Erick's Battle log

[Erick the Red]

First Post.

I already have my training plan on paper for my marathon in December, but this will make a public place to report workouts and goals.

[Erick the Red]

Ran 9.4 miles, 93:35 minutes, avg. 9:57 min/mile, included walking warm up and three walking breaks for a couple minutes each, as planned.

Form started to fall apart at mile 8, but I pulled myself together and my fastest mile was the last.

[Erick the Red]

Does mowing the lawn count as cross training? Because on Friday afternoon I totally did a high-temperature acclimation activity at low-but-steady intensity for 90 minutes.

[Erick the Red]

Today ran 3 miles, 28 minutes, avg 9 min 13 sec per mile, avg speed 6.5 mph. Still following race prep schedule.

Cool and clear early this morning.

This evening I did my first "parkour roll" per instructions at this post on the Assassin boards. I still need a lot of work before I can do it in public without embarrassment.

[Erick the Red]

Ran 5.2 miles in 53 minutes, would have done better but I am visiting a city and I did a lot of waiting for traffic at intersections. Outside of left calf very sore during run, so I did a lot more on grass than maybe I would have.

[Erick the Red]

Today used an elliptical machine for thirty minutes because I am trying to get my calf back to 100% so that I can pound it again this weekend for a long run.

Subjective effort about 10 minute miles, but the display told me 6.4 miles. Whatever that means.

Noticed that my chest is losing more muscle mass. Depressing. But that is why I came to this site to figure out how to create a motivation to consistantly do cross-training strength exercises.

[sumdawgtwigg]

sounds like you're on a roll! Keep it up!

[Erick the Red]

Today used an elliptical machine for 90 minutes plus 5 minutes of cool-down. Kept heart rate at 140-142 per minute, kept stride cadence at 140-160 per minute (slower than what I do on the road).

My calf is feeling better, but if I move just so I get a twinge that says, "Hi! Still injured here!"

I intended to run ten miles today, but instead I listened to GnR and Bon Jovi in a YMCA for an hour and a half (my music, by the way, the Y is music free). Could have been worse, and that is what I am trying to avoid.

[Erick the Red]

Yesterday I ran 3.1 miles, 10 min per mile pace, leg held up all right. That afternoon I took a 15 min walk and it has been bothering me ever since.

Troubling because if I can't train then I can't race, and so my goals get shifted to the right on the calendar.

 

Edited much later to add: The chronic injury didn't heal in time.  I didn't run in the marathon.  Some time later, I trained for and successfully completed a half marathon.

[Erick the Red]

I need to find interesting goals to keep me moving forwards.

 

I'm not sure if I want ot chase after this right now, but sometime I will see how many points I can get on the FBI Special Agents physical fitness test.

[Erick the Red]

I have (obviously) been focusing more on my challenge threads for the last year or more, simply to only have one place to post information.

 

But I will put down some things here to get them typed out in black and white.

 

Some fitness history:

 

I have never been an athlete, but have always been relatively fit.  I have read and own Mark Sisson's Primal books, and read a lot of paleo in general, for far longer than it was in vogue, but never practiced more than about 80% (quit with the pasta/potatoes/starches at dinner and cereals for breakfast, for instance, but still ate too much pizza).

 

Then I turned 37 and realized that I would be 40 pretty soon.  And I had not accomplished any of my fitness-related aspirations.

 

Was exclusively a runner from about 2011-early 2013, with dreams of completing a hundred-mile ultramarathon race before I turned 40  (something like the Pony Express 100).  Two Scout challenges fit in here.  Made a good start -- from "couch", to 5Ks, to 10K -- then twice trained for marathons, but twice dropped out because of chronic-use injuries in the calf area.

 

Since my 100 mile race by the age of 40 goal seemed a bust, I switched to a more generic "best body by 40" goal. I still need to quantify "best", in order to make it a true SMART goal.

 

Went into the gym and started lifting weights in April 2013.  Some Warrior challenges fit in here. Built more muscle mass than I ever had previously, but I started to get heavy (especially in my gut) in a way that I did not like.

 

Started to track calories with a weight loss goal in mid-July 2013 while continuing to lift.  Saw good progress up until early December, and then seemed to stall.  Made it from about 25% body fat to about 15%.  Currently look better than I ever have before, thinner and stronger, but not yet to where I would be comfortable maintaining.

 

Starting a more strict paleo/primal plan after Christmas 2013, with a goal to reach 12% by the end of February 2014.  This seems a realistic but challenging goal to me.  One way I am trying is (counter-intuitively) to stop counting calories, since I seemed to be using that as an excuse to eat less nutritious foods since I still had more room in the weekly "calorie budget".  I have a pretty good feel for the "right" volume of foods I should be eating for fat loss, and as long as I exclude nutritionally-empty calories then I should be set.

 

Current plan is to avoid

1. added sugar
2. added fructose
3. grains (wheat, rice, corn)
4. potatoes
5. snacks

I plan to continue running at least 2-3 times per week to keep my conditioning up, since I would still like to do a longer race someday.

 

I plan to also continue with heavy lifting, although I am between real plans right now and that is bothering me.  Some of it is just finding time to access the gym.  Some of it is that I feel like I only have so much recovery in me, and I don't want to be spread too thin. 

 

I want to try to introduce some more body-weight work as well, mostly circuit training to help burn fat and keep the newly-earned muscle.

[Erick the Red]

Attempt to define short- to medium-term SMART goals:

 

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound.

 

Body fat goal 12% by 28 Feb

S: 12% is in high end of the generally accepted "athletic range"

M: Combination of calipers and tape-measure calculations

A: Consensus seems to be that losing one pound of fat per week is very possible.  I have a diet plan to limit calories while supplying necessary nutrition, and am settling on an exercise plan.

R: Overall mission is "best body by 40", so this has aesthetic and performance connections 

T: Specific date to measure success or failure is 28 Feb 2014.

 

Run a half-marathon by 4 July 2014

S: 13.1 mile run, verified by other people, is the distance

M: Official race makes measuring easy.  GPS works in a pinch if the official races fall through.

A: Failed at this twice before, but I am stronger now and haver been running longer.  Will follow a training plan.

R: "Best body by 40" includes performance -- for me, being able to run is an important physical capability.

T: Specific date to measure success or failure is 4 July 2014 (arbitrary day, about halfway htrough the year).  Candidate races are Scenic City Trail Half Marathon (26 Apr) and Franklin Half Marathon (7 June).

 

(Tentative) Run a marathon by end of 2014

S: 26.2 mile run, verified by other people, is the distance

M: Official race makes measuring easy. GPS works in a pinch if the official races fall through.

A: Failed at this before.  Assuming half marathon completed by July 2014, should be in a better position to do it.

R: "Best body by 40" includes performance -- for me, being able to run is an important physical capability.

T: Specific date to measure success or failure is 31 Dec 2014. Candidate races are Rocket City Marathon (Dec 2014) and Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon (Nov 2014).

[Erick the Red]

Discussion relating to longer-term SMART fitness goal.

 

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound.

 

Best Body by 40

1. Specific: ?

2. Measurable:

     a. Performance metrics: strength, speed, health?, specific athletic achievement?

     b. Aesthetic metrics: body fat percent, body measurements

3. Attainable: ?

4. Relevant: Personal happiness? This one is hard

5. Time-bound: Results by February 2015

[Erick the Red]

Scenic City Trail Marathon & 1/2 Marathon, Chattanooga TN

Saturday, April 26, 2014

http://www.rockcreek.com/trailmarathon.rco#.

 

16 week training plan starts 6 January (convenient with next 6-week challenge)

Monday / Wednesday / Saturday Training Runs

Plan resembles this Beginner Program (download .pdf).

 

Monday Easy: run at an easy pace, two or three miles per day

Wednesday Tempo: run at race tempo pace, two to up to six miles per day

Saturday Long: run at a pace at least one-two minutes a mile slower than intended race pace, starting at two and then up to 12 miles per day

Other days rest or cross train

[Erick the Red]

Kintsugi (金継ãŽ) (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕ã„) (Japanese: golden repair) is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer resin sprinkled with powdered gold.Kintsugi may have originated when shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl back to China for repairs in the late 15th century. When it was returned repaired with ugly metal staples, it may have prompted Japanese craftsmen to look for a more aesthetic means of repair. Collectors became so enamored of the new art that some were accused of deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kintsugi.

 

"The piece is more beautiful for having been broken"

[Erick the Red]

Set up a new challenge, here.

Two pictures sum it up:

 

 

 

[Erick the Red]

In the spring/summer, once I am at a body fat percent that I am more comfortable with, I plan to get back into building some muscle.

 

I had read this blog post earlier on gaining lean muscle weight, called "How To Gain 20 Pounds In 28 Days: The Extreme Muscle Building Secrets of UFC Fighters", but I found it again today and I will see what I can use.

 

Also found a "manifesto" from Nate Green, the author of most of the text in the blog post liked above.  It is called "The Hero handbook".  It can be found here.  I haven't read it all yet, but it seems good.  He is a main contributor to a website called "Scrawny to Brawny".

[Erick the Red]

The Hero Handbook is all right so far.  He starts out by saying that some of the material will not be new, and some will not be useful, but some will be.

 

I have already got a rough draft of a personal Code of Conduct, which is kind of neat and something that I will continue to work on.  I need to develop my desire to do good things so that it comes from a better place: my inner resolve vs external motivation.

 

One gem:

“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.â€

- Bruce Lee

 

Which reminds me, I need to clean out my garage.  So that I have room to put more things in there.

[Erick the Red]

From The Hero Handbook, why you should hang out with people who have already done whatever it is that you want to do.

 

Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert explains:

...people imagine the future poorly, in particular what will make them happy. This is because:

• Imagination tends to add and remove details, but people do not realize that key details may be fabricated or missing from the imagined scenario.

• Imagined futures (and pasts) are more like the present than they actually will be (or were).

• Imagination fails to realize that things will feel differently once they actually happen -- most notably, the psychological immune system will make bad things feel not so bad as they are imagined to feel.

[Erick the Red]

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/10/24/how-to-handstand-better-than-luke-skywalker/

 

Find five minutes per day to do:

1. Muscle rolling

2. Forward roll practice

3. Handstand practice/development

[Erick the Red]

Iron sharpens iron.

[Erick the Red]

A man who is wet does not fear the rain.

[Erick the Red]

This mini-challenge was really good, and seemed to be well balanced regarding full-body movements.

 

Completed the Ranger mini-challenge for this week.

Did four sets of ten:

40 burpees

40 mountain climbers

40 squats

40 jumping jacks

40 pushups

Then did two minutes of get-ups.

[Erick the Red]

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

 

I do not understand what this means.  But reading it, I get the feeling that its meaning is in there, waiting for me to find it.  I will read it again occasionally and think about it.

[Erick the Red]

I could fill a dozen challenges based on the quotes by Edmund Burke found here.

 

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

• Letter to Frances Burney (29 July 1782)

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

• Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791).

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feeling; none when they are under the influence of imagination.

• Appeal from the New Whigs to the Old (1791).

There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.

• Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 261.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

• Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Volume iii, page 274.

Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.

• Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Volume iii, page 344.

Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental Guardian and Legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit [from the Roman poet Virgil, "The Father himself willed that the way of tillage should not be easy]. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

• Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Volume iii, page 453.