Weekend update

Friday’s weightlifitng:

Bench: 15 pounds (6.80 kg), 1 set to failure, 16 reps (move to twenty-five pounds next time)
Lat pulldown: 132 pounds (49.0 kg), 1 set nearly to failure, 12 reps (move to next weight)
Shoulder press: 10 pounds (4.54 kg), 1 set to failure, 10 reps
Tricep pushdown: 48 pounds (21.8 kg), 1 set to failure, 10 reps

I did better on triceps this time, and I’m getting better as being able to isolate the feeling of the muscles being worked (like actually feeling the tricep pushdown in my triceps specifically, rather than a general shaky fatigue). My shoulders are still my weak point in bench pressing, but the worked feeling is starting to move inward to my chest as well, which is nice.

I was up and out running at 08:00 on Saturday. I zigzagged the 6 x 2 grid of my neighborhood once (about 2.5 miles) in just over 28 minutes. There’s a [friendly] stray collie that has been out and about for a week now that follows me on my runs for certain distances. [S]he won’t venture past a certain radius of where she usually haunts, but she will go with me for a while. She insists on running directly in front of me though, although she usually goes just fast enough that I don’t kill myself. Saturday I delibrately had her follow me because she was bothering an older woman walking with her dogs.

The half-hour run was with no walking breaks (although I had to slow or halt a couple of times to get the dog to come with me). And I wasn’t tired when I stopped. This whole running thing is unbelievable to me. It’s actually working. And it’s addictively fun.

I had the idea Saturday of doing my Wednesday morning long run around the neighborhood for time’s sake. There’s no way I can get in a solid hour run with adequate warm-up and cool-down if I go with Jenn to the track. If I get up and hit the road by 05:20, however, I can get in two zigzags of the neighborhood (five miles) and still have time for a good cool down before I need to shower.

Now that I can run longer distances without having to constantly keep on my breathing or my upper-body posture, my next focus is probably going to be footstrike. I have a strong tendency to slap my foot down, hitting primarily on the balls of my feet. This tends to make my feet sore. I’m trying to have more a heel-strike when I land; I feel it more in my calves when I do that, but it feels like the stress is more adequately distributed across my feet.

I added shin-strengthening exercises to my post-run cool down on Saturday. I did the “alphabet” on Saturday, but I prefer just adding resistance to foot-lifts by pressing with my non-lifting foot.

I did a quick, 23:00 run on Sunday around 07:00. I ate horrifically on Saturday, and I felt it in every plodding step and heaved breath of my run. Bleh. I simply must get a handle on this eating thing again. Meat (chicken) gets limited to once a week, dairy gets cut way down, and sugars go back to only the weekly ice cream cones in the school cafeteria.

I got in about ten miles of running last week (Monday thru Sunday), and closer to seventeen if I count the walking.

Two-and-a-Half Mile Monday was some kind of hell. I got a mile and quarter in, and realized I was only half-way done with my run. I felt tired (five hours of sleep–it’s difficult to go to bed at 21:00 on Sunday nights) and hungry and sluggish as only Mondays and Fridays can do to me. So today became a slow, 12:43 pace two-mile run with a quarter mile walk from 1.25 to 1.50 miles. Ah, well. I’ll get sleep tonight, and be back on my game tomorrow.