Wednesday

Was going to skip because of an early morning. Decided to soldier on, pulled an all strength workout and did the following:

Burpees x  10
One Leg Plank x 13 secs per leg
X – Country x  29
Walking Lunges  x  19
Handstand Pushup x   4
Crunches – Legs Up  x   24
Squats x  20
Abs – Bicycle Legs x 18
Crunches -Twists  x  24
Pushups x 15
Walking Lunges x 14
Tridips x 18
Tridips x 18
Crunches – Legs Up x 16
Squat Jumps x  9
Burpees x 6
Handstand Pushup x 4
Burpees  x  10
One Leg Plank x 19
Box Jumps x 10
Squats x 15
Burpees x 8
Frog Leaps x 40
Pushups x 17
Crunches – Legs Up x 17
Curls x 7
Plank x 28
Handstand Pushup x  4

Psychology

The entire battle for fitness is in overcoming our inherent psychological ‘limit switches.’ Our minds control the whole show, and the limits the mind sets are very hard to bypass unless you create a systematic way to trick yourself beyond your limits.

A common way to do this is to have a spotter, or workout partner, who will kick you past those points where you just don’t feel like doing it. Another way is to pay a personal trainer. If you pay, you place some value on getting it done so you will do it. That’s why I have Crazy Rich the Ironman. Every Tuesday he kicks my up and down the hill of my own limits

The randomizer is about tricking yourself. It is a tool for that most pervasive of moments – the “I dunno what I wanna do” for a workout. This moment of indecision creates fuzzy options and we will economize to our limits. With the randomizer the only decision is ‘workout or no’ and the randomizer takes it from there.

April Catch-Up

The test of 2009 program came at the Reading Half Marathon two weeks ago where I clocked 1:44 for the half – a personal best. All systems were go and it was a good run. Next up is the Blenheim Tri.

Tuesday Trundle

Saw wild Rich today and he really gave me an awful beating. Extra abs, extra boxing, more cardio. Great workout. Yesterday had an all indoor workout using =RND()…

1    Situps – Feet on Floor    16
2    Walking Lunges    11
3    Handstand Pushup    3
4    Situps – Legs Curled    14
5    Handstand Pushup    4
6    Situps – Legs Curled    20
7    Burpees    6
8    Tridips    16
9    Pushups    19
10    Situps – Feet on Floor    12
11    Handstand Pushup    4
12    Situps – Feet on Floor    14
13    Walking Lunges    21
14    Pushups    13
15    Situps – Feet on Floor    16
16    Situps – Legs Curled    11
17    Burpees    6
18    Squats    16
19    Walking Lunges    21
20    Situps – Feet on Floor    22
21    Pushups    22
22    Tridips    15
23    Handstand Pushup    4
24    Squats    17
25    Situps – Feet on Floor    21
26    Squats    15
27    Situps – Feet on Floor    21
28    Tridips    11

Sunday Storm & Wrap

In the middle of today’s run strong English winds and driving rain made it a very long 6K on the back end of a 14K run. Did a =RNDomizer workout and started with these exercises:

1    Walking Lunges    22
2    Situps – Feet on Floor    16
3    Squats    21
4    Walking Lunges    17
5    Tridips    22
6    Burpees    10
7    Situps – Legs Curled    13
8    Tridips    22
9    Tridips    17
10    Squats    17
11    Handstand Pushup    3
12    Tridips    22
13    Situps – Feet on Floor    15
14    Burpees    8
15    Burpees    7
16    Situps – Feet on Floor    15
17    Walking Lunges    15
18    Tridips    12
19    Situps – Feet on Floor    15
20    Handstand Pushup    3
21    Walking Lunges    11
22    Walking Lunges    21 (shorted these as friend Trang knocked on the door in the middle of them)

Took off on the run with good intentions, but it got tough and not a reprise of last week’s success under any circumstances.

The week was s success with Saturday as a day off – though probably walked 11 miles on the off day with dog and Colleen for various reasons.  Monday – Friday was good randomized workouts. Still not comfortable with the structure at the gym.

Trying for Speed

The randomizer said ‘cardio only’ and the calculation was for 6.5KM (4 miles). I ran it hard and finished in 30 mins, 54 seconds. This was a pace of4 min 45 secs/km  (7 min 43 secs/mile). A new speed for me though I flagged in the middle.

Tomorrow is a day with wildman Rich so I should have randomly created a pretty balanced week.

Swimming with Moms

Swam today for 30 mins, about a minute per lap. I think its about 500M but I’m not entirely sure the distance. Right now I’m splitting the distance – one length freestyle and the next length breast stroke.

As the title implies, all of the ‘Yummy Mummy’s’ go to this pool to swim, but all it looks like they do is stand in the water and create botoxed swim obstacles.  At first outraged by the imbecility of it, I decided to be positive and the mindless human buoys could help me develop my swimming ’spidey sense’ for triathlons.

Yesterday I did a =RND workout at the gym. The results:

• 8 x Leg extensions
• 10 x Pullups (on Gravitron)
• 8 x Press-ups (free weights)
• 11 x Squat machine
• 8 x Squat Thrust
• 14 x Pushups
• 14 x Situps – Feet on Floor
• 20 x Situps – Legs elevated
• 14 x Situps – Legs elevated
• 6 x Pullups (on Gravitron)
• 21 x Squat machine
• 20 x Gravitron Dips
• 8 x Pullups (on Gravitron)
• 15 x Squat Machine
• 7 x Squat Thrusts
• 21 x Situps – Legs elevated
• 8 x Hip Raises
• 18 x Gravitron Dips
• 12 x Squat Machine
• Hazy bunch of half exercises waiting for machines to open

After this I went on the rowing machine for 21 minutes. It was a good workout, but my hazy bunch of half exercises consisted of trying to sub one exercise for another as the gym got busy and stations were being used. I have to build my skill in quick substitutions. That’s the whole purpose of =RND.

Long One

Ran 23KM (14.3M) today prepping for the Reading Half Marathon. At half marathon distance beat my previous time of 1hr 55mins with a time of 1hr 53mins. The core training is definitely helping. No apparent injuries. Shoulder felt sore during the run though.

Of interest is the route which illustrates why London is a very cool place to do sport. It is possible when running this long route to run from Earl’s Court to the Wandsworth Bridge along the river, then weave back down north to south bank of the Thames over bridges (to include buzzing MI6), cut up right under Big Ben to the Horse Guards then by Buckingham Palace to Kensington Palace and back to Earls Court.  It is a run route that incorporates most of the great tourist sites of London.

Hotel Workouts

The whole exploration of randomly generated workouts is to overcome the pause and avoidance impulse caused by circumstances (“I’m not near gym so can’t workout”, etc) and boredom (“I don’t feel like running again today.”)

On a recent four day trip the system worked brilliantly. I was trapped in a hotel at a conference. On the first day (Monday) I did a strength only workout in this tiny room, to include handstand pushups where my elbows were banging the bed and the wall. Then day two I had only 30 minutes, so I did a 20 minute run and 15 minutes of strength. On day three I did a full 35 minute strength routine, and day four I took off because I had a 7.45am meeting and a flight afterward.

The program works to get me started and working out – now we’ll see if it produces results.

Barcelona Box

In a hotel room in Barcelona randomly generated a quick 20 minute routine

Walking Lunges x 20
Situps – Legs elevated x 12
Pushups x 22
Tridips x 15
Walking Lunges x 11
Squats x 13
Situps – Legs elevated x 12
Pushups x 20
Walking Lunges x 13
Tridips x 15
Handstand Pushup x 4
Situps – Feet on Floor x 21
Handstand Pushup x 2
Pushups 14
Squat Thrusts 10

Was well done by the end – took about 23 minutes. Finding a place to do a handstand pushup was tricky – the maid will probably wonder where the footprints 6′ up the curtains came from.