Finish this ASAP
After titling my last post I found myself in idle speculation (a location slightly north of temporary coma) about how many posts I would have to title before I ran out of acronyms. Hmm.
Didn't write yesterday because work was too nuts, and so was I. The night before I did go to the gym with Z. There I "ran" a mile on the stairmaster, aka the machine from hell, and then grunted and groaned with both weight machines and free weights for some 20 minutes. My favorite machine targets the hamstrings -- I call it the tilt-a-whirl because that's how it's configured. It's a bench with a back and a restraining bar. You rest your calves on top of another bar, add a gazillion pounds to the weight pile (well, 75 pounds) and then pump your legs until your hamstrings feel more like too-tight violin strings.
My training program right now -- I should present this since this purports to be a running blog -- now consists of three runs and one gym workout a week, interspersed with at least five 30-minute-or-more walks a week and whatever bicycle riding it takes to get me to BART or to El Cerrito to shop or to the Berkeley farmer's market or the library. I'm hoping to stay at three runs as I increase my mileage, on the theory that skimping on recovery time will increase my likelihood of injury. The increased mileage will come from the bi-weekly long run.
This morning I did my second run of the week, this one at my usual 4:30 a.m. time. I went for 66 minutes, which I call six miles. The moon hadn't risen, but there were stars, and acres of fresh air. I took it easy and still managed to get all the way out in the middle of Albany and back. As I type I can feel a little right hamstring twinge, but suspect that's more from the tilt-a-whirl than from the run.
On my way back home I stopped as I always do in Cedar-Rose Park to do some crunches and standing push-ups against a bench. There was caution tape all over the bench -- a nearby fence is almost falling on it -- and I was nonplussed. In the light of day I see it would be simple to find an alternative place to push-up from, but I gotta tell you that for the moment I was stopped cold. Funny how the mind works (or doesn't) at that time of day.
Pre-dawn runs are great, but almost better are the breakfasts that follow. Coffee! Juice! Miniwheats topped with All Bran and wheat germ! Melon! Yogurt! Aaaah. If I don't get back to work right now I will have to run out to the streets and search for food.
Didn't write yesterday because work was too nuts, and so was I. The night before I did go to the gym with Z. There I "ran" a mile on the stairmaster, aka the machine from hell, and then grunted and groaned with both weight machines and free weights for some 20 minutes. My favorite machine targets the hamstrings -- I call it the tilt-a-whirl because that's how it's configured. It's a bench with a back and a restraining bar. You rest your calves on top of another bar, add a gazillion pounds to the weight pile (well, 75 pounds) and then pump your legs until your hamstrings feel more like too-tight violin strings.
My training program right now -- I should present this since this purports to be a running blog -- now consists of three runs and one gym workout a week, interspersed with at least five 30-minute-or-more walks a week and whatever bicycle riding it takes to get me to BART or to El Cerrito to shop or to the Berkeley farmer's market or the library. I'm hoping to stay at three runs as I increase my mileage, on the theory that skimping on recovery time will increase my likelihood of injury. The increased mileage will come from the bi-weekly long run.
This morning I did my second run of the week, this one at my usual 4:30 a.m. time. I went for 66 minutes, which I call six miles. The moon hadn't risen, but there were stars, and acres of fresh air. I took it easy and still managed to get all the way out in the middle of Albany and back. As I type I can feel a little right hamstring twinge, but suspect that's more from the tilt-a-whirl than from the run.
On my way back home I stopped as I always do in Cedar-Rose Park to do some crunches and standing push-ups against a bench. There was caution tape all over the bench -- a nearby fence is almost falling on it -- and I was nonplussed. In the light of day I see it would be simple to find an alternative place to push-up from, but I gotta tell you that for the moment I was stopped cold. Funny how the mind works (or doesn't) at that time of day.
Pre-dawn runs are great, but almost better are the breakfasts that follow. Coffee! Juice! Miniwheats topped with All Bran and wheat germ! Melon! Yogurt! Aaaah. If I don't get back to work right now I will have to run out to the streets and search for food.
