bike climb

Friday was my first bike climb in a while.  Warm awesome spring weather.  74º and fair weather.  Amazing that 3 days prior, there was snow on the ground.  

The climb felt really slow and hard but, it was a minute faster than my previous, second fastest this yr.

Roark's Cove Rd bike climb

Time - 24:19

Max HR - 184

HR over 170 - 9:34

HR over 180 - 1:25

Avg speed - 5.7 mph

Avg HR - 164 

Summer like weather this weekend.  Going to be in the 80ºs.  

Enjoying watching the World Indoor Championships in Turin, as I lay on my porch, same track I raced on 3 yrs ago.   

The months are ticking by but I don't feel an urgency to get back on the track.  Having tried to come back too soon and race the 400m indoors resulted in my present setback, but I'm not yet giving up the idea of racing again.   Doesn't look like I'll be ready to race this season, at least not the 400m, but I'm thinking about the Worlds in FL a year from now.   Maybe the short sprints.  Still 4 months to Nationals and I think I could get ready to race short sprints in 2-3 months, but will only train if I'm pain free and feel like I'm NOT damaging myself.  

Lot in life going on.  My parents declining rapidly at age 84 and 86, I have to manage my mother's health claims and home care.  I have a major home building project starting this yr which will more than double the size of my house, a major lifetime project, expensive.   It will be likely starting by the summer and continuing all year.  A lot of uncertainty in the world with the incompetent US administration starting a war, unstable markets, likely higher prices for everything.  My main 401k is down only 2% because of my very conservative holdings, despite the Dow now down 18% from it's peak.  The longtime University President resigned and who knows what changes that may bring.  Anything negative from that change would likely not happen for more than 2 yrs, but one never knows.  I'm fine to retire but would prefer to work 4 more yrs.  

Roya just likely got hired by a world-wide engineering firm, a 6 fig job where she can work mostly from home.  A huge relief for her after being laid off in Jan.  She was previously offered a job from this company and turned it down.  At age 64, she's more than happy to take this offer and the benefits package. 

With a half time sabbatical coming up next year, I need to get in concert shape on the guitar.  I feel the carpal tunnel issue coming on in my R hand, and I probably should have the surgery but so far, I'm ok.  Also, continued concerns and surveillance about my organ health with more testing coming up this spring and summer.   No glaring issues and I feel ok, especially with the new morning water drinking regime.  I was going to get more tests next week to be sure there's no significant changes.  

The one variable that has changed is that I completely stopped taking all supplements back in Oct.  Anecdotally, a month later the knee started hurting, so I'm going to start 5 grams of collagen a day to see if it helps.  I'll have a CMP to make sure it's not affecting my liver enzymes.  

Plan for near future is to get strong and light before I try any turf sprints.  Will stay with bike and rowing, then graduate to hills and stairs before sprints on the flat.  Still hanging around the 145-146 lb weight, and want to be 140-141 before any running.  

This was Monday...  Tues morning was 24º - Friday was 74º

rower, gym

Usually workout on Monday night but it was brutally cold, snowy and I was hungry so stayed home and ate too much.  Inspired me to go to the gym after work on Tues.  Had one of my best rowing sets in a while.

Concept 2 rower

4 x 500m w/ 1 min rest -  1:59, 2:03, 2:09, 2:09 (2:05 avg)

Leg press, leg curl, leg extension, step ups, pullups

145.5 lbs after workout.

Insane weather.  72º on Sunday, 27º w/ 2" snow 18 hrs later.   I took these before and after photos on Monday on campus.   

Spectacular and even summer-like weather this summer coming up.   No rain for next 10 days, temps this weekend in the 80ºs.

Sewanee was ranked by Princeton Review and Travel & Leisure Magazine as the most beautiful campus in the US.  Great place to live, train, ... and occasionally work. 

 

A few runs, hills, rowing

I tested the running, still not there.  Not really a 'restful' week with 15+ miles of hiking and biking.   Some of the longer hikes I felt some knee stiffness, so not fully rested.

Stretches, drills, 50m stride

2 x 100m w/ 30 sec rest on turf - 18-19 sec. pace

50m and 100m hill 

4 x 500m rower w/ 1 min rest - 2:02, 2:09, 2:11, 2:13 (2:09 avg)

Seems it's going to take a long time if I'm ever going to be able to do workouts with pain free running.  Maybe should set my sights on indoor season next year and just take more time off.  I don't want to force it.  It was better 4 months ago.  I was also taking a lot of collagen supplements then and now I'm thinking about starting again.  Still not at optimum weight.  

144.5 lbs after workout.

Spring break hiking, biking, and flowers in GA

Spent the week at Roya's house and we did two hikes, not including the visits to 2 botanical gardens, a museum visit, and I did a bike circuit.  The Atlanta botanical gardens were spectacular.  The Gibbs garden was nice too.  In all we did probably 15+ miles of walking/ hiking.  

The daffodils in full bloom in Sewanee today, but they'll soon be gone.  70ºF today, in 24 hrs, will be freezing with snow forecast and 20ºF overnight with windchills in the mid teens.  

2021 video

Here's a video I hadn't seen before, this was my last race of the 2021 season at the Ontario Masters Championships.  

The M60 200m race, broke a 17 yr old meet record,  25.54.    Was a bit tight and sore from the previous 2 races, a 12.63 100m and a WL 56.23 400m, also meet records.  

I'm in lane 5, in the red team USA uniform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5Z-KL7oAc

The 56.23 400m was the fastest M60 in the world until John W. won the World title a year later in Finland.  The 400m meet record I broke by 2.77 sec was set 32 yrs prior by the legendary Earl Fee. 

Weight pulls and sprints

Incredibly beautiful day, mid 70ºs and partly sunny.  Spring break, had the place to myself, save for Kelly, a 76 yr old marathoner who was shuffling around the track.  

I warmed up, did drills, and then ran a few 50s on turf.  Felt ok.  Felt that I needed to take advantage of having the place to myself and do some 90 lb weight pulls, which is something I started doing last summer.  I wanted to do these before trying some longer sprints on turf.  And wow, were they hard.  HR hit 178 after the second one.   

Stretches, drills, bands

2 x 50m sprints on turf

4 x 45 yd weight pulls w/ 90 lbs on turf

50m sprint on turf

2 x 100m sprints on turf - 14.62, 14.66

I can't believe how hard this workout was.  Probably due to my fitness and being a bit heavy and weak.  I literally laid in the shade on the track and dozed off before getting up to leave.  

I wouldn't say the sprints were 100% pain free but better than anytime this year.  Before the workout, I was doing slantboard and stability exercises pain free.  After the workout, it was a bit sore unfortunately.  The real test is how will it feel tomorrow and in the next few days.  

Probably will wait for at least a week before I do any more running.  Back to the bike for a while.  

143.9 lbs after workout. 

Off to Atlanta, next week to stay with Roya in her lovely house.  Will take my bike, dumbells, slant board.

Fast completed - 63 hrs

I fasted from 9 pm Thurs - when I finished a few after dinner snacks at home, until past noon Sunday.  Of course I stayed completely hydrated through the fast, drinking water and herbal tea.  

About noon I had a meal from the Chinese buffet of dry lean chicken, kimchi, steamed white fish, a california roll, brocolli, and some ginger.  After a relatively large meal I was about 144.4 lbs so I may have been able to lose a few lbs.  Badly needed.  I'm going to try and keep eating clean and moderately so I can get back to the low 140s.  

I'm trying some new band work that I think will help my knee as well as the slant board squats.  

Seeing my kidney Dr tomorrow.  Going to ask him about the fasting and low oxalate diet, as well as the stomach pains I've been having (even though it's not his area).  Fortunately, they've subsided.

Spring break starts Friday.  I may try my first turf running in a while.  It's supposed to be hot, not warm, but hot... in the low 80ºs.  Haven't run a real interval workout on turf since Christmas.