VT Dad’s fight vs. inertia & flab

Again mother nature was my trainer for my last workout of 2007.  I had been out of the house all day, celebrating at Burlington’s First Night Festivities.  I had 2 teenage kids at home for much of the afternoon, so I figured I’d return to a shoveled driveway, but noooo…
My eldest had gotten her car out by backing it through the driveway without shoveling anything.  So I got the pleasure of shoveling 5" of Mother Nature’s finest powder with the assistance of my 8 year old daughter.  I guess my older kids were just looking out for my health.  

My New Year’s Resolution is to try to keep a positive outlook, and to be better rounded with my exercise.  I need to be more faithful to my home gym stability/core training routine, and do a better time balancing my time so I consistently get enough sleep.  Happy New Year to All

I woke up to a winter wonderland tis morning.  We had 2+ inches of fresh snow blanketing my neighborhood.  It was picturesque with the tree boughs filled with white, and snow still falling.  The snow plow had yet to make it to my neighborhood, so I searched out tire tracks to run in.  The visuals during this pre-dawn run were breath taking.  I was supposed to run 4 miles, but with a race tomorrow, I cut the run in half.  I ran a nice slow recovery run, and thought about how much I have accomplished during these past 3 months.   I didn’t encounter any cars on my run today, but I did encounter 3 dogs.  The first a big black lab, who aggressively charged out of hid driveway, and protected his turf.   His owner was brushing off his car, and was quickly able to control his dog.  About 3&1/2 minutes later I ran into two dust mop ankle biters, whose owner was not as successful at controlling them.  They nipped near my ankles, and chased me for about 1/4 mile.  Next time I run I think I’ll run with my boxer, he’ll do a great job as my body guard.  Happy New Year to All.

I had an awesome week while I was off work.  Most days in addition to my run I was able to do some other form of cardio.  I ran for 26+ miles, played basketball 4X, and went cross country skiing 2X.  I also spent 3 sessions doing work on the bosu ball or the stability ball.  I lost 3 lbs this week, and I am now at 190, down 25lbs from when I started.  I am happy with my weight, and would like to keep it between 185 & 190.

Next week’s schedule is as follows:
Monday: base run 4 miles w drills 1 legged hop&high knees
Tuesday: 5K race, hoping to set a PR, and break 24:00
Wednesday:  base run 4 miles
Thursday: Fartlek run with 4X1 minute surges
Friday: Base Run 4 miles
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Long run 6-8 miles
For the week my cue is Pulling the Road

I’ll also try stability ball workouts 3-5 nights

Today my wife, youngest and I went out for another cross country ski.  This time we traveled 40 minutes to Sleepy Hollow Ski Touring Center, the place with the scary driveway.  Driving there was fine, but the trails were difficult today.  Yesterday had been above freezing, and last night had been below freezing, so things were icy.  My wife set off, as I waited for my little one to take a bathroom break.  We skied for a bit mostly gentle down hills until we caught up with my wife.  I caught her on a hill, couldn’t stop, and kept going and going and going until I went out of control and fell.  I had the less difficulty with gravity than my wife and daughter.  At least once during the ski I had to double back and help each of them.  At the turn-around point there was a steep uphill.  I struggled and struggled, and finally made it to the top, both my wife and daughter took off their skis, and climbed up the steepest part.

The way back was mostly uphill.  My daughter began to struggle so I stayed back with her.  My wife pushed on, and finished sweaty, exhausted, and proud of her accomplishments.  My daughter rebounded from her doldrums and finishes strong.  It was a great ski, but this ski area is so hilly that we decided to wait to go again until the conditions are more ideal.  Happy New Year all.

Today was another beautiful morning for a run.  It was 34F, calm, with the lightest feathery sprinkling of snow flurries.  I felt rested, relaxed, and rejuvenated from my day off yesterday.  I started my run focusing on my cues for the past 3 weeks: forward lean, taught abs, and running on water.  I felt fast, and I was alone letting my thoughts flow.  Somehow, my brain didn’t cruise to my usual running music: The Boomtown Rats, or up tempo ska, instead my brain was playing Elvis, go figure.  Anyway I was running fast, running free, and running strong.  Although I’ve added .7mile to my base run I thought I had a chance to set my own PR for the 4.5 mile section of my run.  I kept my focus, and kept under control, and each of my splits were fast, I had definitely channeled my inner caribou.  I had to wait until after my recovery, and subtract out my first split to see if I had set my own PR for the run…Unfortunately I missed by 26 seconds.  It was still a great run, and I feel great.

Our forecast is for 3-7 inches of snow starting in the early morning hours. Tomorrow is when I am scheduled to run my long run.  I have a dilemma.  Do I run my long now in the dark before going to bed?  Do I run my long run tomorrow morning in the snow?  Do I postpone my long run until Sunday?  I have a 5K race on Tuesday, I don’t wan to push my long run back to Sunday.  My choice is to rest.  I have already run for over 20 miles this week.  In addition I have cross country skied on Christmas, and played basketball Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and today.  I choose rest.  I’ll run base runs Sunday and Monday, but I’ll skip the long run in bad weather and rest instead.

Today was my last chance to play basketball during my vacation, and it was my first opportunity to really bang at my lighter weight.  For a couple of games I was matched up against someone who out weighs me by 50+ pounds.  I felt great out there against him.  He didn’t push me around (any more than when I weighed 215).  I also contributed more on offense, so this was my best basketball during the week.  It was great that I can still bang and not be pushed around at ~190.

Tonight I played in my first real basketball game with referees, a clock and a scoreboard in at least 6 years.  Boy can grown men acting like little boys take the fun out of something I love.  A colleague at work plays on a team in a league at the YMCA, and he couldn’t make tonight’s game, so he asked me to take his place.  I didn’t know any of my teammates, but I did know 4 of the 5 opponents.  The game was a ragged affair, and a few of the men, boys, were going at each other and the refs kinda of hard.  Luckily I was able to stay clear of the craziness, and play and compete without getting hurt.

Through most of the game we were the better team, but selfishness, and lack of team work finally caught up with us.  With 1.7 seconds to go the score was tied at 61, when the refs called a foul on our opponents.  The game stopped for 5 minutes as the refs and scorekeeper tried to sort out if we should be shooting free throws, or get the ball on the side.  Their decision was our ball out of bounds.  However the timer had let the time run out, and nobody had any luck resetting it to 1.7 seconds.  Finally we threw the ball inbounds, but couldn’t get a shot up, so the game went into overtime.  We scored first in overtime, but then we stunk up the joint, getting outscored 7-0 during the remainder of overtime to lose by 5. Although we lost, I was happy to leave that tiny gym healthy.  I love playing basketball, but I could do without playing in that gym, or in that league anytime soon.

Since I am not working this week, I was able to get a fabulous night’s sleep.  Instead of running pre-dawn, I ran at 10:00AM.  Today was a cloudy day, crisp and cold ~30F when I began, there are 1-4 inches of snow forecast for later in the afternoon.  I was able to relax during my run.  I felt calm and was able to enjoy my run and my surroundings.  Today was a fartlek run, so I accelerated and tried to keep my accelerated pace going for between 45 seconds and 2 minutes.  Todays fartleks were fun and challenging.  I maintained all of them for at least a minute, and some close to 2 minutes.  What I did better today than many of my previous fartleks was recovering at my base pace.  So instead of slowly significantly to rest I finished today’s run 3 minutes faster than yesterdays.

Boy my game sure is rusty.  It seems all that I can do on offense is miss.  Today at the gym was fun, but I am still only contributing with rebounding and defense.  I didn’t play against any physical players, so I don’t have a handle on whether my weight loss hinders me on the basketball court.  If so, I am flustered as what do do next, because I still consider myself a basketball player who runs.  The gym was extremely crowded today, but I was able to get in 6 games without much waiting around.  It was great to see the fellas again, some were in the gym today for the first time in ages.