Roo's "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down" Challenge

[weirdquark]

Haha, that's adorable.

[Hermione Gainser]

GO LITTLE ROO GO!!! hahaha that was so cute! He's obviously learning awesome things from Daddy!

[Strawberry Squatcake]

It's like he already knows how awesome he's going to be. Must be good genes.

[msuroo]

9/27/12

Intervals - 6 x 400m

1:30

1:34

1:29

1:30

1:32

1:34

So, this was the first time I've ever done a real interval session on a track. (PS, it was very weird walking out to the football field at 7:00 this morning as all of the high schoolers were showing up to school. I felt like a creepo.) Anyway, it probably wasn't the most effective workout, but I sure learned a lot. I went in with the plan of doing 8 x 400, but I was completely wiped out after the 6. It turns out I was running too fast - if we consulting the McMillan Running calculator again, it looks like I should be targeting a pace between 1:40 and 1:46 for my 400m intervals, and I came in at an average of 1:31. If we also assume that I'm not to the fitness level of a 3:50:00 marathoner yet, I should probably start even higher than than and try and work towards 1:40 per 400m. Anyway, food for thought for next time. My goal is to work up to 12 x 400 and 8 x 800 interval workouts.

PS, my favorite thing about that calculator is the recommended training paces. For all you running warriors out there (and I know there's more than a few this challenge!) check out this series of articles on the same site. In a sense, a running workout isn't that much different than a lifting workout - we provide a stress on our bodies to stimulate an adaptation, and different distances/paces provide different types of stress (much like different set/rep schemes). Anyway, it's a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in running.

[jdanger]

Great having you out Roo. And yeah, that video is pretty great. Start em young!

[msuroo]

Great having you out Roo. And yeah, that video is pretty great. Start em young!

It's not quite a bamboo stick, but maybe you can work with it.

PS, my shoulders are still worn out from Tuesday, despite lots of active recovery last night. I'm scared for tonight (in a good way).

[msuroo]

9/27/12

Did a horrible job remembering sets and reps last night. Honestly didn't even really try. Workout included the following:

2 cleans from knee + jerk

Some at 20kg

Some at 30

Some at 35

Some at 40

2 BTN power jerks + BTN split jerk

Some at 20kg

Some at 30

Some at 35

Some at 40

Split jerks

50kg

55

60

65

69

72

73

72

There were multiple attempts (including some failures) at the higher jerk weights, and all of the reps at 72 or 73 had some press-out at the top (sooooo close...need to be just a little bit faster). I did get a sharp one in at 69 though, which is a 9kg PR! (And jdanger says the press-out ones count in the gym, so that's like a 13kg PR!). This 77kg C&J may actually happen by challenge end! Went home and ate all the food, rumble rolled for a while, did 2 sets of 10 burpees, and crawled into bed at 10:28. Between the running, the oly lifting, the (small) contribution to the guild challenge, and making my bed time...it was a pretty frickin' good day for my challenge.

[Wicked Pixie]

9/27/12

Intervals - 6 x 400m

1:30

1:34

1:29

1:30

1:32

1:34

So, this was the first time I've ever done a real interval session on a track. (PS, it was very weird walking out to the football field at 7:00 this morning as all of the high schoolers were showing up to school. I felt like a creepo.) Anyway, it probably wasn't the most effective workout, but I sure learned a lot. I went in with the plan of doing 8 x 400, but I was completely wiped out after the 6. It turns out I was running too fast - if we consulting the McMillan Running calculator again, it looks like I should be targeting a pace between 1:40 and 1:46 for my 400m intervals, and I came in at an average of 1:31. If we also assume that I'm not to the fitness level of a 3:50:00 marathoner yet, I should probably start even higher than than and try and work towards 1:40 per 400m. Anyway, food for thought for next time. My goal is to work up to 12 x 400 and 8 x 800 interval workouts.

PS, my favorite thing about that calculator is the recommended training paces. For all you running warriors out there (and I know there's more than a few this challenge!) check out this series of articles on the same site. In a sense, a running workout isn't that much different than a lifting workout - we provide a stress on our bodies to stimulate an adaptation, and different distances/paces provide different types of stress (much like different set/rep schemes). Anyway, it's a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in running.

Annnddddd bookmarked linky linkys!

Thanks roo, ya speed demon!!!

[Wicked Pixie]

Holy crap your kid is cute!

[msuroo]

9/28/12

Dynamic warmup/mobility (lots)

Overhead squats

15 @ PVC

5 x 5 @ 45 lbs

5 @ 55

5 @ 65

5 @ 75

2 @ 85 + fail

Snatch position work

Some at 20kg

Some at 25

Chinups

8,8,5

Burpees

2 x 10

Pretty low intensity day today, but I kinda needed it - spent a lot of time just getting loose this morning. I think I have some more weight in the tank on OHS, but my shoulders were pretty exhausted after all of the overhead work this week, and I lost control of 85 lbs at the bottom of the 3rd rep - decided to call it a day there and move on to other stuff. I didn't get as much snatch work in as I would have liked, unfortunately. One of my callouses turned blister and tore open on me, so that was the end of that (I hope it heals up before the next oly class!). Squeezed in a few more burpees for the guild challenge, and I'm not gonna lie...I hate these. I'll try and do a few every day, but I'm not gonna be one of these machines cranking out sets every hour.

Anyway, happy Friday everyone!

[msuroo]

Holy crap your kid is cute!

Thanks! I mean, out of 100 billion kids that have ever been born, I got the cutest one. What are the chances?!?

No, I'm not biased at all...

[Wicked Pixie]

Thanks! I mean, out of 100 billion kids that have ever been born, I got the cutest one. I mean, what are the chances?!?

No, I'm not biased at all...

hmmmm

I think you got the LAST cutest kid ever-

I have 4 that got here first- and THEY happen to be THE CUTEST EVER

[weirdquark]

So, this was the first time I've ever done a real interval session on a track. (PS, it was very weird walking out to the football field at 7:00 this morning as all of the high schoolers were showing up to school. I felt like a creepo.) Anyway, it probably wasn't the most effective workout, but I sure learned a lot. I went in with the plan of doing 8 x 400, but I was completely wiped out after the 6. It turns out I was running too fast - if we consulting the McMillan Running calculator again, it looks like I should be targeting a pace between 1:40 and 1:46 for my 400m intervals, and I came in at an average of 1:31. If we also assume that I'm not to the fitness level of a 3:50:00 marathoner yet, I should probably start even higher than than and try and work towards 1:40 per 400m. Anyway, food for thought for next time. My goal is to work up to 12 x 400 and 8 x 800 interval workouts.

PS, my favorite thing about that calculator is the recommended training paces. For all you running warriors out there (and I know there's more than a few this challenge!) check out this series of articles on the same site. In a sense, a running workout isn't that much different than a lifting workout - we provide a stress on our bodies to stimulate an adaptation, and different distances/paces provide different types of stress (much like different set/rep schemes). Anyway, it's a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in running.

That's a neat calculator tool.

[msuroo]

9/30/12

12 mile run

Overall pace of ~9:45 per mile. Went pretty slow at the beginning, ran most of the back half between 9:15 and 9:30.

10/1/12

Dynamic warmup/mobility

Back squats

3x5 @ 45 lbs

5 @ 95

5 @ 135

5 @ 165

5 @ 195

Front squats

3x3 @ 135 lbs

3x3 @ 155

RDL

3x8 @ 135 lbs

BTN Push Press

2x5 @ 45 lbs

5 @ 65

5 @ 85

3 @ 95 + fail

Busy at work, so don't have time to add workout thoughts and week one recap (but wanted to write this stuff down before I forgot) - will try and do that at lunchtime.

[weirdquark]

Nice run and nice lifting!

I was noticing my 5K times were usually faster on the second half too -- not really going slow to start intentionally, but I guess trying harder to pace myself at the beginning do I'd have enough energy to do the second half. Were you doing the same sort of thing, or was it more of a warmup thing?

[Wicked Pixie]

12 miles? Sub 10min miles?

WTF are you just magical or what?

Hand over some of your awesome please! You have more than your fair share!!!

Seriously though...Very nice!

[msuroo]

Week one challenge recap

• Clean & jerk my bodyweight

The oly classes were awesome last week - I'm optimistic that this is going to happen.

• Run 5k in 23:36

I did all of my planned running, but it's hard to gauge at this point how close/far I am from the actual time goal - I'm guessing I won't actually know until race day.

• Go to bed at 10:30

6/6. Could have been 7, but I laid awake in bed until 12:30 Friday night playing with my new phone (which I don't regret for a second).

• Build a basement gym

I didn't get a ton of work in on this, but I got started. I have all of the materials for my lifting platform (I've actually had them for a while), and some preliminary assembly started. I need to figure out how I'm going to trim the edges and I should be able to throw it together. Also need to decide if I am going to stain/poly it leave it raw. The biggest part of this project is going to be cleaning out the corner of the basement that it is going to live in - there's still a lot of shit over there.

Altogether, it was an A+ week. Best week I've had in a long time, actually, so I feel pretty good about that. One thing that helped a lot was having my in-laws visiting for the week. Lil Roo stayed home with them all week, so I never had to worry about taking him to day care, or about rushing home to help out Mrs Roo with stuff. This week will be a lot more challenging. Losing the 2 extra sets of hands just makes it a lot harder to keep up with everything around the house. And it's quarter end, which means work is going to be crazy all week (yay accounting). I'm definitely going to fail my bedtime goal today (chances are better than even I'll still be at the office at 10:30, let alone home and in bed), but I'm hoping I can keep momentum up on everything else this week.

[msuroo]

9/30/12

12 mile run

Overall pace of ~9:45 per mile. Went pretty slow at the beginning, ran most of the back half between 9:15 and 9:30.

10/1/12

Dynamic warmup/mobility

Back squats

3x5 @ 45 lbs

5 @ 95

5 @ 135

5 @ 165

5 @ 195

Front squats

3x3 @ 135 lbs

3x3 @ 155

RDL

3x8 @ 135 lbs

BTN Push Press

2x5 @ 45 lbs

5 @ 65

5 @ 85

3 @ 95 + fail

Busy at work, so don't have time to add workout thoughts and week one recap (but wanted to write this stuff down before I forgot) - will try and do that at lunchtime.

So, I wanted to do my long run on Saturday and have Sunday to recover, but we ended up having too many things going on to spend 2 hours running. I was regretting that this morning, as I was really tight walking into the gym. But I guess it's true what they say...felt sooo much better after squatting.

I'm almost ashamed to admit this...but I've never done an RDL before. My hamstrings have been sore ever since jdanger showed me the proper "above the knee" positioning in the snatch and clean though, so I guess it's time to start. Didn't get real aggressive with weight today, just tried to keep good back positioning and feel it in the hamstrings - hopefully I'm doing it right.

And yeah, my shoulders are still tired from all the overhead work last week - yikes.

[msuroo]

Nice run and nice lifting!

I was noticing my 5K times were usually faster on the second half too -- not really going slow to start intentionally, but I guess trying harder to pace myself at the beginning do I'd have enough energy to do the second half. Were you doing the same sort of thing, or was it more of a warmup thing?

It's a little bit of both for me - I go deliberately slowly at first, because 12 miles is a long way and I don't want to be worn out after 3 . There's definitely a warmup effect too though, I don't usually feel like I'm in the groove until about 2-3 miles in.

12 miles? Sub 10min miles?

WTF are you just magical or what?

Hand over some of your awesome please! You have more than your fair share!!!

Seriously though...Very nice!

Thanks! You'll be there soon enough, I'm sure of it!

[Hermione Gainser]

yay! Congrats on a great week

[msuroo]

Rest day yesterday - did some active recovery stuff (foam rolling, dirty dancing, ohs/snatch balances/snatch position work with pvc) and worked on my lifting platform a little bit.

3 mile run this morning - 10:20, 9:15, 7:42 (how's that for negative splits). I was sooooo tired this morning and really didn't want to go, but sacked up and went anyway. Today was supposed to be my "pace" run, but I sure wasn't feeling it during that first mile. About halfway through my legs started to wake up a bit - the third mile was pretty solid.

[Strawberry Squatcake]

Nice work on all of your runs! I hope to someday think 3 miles is a short run. Heck, I'd like to think a mile is a short run these days! You're so inspiring.

Yay for your lifts and kicking this challenge's butt. It's true, squats do fix everything!

[msuroo]

Nice work on all of your runs! I hope to someday think 3 miles is a short run. Heck, I'd like to think a mile is a short run these days! You're so inspiring.

Yay for your lifts and kicking this challenge's butt. It's true, squats do fix everything!

Aww, shucks - thanks. Believe it or not, 3 miles was a really long run for me not that long ago. It was around Thanksgiving last year (so less than a year ago) that I started C25K, and even the 90 second intervals were tough then.

[msuroo]

Yay.

Now I really need to get that platform in shape.

[Hermione Gainser]

Ha! Dirty dancing! Hells to the yes!

Great job, Roo! And yay awesome bar!