Couch to 5K Program Doggie Style

Over the weekend, we adopted a dog. Stupidest thing we could ever have done - we're never home, we've got two cats, and I hate to clean. But Doc needed a home, and I'm nothing if not a sucker.

So, Doc came home with us Saturday afternoon. We spent the day with him on Sunday and we all went for a short walk around the neighborhood. I took the week off to help him get acclimated, so on Monday we went out for another walk. 45 minutes around the neighborhood, with a few short bursts of an easy jog (I was in people clothes - not a comfortable experience, lemme tell ya). But we had a good time, and he got a nice workout even if I didn't.

Fast forward to Tuesday....well, it would seem that our 45 min walk was too much for Doc. 5 years of being a couch potato means I need to take it very slow with him, or else risk more pain and soreness for the pup. The slower I build him up now, the more likely it is that I'll have a running partner for a year or two (it's not a good idea to run large dogs once they're considered seniors).

With this in mind, Doc and I are going to start the Couch to 5K program. While I know that he'll never be able to join me on a long run, I hope to have a new partner for my neighborhood sleasy* runs.

*sleasy - slow and easy

I laughed so hard milk came out of my nose!

The good news: No more sit-ups (via)

Really now?

Well, I guess we shouldn't have done those back squats on Friday (shameless pat on the back - PR'd with 170 lbs, for 3 reps)/

Or the Tabata push-ups (with straight legs, oh my)!

The suggested replacement exercises mentioned in the article are great, in and of themselves (personally not a fan of a seated shoulder press). And admittedly, no one should attempt any exercise without proper instruction. But to actually come out and say "Don't do sit-ups/shoulder presses/straight leg push-ups/standing dead lifts"? Let's just add to that list and tell people to only walk/run on a treadmill (those roads are dangerous), don't walk up real stairs, just do the stair mill or stair climber, and while we're at it - stick to the shallow end of the pool. Don't want people doing anything potentially hurtful, now do we?

Wonder what that author would think about the ring push ups I've been doing....

Tuesday's Tip - November 18th

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet" - Fran Lebowitz

Monsters and Mortals

How does (s)he do that????

Ever wonder what makes your fit freak friends tick? Well, here's a chance to find out! I'm gearing up to do a series of athlete profiles, aimed at finding out just "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?" (or in this case, whether or not our fitness idols have potentially sold their souls to the devil). Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to suggest possible athletes to profile, and then let me know just what it is you'd like to know! There will be a series of stock questions (thank you to the kids at Kickrunners.com for allowing me to hijack their PRT Person of the Day interview) with a few questions specific to that athlete thrown in.

So send me your requests, and I'll do my best to charm people into opening up and letting me in.

Keep your eyes peeled for the first installment of Monsters and Mortals!

Asleep at the Wheel

I see all sorts of crazy things on my drive into the city every day. Drivers eating oatmeal from a mug with a spoon (leaving how many hands on the wheel?), drivers reading the newspaper while going roughly 60 mph, drivers putting on makeup (mascara wand + eyeball + my extreme desire to hit you from behind = bad news), drivers using a hot curling iron near their forehead....the list goes on and on.

But this morning, I saw something that completely took the cake.

There we were, slowly inching towards the tolls for the GWB. In the lane beside us, there was a car just sitting, not advancing forward when the cars in front had moved. As we approached along side, I glanced over, expecting to see either a reader or a beauty queen.

She was sleeping.

After much honking, she finally rolled forward - only to close her eyes again once she caught up to the cars in front of her. This cycle went on until the final merge.

Aside from the obvious incredulousness of witnessing someone actually napping with their foot on the brake, seeing her sleep during her commute got me thinking: how many of us construct a training plan and then operate on autopilot? I know that I have been guilty of this on occassion - if it's written down on my calendar, then that's what I do. Period. End of discussion.

But is that an intelligent way to train?

I don't know about you, but I'm fairly certain that my body has no idea that Monday is Monday and Saturday is Saturday. It doesn't know that 7 days is a week and that in x amount of time I should have gotten y seconds faster or z percent stronger. It doesn't know that Thursdays are interval runs and Saturdays are long runs. Those are my calendar days, my impositions on that time. Generally, it all works out just fine and my body is on the same page as my calendar. But occassionally, it's just not going to happen. It's easy to try to force it - to stick to the planned workout. Lift heavy on a heavy lifting day. Run fast and furious on an interval workout day. But is it really going to get you the most out of your workout?

As athletes, only we know our bodies. We need to learn to listen to them - oftentimes they can tell us a hell of a lot. If you go out for that interval run and those 400s are harder than they should be (not just hard, but harder to the point that you know something is off) - maybe turn that run into a tempo run, or fartleks. If you approach the bar intending to lift heavy and it's just not happening, dial down the weight and take the time to work form.

The same goes for workouts that other people design for you - sometimes they just don't make sense for what you want/need. Take, for example, the recent workout post on CrossFit.com. 5 rounds for time: 25 inverted burpees, 25 pull-ups, 25 burpees. One hell of a workout if you can do all the components as rx'd, in a space that is equipped to handle however many people you're working out with. But if you can't do an inverted burpee, or even come close to doing the separate components well enough to piece one together - does it make sense to do the workout as written? There is no shame in modifying a workout to get the most out of it that you can - or just not doing it and opting to do something else. I attempted the workout above with a modified ivnverted burpee, and with a smaller rep scheme. What I really should have done was take the day to work skills - pull-ups and handstands, and gotten a met-con workout somewhere else. Intsead I got a sore tush and crick in my neck from poorly executed rolls :)

I am in no way advocating that you avoid the things you don't like to do, or wuss out on the ones that you find the hardest to get through. Merely that we need to occasionally take a step back, observe, and be mindful of what our bodies are really capable of doing on that given day.

In the end, we get far more out of a well executed workout that is less intensive than we would out of a forced workout that drains an already empty tank. Aside from the obvious mental strain of a bad workout, if you push your body on an off day the chances of being ready for another hard workout anytime soon are slim. Pull back today so you can surge forward tomorrow.

Use pencil when you program your workouts, and be flexible. And carry a good eraser.

Tuesday's Tip, November 11th

"When you erase something publicly, do it up and down - not side to side. Side to side makes your ass jiggle." - Robb Wolf, quoting Andy Stumpf

Strip Poker

As I drove into the city today, I couldn't help but notice the increasing number of naked branches on the trees that stretched out on the horizon. And decided that as those trees get stripped of their leaves, so would I strip myself of my increasingly self-deprecating manner.

Sadly, there are plenty of negative people out in the world ready to say something unflattering about you - don't make life more difficult by saying such things about yourself. It is our responsibility to be our own biggest fans, since we are inevitably our own worst critics. Be sure that your self-critique is constructive, not destructive. Balance out the assholes in the world with some well deserved self-love (get your mind out of the gutter!) and make your world a better place.

We are who and what we are, and I (for one) am attempting to learn to value that. I challenge you to do the same - by the time the trees are completely bare and stripped of their leaves, so should we be stripped of our tendencies to wallow in our perceived inadequacies and the habit of lending a voice to them. It may be hard, but we owe it to ourselves to recognize our greatness.

Now to put my money where my mouth is :)




edited to add:
In my internet meanderings today, I came across a post by Robb Wolf in which he expresses a similar sentiment (though far more eloquently). He recommends countering those self-deprecating tendencies by keeping a Gratitude Journal. Check it out here....