Xena tries harder

[Xena]

Even with some holiday travel, this month should be a pretty solid training opportunity for me. I’m planning to get in solid mileage and work toward some new skills in the gym. Also, no big race until mid-January, so no excuse not to work my legs.

 

1.       Run 100 miles. Yep, and oldie but a goodie. If I do everything my training plan tells me to do, I would actually end up with 145 miles. That doesn’t ever happen. But I’ll introduce a stretch goal of 116 miles (two 25-mile weeks, plus two 33-mile weeks).

2.       20 days of pushups. I’ve been counting totals until now, but I’ll take a break from that. Early in the challenge I’ll build up to 30 pushups per day, and I’m just going to hold there. I’ll try to do it every day, but stuff happens. 20/28 days counts as a win.

3.       Tri harder. This one is about building skills or working on weaknesses. Will wrap in several things here…over course of challenge, will do: at least 50 chin-up negatives. Also will also do 4 dedicated leg days, 3 days of toes-to-bar progression and 4 tricep workouts. One leg day and one tricep workout can be at-home. Tricep work will be really gentle (e.g., low weight, high reps on gravitron). I want to gradually build a little strength and stability so I can work toward narrow-grip pushups.

4.       Peace and joy. Trying something new here. Each week, will spend one hour on a weeknight doing something to relax and focus…not tv or reading. Can include things like tarot, yoga, spa-like activities, meditation. I can split it between a couple nights if that works better. Week 3 will be very busy, so the full hour is not mandatory…any reasonable attempt counts.

[Xena]

For accountability of sorts...I'm going to up my daily calorie target to 2100. I'm close to my goal, and 2000 leaves me pretty darned hungry.

Going to keep playing my little game. Under 14,700 for the week earns me a song on I-tunes. If I don't make my goal for a week, each day under 2100 earns me 100 calories of slack to carry over until I do make my goal.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along for more Ranger Pirate Princess Goodness.

[OddlyOtter]

Oh wow, that's some serious mileage! I believe in you though! Good luck this month!

[Jarric]

Following again for more mind-blowing mileage!

[jonfirestar]

Following along once again!

[DarK_RaideR]

Here!

[DJtrippyT]

13 hours ago, Xena said:

But I’ll introduce a stretch goal of 116 miles (two 25-mile weeks, plus two 33-mile weeks).

 

I first read this as 116 miles in one run and nearly fainted

 

[Charlie_Quinn]

Following! You're my inspiration for getting myself running properly this challenge. I wanna be like Xena!

[doctorake]

Do all the miles!!

[Rinna]

Hey, i wanna be a Ranger Princess!  Can I be one too? 

 

Hi!  Following

[Maigs]

Following again! Even though I'm purposely leaving out exercise from this coming challenge (besides daily step goal) I'm hoping between your and Muir I'll be shamed into doing at least some running and pushups

[jstanlick]

Nice looking goals, as usual. As usual, following along!

[ladylydia]

Following, of course.

[Xena]

10 hours ago, Rinna said:

Hey, i wanna be a Ranger Princess!  Can I be one too?

Heck yeah!

 

10 hours ago, Maigahane said:

Following again! Even though I'm purposely leaving out exercise from this coming challenge (besides daily step goal) I'm hoping between your and Muir I'll be shamed into doing at least some running and pushups

No shaming around here. Just fun.

 

Hi Everyone! So cheerful to see so many friends!

 

Today was pretty good. Still fighting a little plague. Jogged 3 miles, but they were kind of pathetic. Went to the gym after work and tested my chin-up progress on the gravitron. Managed a little improvement. Under spoiler because kind of boring. Hmm....kind of messed up and put the whole rest of my post under the spoiler...TLDR: it's all kind of boring angst about fiddling around with lifting.

 

 

on setting "14" of 17 (about a 36 lb assist I think), I did sets of 6, 6, 3. Last time I only did 6, 4, 6. Since I am still fighting plague, I think I'll be able to hit 3x8 next month and then move up in difficulty.

[/spoiler]

 

Did a leg day of sorts (bosu squats, bosu single-leg balance, rear lunges with knee drive, leg lifts, step-ups with 8# dumbbells). Need to find my notes from last time and figure out what kind of leg workout I want to commit to for the next few weeks. These two have been sort of benchmarks. I think I didn't really do enough today, but I can always do more next time. I think I'm going to aim for some long sets on these b/c I'm mostly an endurance athlete. Not sure...

[doctorake]

Running with the plague is horrible. Hope you get back to 100% soon.

[Terra]

My first thought was "why would Xena need to try harder?"  But then I get the pun... tri not try! Wait, nope that wasn't it either, eh?  LOL  I'm a little slow like that 

[jonfirestar]

Hope you kick the rest of the plague soon. It just makes everything harder. 

 

[Xena]

6 hours ago, Terra said:

My first thought was "why would Xena need to try harder?"  But then I get the pun... tri not try! Wait, nope that wasn't it either, eh?  LOL  I'm a little slow like that 

Yep, you get it. We can always try a little harder, but I was referring some some new tricep work ;-)   ...and you are definitely not slow!

 

6 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Hope you kick the rest of the plague soon. It just makes everything harder. 

Thanks. It's hard to know how much to push when you aren't quite 100%

 

Woke up this morning not feeling great, so decided to punt on running. Common wisdom is that it's ok to run with a head cold but not so much with a cough. It's not much of a cough, so I'm hoping I can run tomorrow. Did my pushups (22) and daily dare. Had kind of a frustrating day, so I'm going to do a little yoga tonight, even if it means staying up a bit late.

[Agnarr]

seems wise to take it slow until you feel at 100%. Hope you get that run tomorrow!

[RoxyFreefall]

attempting to follow some folks this round. Great goals as always.

[Xena]

10 hours ago, Agnarr said:

seems wise to take it slow until you feel at 100%. Hope you get that run tomorrow!

Thanks! I didn't do the yoga I planned last night (up very late working) but did run today!

 

8 hours ago, rmkwilson said:

attempting to follow some folks this round. Great goals as always.

Thanks Roxy!

 

So today was great in many ways. I was feeling substantially better and was able to get in 6 easy miles in the morning. Weather was kind of a cool mysterious fog. 

Yesterday I had kind of a shitty day and today some of my friends really helped support me though it. For better or worse, that included a chocolate chip cookie, a beer and a couple cups of popcorn. I don't regret the beer at all. I should have tried harder to avoid the popcorn. I sort of had to eat the cookie and really appreciate the thought behind it.

 

After work I went to the gym, and it really did feel like "iron therapy" (forgot who's thread used that term, but I like it). Worked on chinups, lat pulldown (suggestion of BigShow to help with initiating the chinup), bent-over rows, windmills and a bit of OHP. Played around a little bit with toes-to-bar prep work. Practiced handing from bar (could only manange 3x20s), tried to get a feel for the kipping motion...mostly failed, and did a couple knee tucks. Next time I think I'll mostly do the same thing, but I'll add in some hollow body holds.

 

So those of you who can do or are working toward toes-to-bar, how much upper body strength does it take? I have always thought it was overwhelmingly ab strength (which is what appealed to me), but after watching some instructional videos, it looks like there is a lot more in the shoulders, arms and back. If I understood correctly, I think one of the videos suggested that you should really be able to full pull-ups before tackling toes-to-bar. I'm no where near full pullups, and not really looking to learn kipping pullups. I'm going to keep playing around with this for the next four weeks, but I'm wondering if it's the best skill for me to be working on.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sorry you had a rough day, I'm glad the Ferro Therapy helped (it was me by the way).

[Agnarr]

Strict toes to bar(no kipping or swinging) uses mostly abdominal strength but in order to reach that point, some tutorials suggest starting with kipping T2B, which I'm not entirely sure it's the best idea since the kipping motion itself can be kinda tricky to learn without guidance. That said, some degree of upper body activation is required even for stricts.

Here is Al Kavadlo demonstratig a strict T2B. Notice retracted scapulas.

 

Maybe if you work your way up to hanging leg rises first? 

[Xena]

1 hour ago, Agnarr said:

Strict toes to bar(no kipping or swinging) uses mostly abdominal strength but in order to reach that point, some tutorials suggest starting with kipping T2B, which I'm not entirely sure it's the best idea since the kipping motion itself can be kinda tricky to learn without guidance. That said, some degree of upper body activation is required even for stricts.

Here is Al Kavadlo demonstratig a strict T2B. Notice retracted scapulas.

 

Maybe if you work your way up to hanging leg rises first? 

 

Thanks Agnarr! Yes, I was initially thinking just to work up from hanging leg raises. I initially thought that was pretty much the heart and soul of the progression, then I started reading more and learning about the kipping/upper-body aspect. I think I've found enough aspects of the move that I can safely work on. Will try it for this month and see how I go.

 

I know I worked out hard because I woke up last night with that weird cramp-like ache in my left tricep. Going to try repeating this workout next week with two tweaks....(1) go a little heavier on the lat pull-down. I was still feeling out the weight (2) go a little lighter on the bentover rows. Someone was using the 17.5# DBs, so I jumped to 20. That was a little heavier than I probably should have done.