Sept 20th. Great Run

Ran 12 miles at 9 min or better pace on an empty stomach. Felt great. Hip flexors and IT bands got a little tight but after some heavy lifting this week, i'm not too surprised or worried. Intentionally did the run on an empty stomach to simulate glycogen depletion sooner. Looking forward to the marathon. Its such a great mind phuk. Hoping to get another run in this week with Jeff.

best workout EVER.

so i thought tuesday was the best workout ever but today topped it. This may be the last deadlift i do until after the marathon. i want to make sure my back doesn't get tight for that. going to work really hard until about 10 days out. then i may just row and run for the 10 days before the marathon.

warmup: 7min easy row

find 90% 1RM on deadlift(essentially get warm for next part of workout)

Then begin Deadlifting
3x5 230lbs
3x4 275lbs
3x3 320lbs
3x2 365lbs
6x1 410lbs

3 rounds
20sec row/10 sec rest with 100+ meters rowed in each 20sec interval
Round 1(102/101/101/100)
Round 2(101/101/102/100)
Round 3(113/113/113/111)

brutal IWT

today was a brutal IWT session. what a welcome back to the gym workout. These workouts continue to get more demanding. i love the barbells and all the explosive movements. This one was WAY harder than it looked on paper. Those squats felt like a thousand pounds by the time they came around. Really happy to survive that workout.

7minute easy row.

3 sets:
12 barbell high pulls with 70% of your 1RM for clean.(135#)
row 2minutes at a 550m or > pace.(551,551,554)
rest 2 minutes between sets
-----------------------------
Rest 5 minutes(including 2 minutes from the previous block)
-----------------------------
3 sets:
12 Front Squats at 50% 1RM(135#)
row or airdyne HARD for 15 seconds/less hard for 15 seconds for 2minutes.
rest 2minutes between sets
------------------------------
Rest 5 minutes(including 2 minutes from the previous block)
------------------------------
3 sets:
8 deadhang pullups
8 pushups
8 24k kb swing
8 atomic situps
60 meter farmer carry with 2 32k kbs in each hand.
Rest 1 minute between sets.

5k for time

my goal was to get under 19:56 and got 19:33.4. I'm ok with that. I was up until midnight and had a poor diet yesterday. i'm sure i have room to improve and now that i know it wont kill me, i can learn from this row and work on it for the future. i may toy around with Damper settings. 10 may have been a death wish.

box squats

i've always read that the best way to improve your dead lift is to do more box squats. I never understood why but i'm hoping it will start to make sense to me now that we're doing some. i used to do some light box squats at globogym but never consistently enough to measure the benefits. i love squats and am happy to be doing more of them. i'm so happy to be spending so much time with barbell lately.

warmup
7 min easy row not using foot straps

10goblets@45lbs
10goblets@53lbs
10goblets@70lbs

(below were back squats)
3 box squats @ 195
3 box squats @ 205
3 box squat @ 225
5 x 3 box squats at 245lbs (probably should have gond 20lbs heavier)

6 sets of 5 rapid broadjumps. aka "depth jumps"

5 sets of 10 1 leg deadlifts holding kettlebell(5 reps each leg per set)
24k/24k/24k/32k/32k

300seconds of hold. 1st attempt using slosh pipe. complete the remaining seconds on rings in pushup position.
sloshpipe: 1:45
ring hold: 1:30
ring hold: :30
ring hold 1:15(this was the hardest part of the workout. OUCH!!!!!)

great run

Yesterday morning, Jeff and I went for what we thought was an 11 mile run. When we completed it, Jeff looked it up to discover that the course was 8.5. i'm ok with that because the run felt really good. I felt pain free and light on my feet. It was probably the most comfortable run i've had in a long long time. i'm feeling way more optimistic about the marathon now. The arctic monkeys released a new CD. i'm trying not to overplay it now so that it has an adrenaline effect on me when i put it on my ipod for the marathon. Music can really carry me through tough workouts and runs. Shirley said she's going to sign up too. She had an injured back and foot but had one acupuncture treatment that healed her. So i guess she's in. sweet.

training paid off

so i've been working on my cupcake consumption for the last few years and today it paid off. About 2 weeks ago, our resident champ Kara asked me if i would be her partner in the cupcake eating contest. i was so honored but then i became nervous. i know she is competitive and ALWAYS wins these sorts of things. As the day approached, i became a little nervous about letting her down. Especially since i was hearing stories of Chris B eating 2 entire pies by himself. I've done 3 triathlons this year. last year did the marathon. I've competed in numerous tennis tournaments, swim meets, water polo meets, fencing tournaments, and even a few dance competitions. Not once was i more nervous than today. I heard people saying "look at sean, his hands are shaking". I think maybe i was afraid kara would kick my ass if I let her down. Turns out, she was worried about letting me down. Fortunately, she coached me on the technique of eating half a cupcake and a sip of water at a time. turned out pretty well for us. We placed second just behind the youth heat. I felt great afterwards and even had one of Joe's bratwursts. i haven't eaten since and am a little disgusted with myself now. tomorrow, i have plans to run 12 miles on an empty stomach. Maybe that will make up for at least one cupcake. Kara was impressive today and i'm so glad i got to be on her team. I'm just now ready for more food 8 hours later. Oh, and i did FGB too. My butt, shoulders, and forearms were hurtin like mad from Friday's lunge/push press beat down so i had to reach in the cabinet for some vitamin i this morning.