chosen to tell us that your splits indicate how great and consistent of a race you had run I would have believed that too! Nice job on the strong finish despite the "death feelings". That makes sense regarding the speed work. When you put it that way, it's similar to the training program I'm doing where after an 8 week max-strength building section the focus has shifted to muscle endurance training.

That video is fantastic! Although it was highly entertaining to me, I'm sure after the first 10 minutes or so the whole "world tilting" thing gets really old. For that, I really admire your perseverance and dedication to getting things done.

I've been not posting much for a few days. Upon my return, I am both impressed and not surprised to see that you are continuing on with your consistent efforts and also consistent success! Well done! I have you pegged at an average of 1.5 smileys per week on NF. If there is a substantial deviation from this...we'll notice! Joking aside, I'll take this seriously and will make a mention of it if I do notice a shift.

Glad the new shoes are working out and congratulations on the return to overhanging boulder problems! Out of curiosity, did you get your measurements, etc. taken over the weekend? I don't do too much with mine but I find it interesting to have them to refer to as things change.

I honestly can't decide which of these things I'd like to see more: amazing snow-capped mountains from the ocean or a video of someone trying to run on a rolling treadmill. The motivation to see the two items is so different I don't know how to compare them.

Way to go! Congrats on the medal, the PR, and having all of your training pay off. I'm not sure which of those merits the most excitement. Why are you planning to drop the intervals? Is it an intensity of training thing, a time thing, or something else altogether? I don't really know anything about distance training so I'm only asking for education not because I know what is the right approach.

Week 2 Day 2 - Running and Climbing My wife came along for my morning run. It was nice to do something together as it's been a while since we did a morning run as a couple. I haven't uploaded the GPS data yet but it was 30 minutes or so at Zone 1. After work, I went climbing with friends. We had a really good time - no breakthroughs though. I tried to climb a difficult overhanging route and couldn't make it over the point where it breaks to vertical. I spent a few minutes tiring myself out on that route and then climbed an easier route (5.10b) on the same rope instead. I enjoyed figuring out how to make it up the 10b given that I'd started out pretty tired - it involved pushing past the point where I felt that I was going to fall and finding rest spots where I could recover enough to make the next few moves. Week 2 Day 3 - RestTonight, I'm headed to the mountaineering class which will be really fun. The instructors are getting a little side-training in advanced subjects. I had been hoping to get in a hill climb hike tonight and I'm not sure where that is going to fit now but I'll figure something out.

I have conflicting feelings on the subject. Running is a great example: sometimes having that time to myself is amazing and sometimes I enjoy the company. Hmmm...that is the reverse of how I'm viewing this... I see two outcomes. Either we mutually agree to become couch potatoes or this is going to be a pretty consistent training period for us. No, I haven't gained any weight. Over the last 3 months I actually seem to have lost about 5 pounds. Thanks for the week 1 comment! I guess the heart of my question is "why am I improving in other areas and not in pullups despite similar training?". If it was a specific muscle weakness - shouldn't I have been training that weakness through pullups? Again, I don't have any idea...this has been really perplexing to me lately. I posted the question in the bodyweight forum as suggested --> Here.