Fueling for endurance events - Part 1

A few days ago, I was browsing around and came across a blog post by TJ Tollakson - the person who won the Lake Placid Ironman in 2011.  To be honest, I normally don't read much on these things because they usually talk about stuff that doesn't much apply to me, and things that are only interesting to those who are elite athletes.  I figure they get enough attention, they don't need mine.  This time, however, it was different.  I'm not sure whether it was because I saw him cross the finish line in person, or what - but I was compelled enough to read it.  Or at least, to start.

It started out like I'd expect - events he did leading up to IMLP, fancy equipment too expensive for me to afford but that would help his time, yadda yadda yadda - but before too long, it started getting interesting.  He started detailing what he ate before, during and after the event.  Suddenly, there was something he was writing about that I could relate to.  I may not have the training, equipment, or inherent talent that he does - but one thing I can optimize is how I fuel during a race.

My plan for IMLP in 2012 has always been to take full advantage of the support.  They will be having sports drink available every 10 miles on the bike, and every mile on the run.  My plan was to down a 24 oz bottle of sports drink at least every other aid station, and possibly grab half of a banana at the other stations - something like that.  That would equate to 24 oz per hour of sports drink, minimum (at my pace) - and plenty of potassium.  Normally I don't end up consuming quite as much on my rides simply due to logistics and availability of water.  Then, on the run, I'd grab some more during my walk breaks every mile.  In fact, I was figuring I'd be better hydrated and energized during that race than at any point during my training.

So, back to the blog post - what really stuck out to me, after reading all the stuff about a gel every 20 minutes, having caffeine halfway through the bike, was the comment that he got off the bike and felt almost as fresh as he did at the beginning of the bike.

Let me repeat that:  He finished a 112 mile bike ride, and still felt energized enough to, as he put it 'rock a solid marathon'.  The fact that he did the bike ride in a stupid-fast 4:33 (25 mph on one of the hilliest IM courses in the world) is just gravy on top.

I think that stuck out to me because I don't care who you are or what training you've had - you are going to feel a 112 mile bike ride.

Now, obviously his power output on a bike far exceeds mine, for a multitude of reasons:  he's got a coach (I don't), he's got a tri bike (mine is a road bike), he's trained far more than I have, he's an elite athlete (I'm an average Joe), etc, etc.  The list goes on and on.  But that list is a list of things I cannot change (well, realistically, anyway - I'd like to keep my day job and continue living in a nice neighborhood).  What he did do, though, is make sure he was loaded up with fuel.  That is something I can change.

A few years ago when I started this whole triathlon thing out, my friend Dave convinced me pretty quickly how important sports drink was for endurance.  However, I didn't put a whole lot of stock into the number of calories, because it seemed a small fraction of how many would be needed.  For example, you have a marathon at 26.2 miles.  For most people, thats going to equate to about 3300 calories required for that effort.  If you drink 24 oz of sports drink per hour, and it takes you four hours - you end up with 96 oz of sports drink.  Most drinks are about 50 calories per 8 oz, so you end up consuming 600 calories.  Sure, 600 out of 3300 is a decent percentage (about 18%) - but it certainly isn't where the vast majority of calories are coming from. 

Now if you look at TJ's calorie consumption - he ate 15 gels in the 4.5 hours of the bike.  Cycling requires significantly fewer calories per mile than running; running generally equates to about 125 calories/mile, and cycling is often closer to about 45.  Sure, each of those vary from person to person, and the numbers vary with intensity and equipment - but we are ballparking here.  So each energy gel is 110 calories - meaning he consumed over 1600 calories on the bike alone. 

So, the rule of 24 oz of sports drink per hour  provides 150 calories of fuel per hour.  TJ consumed about 360 calories per hour on the bike - more than twice the caloric intake.  That is a significant difference. 

But that's not all.  In my recent exploration of fueling for endurance events, I browsed through the 'Running for Fitness' link that I have on the sidebar of this blog.  This was an example of a page I stumbled across before, found it imformative, and just flagged it for review later without really processing what it had to say.  I found section 7.3 - "Energy While Running", and suddenly a bunch of things started clicking in my head all at once:

"You can store about 400g of glycogen in your muscles, and about 100g in your liver (though, as we shall see, these can be increased with training). This means you can store about 2000 kcal as glycogen – enough energy to run or walk about 20 miles."

Well that there pretty well explains the dreaded wall at 20 miles for a marathon.  However, my wall ocurred a few miles later during the Baystate Marathon .  I only consumed a total of 48 oz (6 x 8 oz bottles) of gatorade during that marathon, which accounted for about 300 calories (or 2.5 miles).  In fact, its worse than that because I mix gatorade at about 2/3 to 3/4 strength.  But either way, the timing of when I hit the wall vs how many calories I consumed is just about perfect.

"The aerobic energy system primarily uses a combination of carbohydrates and fat (but can also use proteins). The proportion of carbohydrates and fats used depends on the intensity of the exercise. For low intensity exercise, your muscles mainly draw their energy from fat. But as your effort level goes up and your muscles have to generate energy more quickly, so you have to increase the proportion of energy that comes from carbohydrates. The proportion of energy provided from carbohydrates rises as exercise intensity increases from around 10% to up to 90%."

My HR during that marathon was generally between the 75-85% range.  So if the amount of carbohydrates required goes up with intensity (up to about 90%, where it switches from aerobic to anaerobic), then I was in a mode where the majority of my calories needed to be carbohydrates.  That leads back to the previous point, where I only provided my body with an additional 300 calories of carbohydrates.  In effect, I was starving myself of carbs.

Then there was this bit that started to tie it all together (bolding mine):
"During the first hour of exercise, most of your energy comes from glycogen stored in your muscles. After about an hour, the muscles begin to draw their fuel from the blood sugar, which is in turn supplied by glycogen stored in your liver, as well as from their own stores. Your liver glycogen levels are also finite. So when your liver glycogen is depleted, your blood sugar level falls and you are unable to carry on exercising. This low blood sugar (called “hypoglycaemia”) induces a feeling of tiredness and light-headedness, and your legs begin to feel very heavy. Marathon runners know this as “hitting the wall” or getting “the bonks”. It is a quite distinct (and unpleasant) feeling, and it has the same effect on your running performance as a large bear climbing on to your back.
But if you can replenish your blood sugar while you are exercising, you will not deplete your liver glycogen stores so rapidly, with the result that you can carry on for longer before you hit the wall. That is why it is a good idea to take energy on runs of more than 2 hours."

This is where I got into forehead slapping territory.  Durrrr... Just one of those moments when I realized that all those times during long training runs that I felt like I was running out of gas - it wasn't that I needed more training to push beyond the limits I had found.  I just needed to do a better job of fueling my body.

Then, finally, there was these bits in the last section:
"Research shows that the average person’s muscles can take up about 30g to 60g an hour of carbohydrate from the bloodstream."
--snip
"It takes about 30 minutes for the carbohydrate which you eat or drink to reach your bloodstream, so you need to start consuming carbohydrates before you begin to feel tired."
--snip
"consume about 35g of carbohydrate per hour, which will roughly maintain your blood sugar levels."

Thats a lot more carbohydrates than I've been taking in during long runs and bike rides.  The problem I had was that during bike rides, opportunities to refill water bottles in order to consume that many carbs in the form of gatorade were relatively few.  This has me thinking that I might have to re-evaluate how I get carbs during long rides and runs.  It may be that energy gels are a higher density form of carbs that can more easily be consumed in the proper amounts per unit time.  Another option might be to go with gatorade full strength (or even more) - but honestly that gets too sweet, and I know that I'll be wanting nice cool, fresh, unflavored water on those rides and runs in the middle of summer when it is hot out.  So I think that possibility is off the table right away.

I'm starting to see why they say that sports drinks are good for anything over an hour, but not necessarily for the long haul as the primary form of fuel during a marathon.

Coming up in the next part - now that we've established the importance of fueling during exercise, we take a deeper look at fuel sources.

Day 53 - 10 mile threshold - 12/29/11

Although I normally wouldn't do a second threshold run in one week, I really wanted to experiment with some homebrew energy gel, and today was the only day I could do it in the near future.  The full story on the energy gel will be detailed in the next post - but the short version is that I've been looking into nutrition, specifically how to fuel for endurance events, and have had my eyes opened somewhat.

Today's run was a repeat of what I did earlier in the week.  During that previous run, everything felt generally fine until about mile five, when I could tell the wheels were starting to get squirrely.  Then around mile eight, I pretty much bonked and had nothing left in the tank, unless I really wanted to make recovery absolutely miserable by way overdoing it.  But then again, I didn't bring any water or anything with me.

So I bundled up in my cold weather running gear (complete with newly gifted blinky lights, and a headlamp that we've had but I never actually used), 4 x 8 oz bottles of water, and a 5 oz flask of homebrew energy gel.  I was concerned about the gel and its fluidity, due to the temperature.  I started out thinking I'd take some every half mile along with a swig of water - but quickly realized that due to viscosity, squeezing it out of the tube was so distracting that I'd be better off taking some every mile instead because that would minimize the distractions.  I'd just end up taking more, thats all.  It ended up working decently well - I thought I had finished with the majority of the gel consumed, but once it got into the house and warmed up a tad so that it wasn't all stuck to the walls of the squeezable flask, it turned out I only eaten about half of it.  Oops.

Regarding how well it worked - most definitely an improvement.  I felt fairly strong throughout the whole run - going up hills were not as fatiguing, I recovered faster, overall HR was decreased, had no problems with bonking out.  If I was out of gas last time, this time I'd say I finished stronger and still ha probably 1/3 of a tank left.  Enough to push the pace up for a few miles at the end if I was running a full half marathon, but not so much left that my overall pace could have been significantly faster

After reviewing the results, two thoughts come to mind.  Having something to top off energy glucose stores during exercise definitely helps with maintaining a fairly strong feel throughout - and the gatorade I've typically been having in the past was helping far more than I ever thought.  I always considered it primarily hydration and electrolytes, and it is both those things - but I didn't realize the tremendous effect that the sugars in it also have. 

Day 52 - P90X Back & Biceps - 12/28/2011

Writing this a day late.  In fact, I got a few posts to write up tonight.  I'll be in front of the computer for a while.

Anyhow, this time around on this routine I had gotten a new set of barbells that are easier to switch weights out.  They also came with weights in lb increments, instead of kg's.  So, now that I have four barbells total - all of them adjustable (two quickly adjustable, two are a pain in the ass) - I was able to enhance this workout a bit.  In the past, I had to keep switching between weights that were appropriate for bicep work, and then switch them out for weight appropriate for back work.  This resulted in excess downtime between sets.  However, this time I was able to set one pair of barbells up with heavier weights for back stuff, and one pair of barbells up for biceps.  I ended up going with 16 lbs for biceps - which I figured would be just about right for some things, and maybe a tad light for others (based on previous workouts) - and 14 kg for back stuff.

It turned out that those weights were just about right.  One thing I didn't anticipate was the difference that the extra rest between sets had previously made.  This time around, since the sets occured one after the other with much less rest, it turned out that the slightly lighter-than-expected weights for biceps was just about perfect.

So, overall - some of the numbers are down from last time (like only 6 total chinups, and 2 corn cob pullups towards during the max rep set at the end), but I think the reps and weights from this time around are much closer to what they should be.  It also means that the results are likely going to be more repeatable week to week. 

Day 50 - 9.5 mile threshold - 12/26/11

Not really sure why I bother keeping track of the days anymore.  With the warm weather, it's not like I've been concentrating on P90X as much as I anticipated.

The past couple days I've done a couple runs around the neighborhood with the dogs again.  I mostly wanted to see how my right foot acted after some slow, easy miles during a run lasting between 30-60 minutes, with the primary stress being two days in a row.  So there was one run on the 23rd (day after my last post), followed by a rest day on the 24th, another easy run on the 25th, and a threshold run today.

Unfortunately, there was both a good and a bad.  First off, the good: the right foot hasn't been a problem, even with running two days in a row, twice, with only a day in between.  With the total being over 20 miles during that time, I'm pretty happy about that.  Also, I am still able to put up a decent performance during the threshold runs in terms of pace and sustained HR.  The bad: there are more and more signs that the very low amount of running over the past couple months is taking its toll.

Part of it, honestly, is my own doing - today was a day of throwing in a few variables that were detrimental to performance.  First, I went out with no water, gatorade or anything.  I knew I was going to be out for the better part of 90 minutes or so, but for whatever reason I just didn't feel like getting all that stuff prepared.  Second, I tried playing with the workout feature of my HR monitor - setting it for one mile of a warm up (which I defined as a HR of less than 155), followed by 8 miles of a HR between 158 and 172, followed by a cooldown mile of a HR less than 150.

The workout experiment lasted all of about 1.25 miles.  While I went slow, and the average HR during that mile was 144 - right about where it should be - the damn thing was so sensitive that it was beeping all over the place.  Go up a tiny hill, it complains about the HR being too high - and that first mile, while certainly not describably as being 'hilly' - has a few gentle inclines that tend to bring the HR up briefly.  After I got past the warmup mile and into the threshold, the HR monitor was then, almost immediately, complaining about HR being too high - as it was registering nearly 180.  I know what a HR of 180 feels like, and I wasn't feeling that.  Soon after it settled back down and registered a more accurate reading in the 150's.  Not sure whether electrical interference was a problem (I've had interference with Polar HR monitors, but never the Forerunner), or weather it was poor conductivity of the chest strap - probably the latter - but either way the thing was complaining.  And since it was complaining, I slowed up a bit before I realized it was registering high - so of course once it started reading correctly, my HR went below 155 and it started complaining about that.  I ended up saying 'screw it' - I didn't want to listen to this thing yapping at me the whole run.  In the past I've tried playing around with these kind of workout features, and just found them too inflexible.  I wish they'd use some sort of averaging algorithm in order to determine when to scream at you, as opposed to the instantaneous HR.

Anyhow, I stopped the workout, but that of course screwed up the whole standard I follow of autolapping every mile.  So it ended up being about a 1/3 of a mile off on every autolap.  Not that big a deal, really - just annoying.

So then once I got off workout mode, I was cruising along pretty decently, but it didn't take long for me to start whether I really had the stamina to keep up the pace.  I was hovering around the 8 min/mile mark and a HR of 160 for most of the time - which I was happy about because I've certainly sustained that HR (or higher) for distances longer than this run - however I didn't know whether my mind was playing tricks on me with regards to endurance, or whether I was actually exerting myself more than I should have.  At around the 5 mile mark, I pretty much had my answer - I was starting to feel the effects of pushing things, and I knew I was only halfway done.  Also, most of that first five miles is relatively downhill - not a whole lot, but I knew the last half was going to be slightly uphill.  It was at this point that I realized not bringing gatorade or at least water was probably a mistake.  As the next three mile wore on, the rate of exhaustion grew as well.  By the time I hit mile eight, I had spent a few miles in the high 160's for HR, and was feeling pretty cooked.  I slowed up a bit to recover, thinking maybe I'd treat the rest of the run as an interval workout, but I couldn't really even muster up the energy to do that.  I decided that this workout was done, and I'd slow up and give myself a nice and long cooldown.  If the run was somewhat of a fail, I didn't want it to spill over via soreness and tightness.

I'm hoping that in the next week or so, I can find a chance to do that loop again, but I'll bring gatorade with me.  I'd be interested to see what difference in makes - I feel like it'd make a significant one, but I'm also basing that assumption on results from a couple-few months ago, when I had been better about keeping up with running 3x per week.

Day 46 - 5 mile run and P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps - 12/22/11

Today, in an effort to condense three activities into one, I decided to try bringing both dogs along with me for this run.  In the past, I've run with one of the dogs, but stopped because having to deal with pit stops and other stuff was distracting for a run where I was trying to actually accomplish something.  However, today I had no real goal - I just wanted to run an easy 5 miles or so - so I figured I mine as well try getting exercise for me and the two dogs all at once.  I set out on a course around the neighborhood, which ended up totaling about 4.75 miles, so it was a little shy.  It was a distance PR for both dogs.  They made no attempts to cover it up either - during the short walk back to the house they were lagging behind a good amount.

For the P90X workout, this one is still pretty rough.  Part of it is that I have 8 lb dumbbells, and I've been going with 6 kg for most of the exercises, because switching out weights is a hassle.  So although 6 kg is a bit much for some things, such as the later tricep extensions - I am finding I'm making progress.  Whereas before the weight was so much that form was sloppy AND the exercise was difficult, it is starting to get to the point where I can pay attention to mechanics and form a bit more.  Granted, it is still rather sloppy, and the reps are few - but it is at least going in the right direction.

One more workout for this week (Back & Biceps) and then Phase II is done, which means a week of rest.  W00t!

Day 44 - P90X Legs & Back - 12/20/11

I just realized - I never made an entry for yoga yesterday. Probably because there was nothing much special to report on. Except that it gelt hotter than it's ever been. It seems I've said that probably 4-5 times, but I can tell you with certainty that this time felt hottest. Fortunately, I've learned how to pace myself so that I don't burn myself out.

My biggest hope for the class was to see it set my right foot back to normal. One of the ways I can tell how inflammed the tissue is is during some of the kneeling poses - when my ankle is at its greatest point of flexion, and my weight is on top of it. If it hurts when the pressure is released, I know inflammation remains. Fortunately it was only a mild annoyance on the pain scale, so the hope was there. Even still, this morning and throughout the day today I popped ibuprofin and aspirin - thinking that maybe if I kept the inflammation down in the first place, it wouldn't get worse. That experiment is still in progress (more on that later).

So tonight was the legs & back workout again. Increase weights on a few of the exercises, and managed a total of 74 pullups - so that number is slowly increasing by a few each time.

Hmm.. not much to say other than that. Tough to always come up with something to say with strength training - I lift things up, and put them down. Or, rather, in this case - I go into a lunge, and come back up.

After that workout, I started experimenting with another treatment for my foot (maybe this entry should have been titled differently?) - alternating cold and hot. So while I watched some TV for about an hour, I dunked my foot into cold water for 5-10 minutes, followed by dunking it in hot water for 5-10 minutes. The idea is that cold constricts tissue and cuts out inflammation, but then the heat causes a rush of blood flow and nutrients to promote healing. I'm also going to put a heat pad on the top of my foot overnight and see if that helps. It's kind of a gamble - since inflammation is due to swollen tissue, and heat causes things to expand - it may actually result in a set back. I guess we'll see.

Day 41 - 11.75 miles easy - 12/17/11

Finally catching up on blog entries.  Before I wrote up yesterdays HR training zones entry, I had gone out and ran a mid-distance run at an easy pace.  After last weeks 11 miles at threshold, and recognizing I had not only taken a step back cardio-wise, but also physically (I had minor soreness for a day or two afterwards - previously an 11 mile run would have induced no such thing) - I figured it'd be a good idea to take a step back and get at least a couple weeks of easy runs in to build back up.  While my original plan had been to do shorter, more intense runs - the weather and crappy roads that led to me to that  plan have not come up yet, so other options become available.

If I was going to go easy, I wanted to add a little more distance than last week.  I wanted to keep it under 15 miles, though.  I ended up adding a segment to one of my 10 mile loops, hoping it'd add a few miles - and it did add distance, but not quite as much as I hoped.  Still, at 11.75, it turned out to be enough.

I started out at a nice pace and intensity - generally below 155 and somewhere between 8:45-9:00 min/miles.  However, after about 4-5 miles, I noticed that the HR was creeping up a bit, so I had to slow down a tad.  In retrospect, perhaps doing the back/bicep workout beforehand, plus only have a light breakfast, affected things more than I thought.  True, I haven't been running much in the past month - but the pace and corresponding HR were a little more out of whack than I'd suspect.  By the end of the run, I was having a hard time keeping the HR down, so I knew that I was pretty much done.

When I returned home and saw my average HR of 154, I was pleasantly surprised - I was concerned it'd be over 155.  Then, the secondary concern was whether 154 was low enough to be considered 'easy'.  After writing up yesterdays post and seeing the ranges for easy based on my performance, I saw that 138-157 fills that range of 65-79 %HR, so I just barely squeaked in.  However, I don't like cutting it that close. 

Later on that day, I started noticing a return of some right upper lateral calf soreness.  I felt it in the same spot after last weeks run (which was one indication that I needed to build up again), but it went away after a day or so.  Additionally, the top of my right foot started aching again.  I popped a few advil later that afternoon (after the ice bath), and this morning both are improved, though not totally gone.  I was hoping that with being off work this week, I'd be able to run a couple times - but those plans will have to be put on hold for the time being.  A yoga class or two should clear things up pretty quickly, and I hope to be able to get in a 5 miler or so during the middle of the week, and a 9-10 miler on the weekend.

Revisiting training zones and Jack Daniels Running Formula plan - 12/17/11

For most of this year, I've generally gone by the rule that anything under an avg HR of 155 is easy, 160-165 is threshold (sustainable for a 10k distance), and 165-175 is tempo (sustainable for 3-5 miles).  While doing certain things like tempo and threshold runs in those ranges has worked out rather well, I started thinking the other day that I should probably get more regulated in keeping track of this stuff, since too many things have changed over the past few months, such as overall stamina at increased HR, and performance.  The main reason I didn't worry about any of this in the beginning of the year was that I was more concerned with making sure I was managing and over my ITBS issues.

To help track this over time I've put a new page on the main screen of this blog (HR training zones) that links to a spreadsheet.  Entering the base values of age and resting heart rate, I calculated various %HR numbers using the Karvonen Formula:  [((220 - age) - RHR) * %HR] + RHR.  I also put a place for my current Jack Daniels formula VDOT value, and below that what the easy, MP, threshold, interval and repetition paces are.  My hope is that this way, over time I can track my RHR, race-determined VDOT, and what my resultant training ranges should be - based on the VDOT calculator found here.

So, just for fun - how does it all line up, with regard to HR ranges and race performance?  The Monson Half was a 13.1 mile race, and fairy hilly (so in truth it probably wasn't the best race to base a VDOT on - but it was the only one available).  Obviously the pace should be faster than the MP of 7:57 min/miles, since a half is half the distance of a full marathon.  Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find a corresponding pace in Jack Daniels world for the half marathon, but my average pace for that race of 7:38 min/mile was between VDOT (45) marathon pace of 7:57, and VDOT (45) max threshold of 7:25.  Furthermore, my avg HR of 169 puts me at the 88%, which is at the bottom of the threshold range of 88-92%.

Then, for the 5 mile Whitinsville Thanksgiving day run - going off the VDOT of 45 from the Monson half, the predicted performance for 5 miles would be 36:07.  My actual time was 35:29, which is obviously pretty close.  In fact, recalculating the VDOT for a 35:29 5 miler results in the same VDOT of 45.  Furthermore, the average HR of that 5 mile race was 172, which is again in the threshold range of 90%. 

Looking at another example - last weeks 11 mile run - the pace was 8:03 min/mile with an average HR of 161.  That puts that run at about 82%, in the marathon pace training zone.  However this also highlights a subtle point and a resultant question - when you look at the zones that Daniels sets forth, there is something to account for the range between 65-92 %HR - so what distribution should be followed in a training plan?  I suppose thats where weekly mileage comes in, and that would be where the plan really starts to take shape.  However, when totalling up the percentages, it never seems to quite add up.  This had been something of a persistent question in my mind with his running formula.

Lets assume a 40 mile/week, with an easy pace of 9:17 minute miles.  Based on his formula, I should be running the lesser of 10 miles (25%) or 150 minutes at an easy pace.  At 9:17 minute miles, it would take me a little over 90 minutes (but far less than 150 minutes) to run 10 miles, so that means I stop at 10 miles for easy runs.

On to marathon pace, which is lesser of 90 minutes or 16 miles.  At MP speeds of 8 min/miles, time would be the limiting factor, as 90 minutes would be just over 11 miles.  So now the total is 21 miles in the week.

For threshold runs, which are lesser of < 10% miles or 60 minutes.  At a threshold pace of 7:25, the 10% miles is the lower value.  So four miles at 7:25, which is a total of 25 miles.

Intervals are 8% of weekly mileage, so another 3.2 miles there, for a total of 28.2.  However, in between intervals of whatever distance is used (probably 400m, or about 1/4 mile) - do you run slow and easy to recover, or just walk?  All easy miles have been used up, so I guess you'd walk.  Finally, repetitions for 5% weekly mileage, or 2 miles.

So in total for a 40 mile/week plan, only 30.2 miles are accounted for.  I've never really known what to do with those extra miles.  I would seem to make the most sense to have them be categorized as easy.  Also, does that mean that the 10 miles @ easy pace is my 'long' run - even though my MP run is 11 miles?

Maybe the problem is that my pace is too slow.  How different is it for someone who has a VDOT of 58, whose easy run pace is 7:34?
Easy: 10 miles @ 7:34 (about 75 minutes)
MP: ~14 miles (6:25 min/mile pace for 90 minutes)
Threshold: 4 miles
Intervals: 3.2 miles
Repetitions: 2 miles
Total: 33.2 miles
So, not much different

What about a VDOT of 58, but that person doing 60 miles per week?
Easy: 15 miles @ 7:34 (about 113 minutes)
MP: ~14 miles (6:25 min/mile pace for 90 minutes)
Threshold: 6 miles
Intervals: 4.8
Reps: 3
Total: 42.8
So, about 9 miles extra accounted for, but there are 20 more miles added to the week, so those numbers still don't add up.

Day 41 - P90X Back & Biceps - 12/17/11

Last time I did this workout, I was really concerned that my biceps would be extremely sore for a good long time.  Doing a lot of curls is relatively new to me (although the Shoulders & Arms routine from Phase I did a decent job of prepping the biceps), and virtually every exercise in this particular routine uses biceps at least a little bit - so they really got worked.  Fortunately, any residual soreness I felt for a few days afterwards was surprisingly mild.

So today I mostly wanted to hone in on the appropriate weight to use, as opposed to trying to up the # of reps from last week - since I'd be increasing weight already, I didn't want to also increase reps and overdo it.  This way I'd have a better baseline with regards to exhaustion.  The only wrench that throws into things is that my rest between many sets was longer than desired, since I often had to spend a solid minute changing out weights.

The big 'WTF' exercise from last time was the corn-cob pullups.  I was able to improve on the form slightly by moving side to side a little more, but I ended up banging my head on the ceiling joist.  And then I tried actually doing the in-and-out part, but banged my head on the air duct behind my pull-up bar contraption.  So in the end, I decided that maybe I'd just have to make do with somewhat limited range of motion.

The nice thing is that I was able to adjust weights up and down based on last weeks notes, and complete the reps, and I don't feel quite as sore.  I think I am finding that my strategy of increasing reps from the previous week via mid-set break (ie, if I did 8 last week, this week I'd do 8 and then 2), or combining a previous workout with a mid-set break into a single set, seems to be working.  There are certainly some exercises where I'm keeping the number of reps the same during two successive weeks, but as long as I'm seeing progress and increase strength elsewhere, I'm not worried about having to consistently increase reps on every exercise. 

Day 40 - P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps - 12/16

I'm writing this a day-after, because I managed to squeeze this workout in before heading out for the evening, and I didn't have a chance to do a writeup until now.

Both this time and last time I did this workout, I found the tricep extension workouts to be kinda tough because I'm a tad too lazy to continually change out the weight plates.  So as a result, I usually just pick a weight that seems relatively appropriate for all exercises in a particular routine, and just deal with it. 

The two twitch speed pushups are still killer, though.  I can manage the first set of four slow, and the second set of four fast, but by the time I hit the next set of four slow - I'm close to beat.  Plus, switching between speeds is kinda tough - it's like the muscles get used to slow and then when its time to do them fast, the muscles don't know how to respond.

There were a couple things of note this time around - being able to do another set of floor flys on each side, and I figured out that if I put my hand out farther on the one armed pushups, I can actually sorta do one (on my knees, of course).  Previously I had my hand in, almost directly beneath my chest.  Maybe eventually thats a good place to strive for, but for right now I just need to find some place to start so that I can actually do one.

Day 37 - Yoga - 12/13/11

When I looked at hotels in the area of where I'd be staying this week (Redwood City, CA), I for once actually looked at the fitness center.  It said it had a weight station.  GREAT!  I thought - I can do my P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps this week while I travel.

Then today I visited the fitness center.  Two dreadmills, one two weight lifting contraptions.  Not a dumb bell or free weight in sight.  /sigh

So I pondered what to do.  I could just bag it totally and wait till I get home later this week to do anything, I could do some barefoot on the dreadmill, I could do as much of the intended workout as I could without weights and call it good enough, I could go to a local yoga class, maybe do the plyometrics workout in the hotel room, or - as one of my DM friends, Becky, suggested - "That [$18 for a yoga class] seems awfully expensive for yoga, no? You're in a hotel, for $18 you could get a slice of cake, watch the first 4 minutes of some overpriced porn, rub one out and call it a night."

I ended up going with the Yoga.  I figured that if I've previously determined that yoga is the best overall and all around workout (which I have), I mine as well do it in place of something else if that something else isn't available.

One of the nice things about Bikram is that it's always the same 26 postures - so once you know the routine, you can go into any Bikram studio and know what you are getting into.  That rang true here for the most part and at a high level, but there were enough differences that I seriously wonder whether this place is actually a legit Bikram studio, or whether they just call it Bikram but intentionally change enough things up to avoid having to pay licensee fees.

When I first walked into the room and sat down, I noticed it was rather cool.  Enough so that I was actually thinking 'seriously!?' and that it might be so cool that I may not be able to get warm enough to really get a great stretch.  However, a few minutes before class started, the heat cranked on and it got to a more normal temperature.  Still felt somewhat dry, though.  My home studio has multiple humidifiers to keep things sticky - this place didn't seem to have any.  But thats neither here nor there with regards to whether this place is an actual Bikram studio.

Right off the bat, there were differences.  Standing in mountain pose before the pranayama breathing, bending in all directions during half moon pose instead of just side to side, the extremely long amount of time maintained in half moon pose, squatting down to grab ankles during hands to feet, no instruction to extend the foot during standing head to knee, no instruction to lean forward during standing bow pulling, no having hands on floor at all during cobra, second set of full locust pose being with hands clasped behind the back, and random childs poses instead of savasana in between the more active postures.  And on top of it all, the dialogue was comparatively vacant.  I'm used to the instructor talking virtually non-stop for the entire 90 minutes.  Here, there was the bare minimum of instruction, followed by countdown until the end of the pose ("thirty..... twenty.... ten... five...change"). 

I still got a good workout because it's not like I really require the dialogue at this point to know what to do - but it was just different.  But I did learn to appreciate my local studio - all instructors have a full dialogue, and the floor is carpeted with foam underneath as opposed to hardwood!

Day 35 - P90X Legs & Back - 12/11/11

Very quick update today, as I am writing this in the last 30 minutes I'm at home before I head to the airport to fly to CA for most of the week.

I wanted to make sure I snuck in this workout before I left because hotels usually lack facilities to do pushups and pullups. And since I was questioned by the TSA one time for bringing this on board with me once (they asked me if it could be used as a weapon - I replied: "I suppose." I mean, seriously - you could turn anything into a weapon if you hit someone over the head with it - so what the hell kinda question is 'Could you use that as a weapon?'), I'm definitely not bringing a portable pullup bar with me. So I figured I'd do one of the back routines today, then I could save chest, shoulders and triceps for the hotel weight room, and then on Friday when I'm back home I could do the other back routine (biceps and back). Travelling will mean missing a pool workout, and possibly a yoga workout, unless I look to find one near where I'll be, and the class timing works out.

Anyhow - I didn't really look to increase the number of pullups this time around, because I could tell my biceps hadn't fully recovered from Thursdays Back & Biceps workout. One of those situations where I only feel sore when flexing my biceps (as opposed to the past couple days, where there was minor residual soreness that was always present). I did manage to eek out a couple more total, and in a couple sets I did manage to do the same number of pullups as last week, just without taking a midset break.

The only other major change is that I want to start adding weights to the side to side lunges. They don't feel intense enough anymore. And I could probably up the weight slightly for the calf raises - from 4 lb dumbbells to 2 kg (4.4 lbs).

Day 34 - 11 mile threshold run - 12/10/11

I've mentioned in a previous post how I've noticed significant improvement in my right foot following a yoga class, and that it occured not just once, but twice.  At some point late last week, I realized that it was almost fully better, just a small spot of inflammation left.  It's interesting when you've had something amiss for a decent period of time - when you really dig into it, you really learn specifics about it.  For example, in this case, I was able to actually feel the inflammation.  So there were times when I'd be walking along and not feel anything, but if I rolled the tendon that runs across the top of my foot which connects my big toe to my ankle, I could actually feel the resistance brought on by the inflammation.  So I knew that I wasn't fully healed, even though there were times it felt ok when walking.

So when I went to Yoga on Monday, part of the goal was to knock out some more inflammation.  The thing is with Bikram Yoga - if you ask them, they'll tell you it heals whatever ails you.  They claim certain poses stimulate your this gland and that gland and helps with weight loss and helps with sleep and all this other hokey dokey BS.  I've generally ignored all that, and just bought into the overall health benefits that are more tangible - core strength, balance, flexibility, etc.  But this recent incident has me thinking that maybe there is just a tad more to it than what I've been letting on.  I still don't believe that standing with your forehead touching your knee and your throat choked helps your fix your metabolism - but by Wednesday morning after Mondays class - the inflammation was gone.  And not just 'I dont feel it while walking around' gone, but gone in that I could actually feel the tendon and feel it rolling under my thumb with no resistance.  Just one of those things that makes you say 'Well I'll be damned..'

Anyhow, with that progress, I started getting amped up for going for another run this weekend.  I wasn't sure whether to keep it conservative - just do something like five miles to make sure to not aggrevate the foot, or do something more.  I figured I'd do something more - if I re-aggrevated it, it wouldn't be that bad (it had been steadily improving , even with the running - although the running did set it back every time) and it'd heal rather quickly.  So I ended up doing my 11 mile loop around the local reservoir.  I initially thought I'd just go at a nice easy pace, but doing so would mean more time pounding pavement - and I figured I might already be pushing things a bit, so I wanted to minimize the number of footstrikes for that distance.  I also didn't want to push quite at a race half marathon pace either, so I ended up making it a threshold run - keeping the HR between 160-165.

It was really nice to get back out running again, especially without the mild aggrevation every time I planted my right foot down.  I could tell pretty quickly that I'd lost a step over the past two months, with only having done about 30 miles total in that time.  I'm ok with that, though - it's to be expected with a reduction in both mileage and quality workouts.

In the end, I don't think I reaggrevated the foot at all - at least, I can't feel anything.  I did my ice bath afterwards (which, BTW, really suck when doing them in the winter when the house air temp is in the low 60's), and we'll see what happens over the next couple days.  However I think I'm at a spot where I'll probably do anywhere between 10-15 miles during runs on the weekends, weather and road/sidewalk conditions permitting.

Day 32 - P90X Back & Biceps - 12/8/11

Today was the first time through the P90X Back & Biceps workout.  All the other workouts I had done a handful of times before starting out, but I think this one got left out because it was the most redundant.  Back gets worked out with Legs & Back and Chest & Back, and biceps naturally get worked out when doing some of the chin-ups.  So with the limited training time I had, I just never bothered to bring this one into the rotation until I actually started the program.

It turns out, I was right.  The major overriding thought I had with it was that it is a workout that blurs the lines between the sections being worked the most, out of all P90X workouts.  With every other one, you have a definitive rest of one set of muscles while working the next, and there is little if any overlap.  In this case, you do some bicep work, and then when you get to the back section (which will naturally include a lot of pullups), you do some more moves that invoke the biceps as well.  So as a result, I found that the number of pullups I could do seemed lower - more like 5 and 6 instead of 8 and 9.  I guess what that means is that I'm definitely working muscles, and the biceps are the bottleneck at the moment.  Eventually they'll catch up, but at least I have the Legs & Back routine that will serve to work the back as much as possible.  It also means that it is a sore-inducing workout - when I'm starting to feel sore shortly after the workout is done, that means I usually have a relatively rough couple days ahead.  The only solace is that biceps can be rested more easily than, say, legs - which are used for virtually everything you do in life.

Other than that, there is some honing in on weights that needs to be done.  The 10 Kg I had on each bar was too much for some exercises, so I ended up lowering it to 8 Kg, which was better for things like curls.    Looking at the numbers, it kinda looks like 10 Kg is about right for back exercises, and 8 Kg is good for ones that isolate the biceps more.  The only problem is that there is only a few weeks to figure it out before this routine gets taken out of the rotation.

The one exercise that I was probably most sloppy on was the corn cob pull ups.  I had no idea what one of those was - never heard of em.  But when I saw them demonstrating it, I was like 'Yeah, that'll happen!'  I managed to get a handful of them out, but it was obvious I had never done them before.  I do like the variation, though - even though they are pretty rough.

Day 31 - 12 x 100 yd sets to reduce spl - 12/7/11

After a couple months of having been able to consistently do 2700 yd workouts, I decided it was time to try switching things up.  Up until this point, 100% of my focus has been on form, and making it as comfortable as possible - whether it getting used to bilateral breathing (last winter), introduction of the two-beat kick (summer), or maintaining form for a full 2700 yds (fall).  Each one of those aspects were focused on because at the time, they were one of, if not the primary contributing factor to less efficient form.  The problem I've had recently is that it has become a bit unclear what the next step is.

Way in the back of my mind, I remember an aspect of Total Immersion where reducing the stroke count per lap is something to focus on.  I kept it in the back of my mind and didn't worry too much about it because, as I mentioned, there were what I considered to be more pressing needs at the time, based on my overall goal (which is to swim the 2.4 miles in the ironman as comfortably as possible).  So, with the plateau of being able to maintain a 30 minute/mile pace in the water, I thought it worth seeing if I could experiment with lowering stroke count.

Unfortunately I never had enough time over the past day or two to dig out the TI materials to research what I could do for a workout for this.  Even as I left the house to go to the pool, I wasn't sure what I'd do.  So, on the way I decided I'd just see what happened if I did 100 yd sets, counting strokes in the first lap (25 yds) and see how well I could maintain that stroke count through the course of three more laps.

I started off by hitting the SportCount button after every 50, and then at the end of each 100 pausing it while I rested up a bit.  The first lap was in a lane that I was sharing, but at the end of that lap, another lane opened up - so I reset the counter and went from there.  At the end of the workout, I saw that the first lap registered a time that was for 50 yds - but the other laps were for the 100 yds.  I'm not sure exactly how that happened when I was hitting the lap button after every 50 and then pausing after every 100 - it's almost like the counter interprets everything between pauses (regardless of how many times you hit the lap button) as a single lap.  Thats unfortunate, because I was interested to see how the first 50 compared with the second 50 for each set.  And then, on top of that, the last 100 yd set seems to have gotten purged out for some reason.  Clearly I have to toy around with the thing and figure out a solution to that if I want that kind of data - but for a first time around, I'll deal with it.

So anyway, the first lap for each set was consistently around the 15.5 spl range.  Every so often, during my previous workouts, I'd count strokes for a lap, and I usually ended up falling in the range of about 18.  So clearly being rested makes a big difference.  I found during this workout that 100 yds seemed just about right - I was able to maintain that 15.5-16.5 spl count for the set, but it was clearly falling off at the end.  Then, after a 30 second break or so, I'd do another set and find the same thing.  I stopped when I found that a couple sets were seeing a spl count of 16-16.5 on that first lap - going on the idea that I was now fatigued, and I didn't want to imprint bad form into muscle memory.

Below are the lap times for each set - not shown is the time for a break in between.

0 - 44.29
1 - 1:29.77
2 - 1:30.01
3 - 1:27.96
4 - 1:29.15
5 - 1:28.65
6 - 1:28.75
7 - 1:27.98
8 - 1:28.88
9 - 1:28.22
10 - 1:28.41
11 - 1:29.08
12 - 1:27.19

As another point of reference, my average 50 yd lap times for my long continuous workouts are around 51 seconds - so the sets in this workout were about 10 seconds faster per 100 yds.  The question in my mind became: "Yes, these laps are faster, but they are less sustainable because I need rest after 100 yds.  I am also exaggerating the stroke a bit - extending the glide, and exerting more pull, so naturally the spl count will be lower.  But is this going to really be helpful in the end?"

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that question - I'm basically hanging my hat with it on two facts: (1) anytime I've decided to make a change to my form in the past, I had to go through a period of adjustment (which entailed either slowing down temporarily until I worked out the mechanics well enough to be able to speed up gain, or gain the appropriate aerobic capacity to maintain form with the new mechanics), and (2) I may not end up being able to maintain 16 spl when I return to 'normal' form - but if I can go down from 18 to 17, that'd be a significant improvement (in the TI book, I remember a section where the guy essentially says that if you can get used to doing a lap in X spl, doing a lap in X+1 is that much easier).  Granted, in that example he's talking about someone who can do 25 yds in 12 spl, and then turning around and doing something more like 20 during a race - but I'd think the concept is transferrable.

Ultimately, what I took away from this workout is that a few of the latter sets appeared to go more smoothly throughout the entire four lap set.  So whereas the first couple sets were nice and smooth in the first 50, and then a little more choppy in the second 50 - some of the latter laps I seem to have managed to normalized the smoothness of the form throughout the entire 100.  I was still fatigued and needed a rest, but subtle nuances (such as degree of hip rotation, angle of the arm during the catch, mechanics of rotating the head to grab a breath) seemed to have a noticable effect.  So now the challenge will be to focus on those aspects a bit over the next few workouts and try to get more consistent with it.  I suppose that when thinking about it, I had heavy suspicions that those aspects could be improved during the long workouts - but the mental energy required to keep everything else in check during those workouts in addition to trying to focus on those minor adjustments was a bit too much.  I'm hoping that this way, it'll allow me to really pay attention to and work on just those things.  Then, if I'm lucky, I'll find that the 100 yds isn't the limit - I can then see about extending to 150 and/or 200 yds.  But I'm sure that'll be a while.

Day 30 - P90X Chest, Shoulders and Arms - 12/5/11

With the start of phase two of P90X the other day with Legs & Back (which, after having not done a legs workout in two weeks, I find I'm back to having somewhat sore legs two days after that workout, btw - even after having done yoga yesterday), today was Chest, Shoulders & Triceps.  This time around, I had some weights I could use, as I had recently picked up some weights from my parents house recently that they managed to scrap from the  "put & take" at the local recycling center.  Yeah, they aren't as convenient as dumbbells, but not nearly as expensive, either.  Also, they tend to be graduated more in Kg (1 Kg, 2 Kg, 4 Kg weights), so there was some mental gymnastics that had to be done in order to figure out the weights to use.

Previously, the heaviest weights I had were 8 lb dumbbells - which was way light for some of the exercises.  So the primary issue I had this time around was how much 8 lb might be too light by.  I ended up fitting the bars with a total of 6 Kg (a little over 13 lbs) - and sometimes it felt just about right, other times it was a bit heavy.

I tend to find this workout one of the more challenging ones.  While there are a lot of pushups in the Chest & Back routine - this one includes what I think are more difficult variations: slow motion, plange, floor flys, two twitch speed, one arm and clap.  So whereas Chest & Back is straight up normal, wide, decline - this one definitely makes you work by having differences in pace and introducing more lateral movement while doing the pushup, plus the explosiveness needed for something like the clap pushups, and the sheer power needed for one armed ones.  Which, BTW, I can't even come close to doing.  Not even a little bit.  Even being on my knee, there's just not a whole lot of range of motion there.

Day 28 - P90X Legs & Back - 12/4/11

So, after a week off where I was hoping to do a couple Yoga sessions, and a few P90X Core Synergistics session - none of which happened - it's time to get back on track and continue on with Phase II of P90X.

Phase I had Chest & Back, Legs & Back and Shoulders & Arms for the strength days.  Phase II changes things up a bit - Legs & Back stays, but we have Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, and then Biceps & Back.  So, still two back days, and still a legs day.  This last part was rather important to me - throughout the 12 weeks of P90X, Legs & Back is done 10 times.  Of all workouts, that is the one that I am most concerned with.

I ended up skipping plyo during Phase I due to some residual inflammation on the top of my right foot that just hasn't completely gone away.  It's markedly better, but instead of getting noticably better by the day, it seems to take 3-4 days before I notice a difference.  Oddly enough, the two times I've noticed the biggest difference is after Yoga, even though I feel like I stress it out more during class by sitting with my legs under me and my ankle at full flexion (which is, actually, why I chose to do a P90X workout today instead of tomorrow, so that I could get to Yoga tomorrow).  Anyhow - I'm thinking that I'm probably ready to introduce plyo into the workout routine now.  Although not completely gone, I'm thinking that the inflammation is gone down enough that I don't have to let it keep me from doing that workout.

So with the return to Legs & Back, after a week and a half, I'm not at all surprised that initially I was able to bust out more reps, but the stamina definitely started to dwindle.  Even still, last time I did 63 total pullups, today I upped that to 66, so thats improvement.  But most excitingly (is that a word?) - I was able to get into double digits on a single set!  Sure, it was the first set, and it was reverse grip chin-ups, where you can use your biceps, but it's still something I'm rather proud of.  The idea of being able to do 20 is, like, rediculous - but this is the danger with this kind of thing - I figure that if I can go from 0 to 10, then going from 10 to 20 is also possible.

Regarding the legs workout - it's definitely getting easier, but I still find myself having to hit pause after certain sets because they are so draining (sneaky lunges and chair salutations, primarily).  And of course, single leg wall squats.

Day 27 - 2700 yd swim - 12/3/11

It's been a few weeks since I've been to the pool - the sacrificial workout on account of Thanksgiving and other schedule snafu's.  Anyhow, in the interest of not going too long without a swim, and because I had time today - I decided it'd be a perfect time to hit the water.

I wasn't really sure what to expect beforehand - when in a routine, things become predictable (is that redundant?).  But I've fallen out of my routine in the past couple weeks - so when I was heading to the pool I didn't know whether to expect some degree of having slowed down or not.  I feel like I'm at the point with my swim stroke that minute differences in form can have a noticable impact - and when you are on the edge like that, especially when it comes to mechanics, I've often found that time off can be a detriment.  It reminds of when a professional athlete has an extended time off - here's a guy who has been pitching 94 mph fast balls for his whole life, but when he comes back from the 15 day DL, it's not uncommon for him to stink up the field on his first outing.  Little differences.

I'm not saying I'm a professional athlete (although I do wish I was paid like one) - I'm just equating the phenomena of performing at the edge of your current ability level with time off.

Anyway - I figured I'd just do what I had been doing - 54 laps, and if I was a little slow, so be it.  Before I started, I checked my sportcount and saw my average lap time last time out was around 50.8 seconds - so at least I had that frame of reference.  During the first couple laps, I realized that I didn't even know what my main takeaway(s) were from the last session.  I try to at least have something to take away and work on next time, but I had no idea what that might have been.  So I just did what I could remember: keep the head down, extended arm low during the catch, avoid tilting the head up when taking a breath.  For the first bunch of laps, I felt like I was flying through the water.  Afterwards, when I checked my sportcount, it wasn't until lap 24 that I was more consistently over 50 seconds per lap - aside from 3-4 laps in that span, all laps were under 50 seconds.  So that was good.  I just with I could remember what I did.  The mid to late 20's through around 40, I was around 50 seconds per lap, afterwhich it crept up to 51 per lap.  In the 40's, there started to be a fair number of 53 second laps - but it was also inconsistent, because there were lows in the 49s range as well.

Total Distance: 2700 yds
Total Time: 45:09
Avg: 50.18

So the average of 50.18 is good for about half to almost 3/4 of a second faster per lap than last time.  I'm not sure whether it was due to the extended rest relaying fatigue, or what - but I think that sets a new bar for me.

Day 25 - Slummin' it - 12/1/11

While I realized that this week was supposed to be a rest week, based on the P90X schedule - what I didn't realize was how little I'd end up doing.  I imagined a couple yoga sessions, maybe a couple pool sessions - but so far... nothing.

This week I'm operating on Pacific Time while located in Eastern, thanks to work.  So that means I end up getting up around the same time in the morning (7 am), but I don't roll into work until 11 am, but I have to stick around until at least 8 pm, and I don't get home until around 9 pm.  And know what isn't open at that time?  The pool.  And you know what classes aren't running at that time?  Yoga.  And it's nice to think that I could get stuff like that out of the way before work - but if I did that I'd likely end up dozing off in the middle of the day, and thats not good.  It'd be one thing if this weren't a rest week - but it is, and I guess I take my definitions to the extreme.

Day 21 - 46 mile bike ride - 11/27

The past few days has seen nice weather for this time of year, and I've sort of been lamenting the fact that I haven't been able to go for a bike ride.  Actually, not that I haven't been able to - but after my last bike ride in early October, I sort of mentally checked out for bike riding for the rest of the year - so it's not until it's mid-way through a nice day that I think 'damn, it'd be a nice day for a ride'.

So after doing that (again) yesterday, I checked the weather for today and saw it was going to be decent weather again - in the 50's.  So instead of going to the pool, I decided to take advantage of the decent weather and do my Wachusett Reservoir loop.  The last time I had done this loop, I vaguelly recalled having done it in around 2:45 or so - and today I was somewhat curious how the leg workouts I've been doing may affect cycling performance.

It didn't take too awful long after starting out to determine that today might not be the best day for high hopes in that regard, because my legs weren't feeling incredibly strong.  As the ride progressed, my mental state went through the phases of 'Hey, it's nice to be on the bike again - I'm glad I got the opportunity to go for another ride before it gets too cold' to 'Oh man, I'm not even halfway through yet and I'm kinda tired of doing this' to 'This is starting to get annoying' to 'Wow I really wish I was done, but I'm only 2/3 of the way through' to 'Should I give a call home for a pickup - because it is starting to get cold and I'm just really not enjoying this much'.

It was around the halfway point that I decided I should just admit it - I'm a fair weather cyclist.  Cycling is enjoyable enough in the right circumstances, but there are aspects of it that aren't so fun no matter what the conditions - so when you start tossing in cooler weather, for me it just tips the scales enough that I'd rather not bother.  Yes, there is cold weather gear, and I had (barely) adequate layers on - but even still, the cold affected other things - like it seemed like the bike frame was stiffer, making bumps more annoying.  Also, my rear derailleur needs a tune-up, because it spontaneously shifts back and forth when I'm in a couple of particular gears.  It occured to me that with the lower temperature and resultant contraction of the metal cable, that maybe thats why it was a lot more on the fritz today as opposed to earlier in the year.

So, all things considered - I'm glad I did it because this way if we get weather in the 50's again, I can now say 'no thanks, still too chilly for a bike ride for me', and I don't have to feel bad about missing an opportunity.

By the time I got home, I was just glad to be off the thing.  When I checked my time, I was about 2 mph slower than my last time around that loop (sometime in September).  So that kinda sucked as well.  I'm going to blame the temperature for it all, though.  It's not that I was really that cold (core temp was fine - just the extremities were a bit chilly when I got home), but I was wearing cycling shorts, so I just think that overall temperature was too low for optimal energy output in the human body.  Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Day 19 - P90X Chest & Back - 11/25/11

By doing Chest & Back today, I got myself just about back on track for my workouts this week, minus swimming - which I can do tomorrow or Sunday.  It's the most skippable of any workout I do, so if I don't get to it, thats not a big deal.

As suspected, having done the double session the other day (including back), I was definitely limited in the number of reps I could do today.  At first I just aimed to keep pace with the previous Chest & Back numbers, but on the second set I was having to take mid-set breaks just to do that.  Thats ok, though - I still managed to eek out a few more pushups and pullups overall as compared to the last time I did this workout.

And it figures - just as I start getting the hang for the grips on things like lawnmowers, heavy pants and back fly's while using the bands, I look at the worksheet and see that this is it for the Chest & Back until week 9.

That means next week is a recovery week - lots of core work, and a couple yoga sessions. 

Day 18 - Whitinsville 5 miler Turkey trot

Today was a Thanksgiving day race that I ran with a couple friends.  I wasn't really sure what to expect - I had just done the legs workout yesterday - but I figured I'd probably be able to do about 7:30 min/miles.  That would give a final time of about 37:30 or so.  The only other five mile race I did was way back in 2009 - the Lawrence Sons of Italy race - where I had a final time of just a hair under 39 minutes (although the course was a tad longer than 5 miles).  So I figured there was a good chance of PR'ing a 5 mile race today.  At least, a PR post-high school - I know I did one 5 mile race in high school on Thanksgiving, but I've long since forgotten my time - and at the time a 7:30 min/mile was on the slower side of things.

Anyhow - normally during a race, I position myself in the crowd based on where I've been finishing - if I'm finishing in the 50%, I'd get about halfway back.  Part of the reason for that is to not be one of the obnoxious people who line up in front and get in peoples way.  The other reason is that it helps regulate my start, so I don't go out too fast.  Today, I threw caution to the wind and lined up right in front.  When the race started, everyone seemed to be sprinting right out of the gate.  Within a few hundred feet, I looked down at my watch and saw an instantaneous pace under 5 min/miles.  I knew for a fact that wasn't sustainable - so I started to slow up a bit.  At this point, a good number of people were passing me, and even though I slowed down, it was tough to get settled into a comfortable pace.  My heartrate was already well into the 160's and rising, so I needed to get that under control.

As the first mile clicked by in 6:45, I knew I was still going too fast.  On the other hand, there were only 4 miles left at this point, so it would not be worth really slowing down because by the time I did that and got caught up, the race would be just about over.  So I just kinda had to suck it up, and come to grips with the fact that my HR was going to be in the 170's for 5 miles, and it wasn't going to be comfortable.  I decided that'd be ok, though - I'm intentionally lowering miles, but this run was definitely keeping the intensity up.

I slowed down a bit each successive mile - but still stayed under 7:30 min/mile.  Once I hit mile four, I could tell based on my time that there was going to be a finish in the 35 minute range.  I knew this would be a PR for me, but I didn't recall the finish of the Lawrence race from a few years ago.  I was thinking I finished int he 37 minute range, but wasn't sure.

In the last mile, of course - everyone got a little bit of a final kick, including myself.  I gradually sped up during that mile, and opened up an all out sprint in the last 100 feet or so.  My HR shot from the mid 170's to the mid 180's, and my lungs were trying to suck more air into them than my windpipe would allow.  That's always fun.

Anyway, final results.

A few hours later, I got an email informing me I was 77 of 771 overall, and 15 of 75 in my age group.  For someone who has typically been in the back half of the pack, that was my best showing in a race so far.

Day 17 - P90X Double Session - 11/23/11

So, I never got to Legs & Back last night - got home too late to get it in before bed.

Since I had today off from work, I was able to do a double P90X session - Legs & Back this morning, and Shoulders & Arms this evening.  I did skip the ab-ripper portion of legs & back though, and only did one session of that today.  So that puts me back on track for the week - I'll do Chest & Back on Friday and find some time over the next few days for a pool session.

So it was pretty much the same story with Legs & Back as before - trying to increase reps or eliminate breaks on each round.  What is really starting to surprise me is the total number of pull-ups I'm able to do in the full workout - over 60.  What I'm curious about is whether this workout will affect my performance at all during tomorrow's five mile race.

With Shoulders & Arms, I was back to using the bands.  I did manage to tweak things a bit to start getting more effectiveness out of them, so that is good.  But there are still some of the exercises that are difficult because the grip is imbalanced (no handles on the bands).

Day 15 - Yoga - 11/21/11

My schedule this week is all askew.  I was going to do Legs & Back tonight, but made dinner plans with a friend tomorrow evening - so I couldn't do yoga then.  And there is no 7:30 yoga class on Wednesday, so I needed to get it in at some point this week - so I opted to go tonight, and try to get the Legs & Back workout in tomorrow somehow, sometime.  Worst case scenario, I end up having to do Legs & Back on Wednesday morning, and Shoulders & Arms Wednesday evening since I'm not going to work that day.  It might affect my performance on the 5 mile turkey day run I plan on doing on Thursday, though.

Anyhow - the past couple weeks I've been finding that I am getting more precise with balancing during the balance series:

Standing Head to Knee - This pose has consistently been on the top of my nemesis list.  It looks easy, but holding it for as long as you do in class is really, really hard and exhausting when you get to it in class.  Believe me - you may stop reading this and try it out and say 'eh, he's a wimp' - but I can tell you from personal experience that new students in class often kinda laugh and snicker through the first few postures, but after this one they have a look of horror and the biggest 'Hoe-Lee SHIT!!' expression on their face.  It's quite amusing :)  (hey, I was that person once)

I still can't straighten my horizontal leg all the way, but I'm getting there (the left leg is 95% of the way there!).  The thing I liked about it right away is that I always felt like it was engaging the stabilizing muscles in the hips that directly affect the IT band - the gluteus medius.  A few weeks ago I feel like I came across a point of balance in my hip where I don't need to hold the leg and hips in place with as much muscular effort - kinda like I figured out how to balance a marble on the tip of my finger.  This made the posture significantly easier.

Balancing Stick - This pose has never been much of a killer for me, but it is surprising how much it can make your heart pump.  I'm sure when I first started I was more like the guy in the video (awkward and falling over), but that was quickly remedied.  Regardless, kinda like that marble analogy from before, I find it easier nowadays.

Standing Bow Pulling Pose - Ok, I can't get my leg nearly as high as the woman in the video - but as you could guess, this is a great posture for increasing quad flexibility (yes, please!).  So over time, I've gotten better at it - but the balance is often a tricky thing because you are trying to kick your leg up, keep your torso horizontal and maintain balance all at the same time.  Add the fact that this pose causes me to get lightheaded after coming out of it - it makes for a unique challenge.  But once again, finding that point in the hip to balance on has made it significantly easier.

So it is definitely nice that I'm finally, after a year of practicing, able to find that point of balance where I don't have to consistently use minor muscle corrections to keep myself balanced - and, ironically enough, I find that when I totally lock the standing knee, it is easier.  Go figure - cuz they say to lock the knee every. time.

Day 14 - P90X Chest & Back w/Ab Ripper - 11/20/11

This workout was originally to be on Friday, but I ended up making other plans with a couple friends, and intended to get to the workout on Saturday.   However, I had to work on Saturday and it took longer than I thought it would - not getting home until 9:30 - so the workout didn't happen then either.

This posed a bit of a problem, because tomorrow is supposed to be legs & back - but having just done back today, I really don't want to do it again tomorrow.  And then with Thanksgiving this week, the schedule is all a mess.  So at current I'm thinking I'll go to Yoga tomorrow, followed by Legs & Back on Tuesday, and swimming on Wednesday.  I will hopefully be able to get Shoulders & Arms in on Thursday evening, leaving Saturday for Chest & Back, and putting me pretty much back on schedule without having missed a workout.  That would be nice.

One of the things I'm still toying around with in P90X is how to go about increasing reps - I don't want to go to exhaustion for one pull up set when I know there are others coming up, and I don't want to go balls to the wall for one thing and end up sacrificing something else.  So for something like Chest & Back, where there are two sets - I thought one idea might be to do the same number of reps as the previous week for the first set, and then on the second set increase reps.  Theoretically I should be less fatigued during the first set on the subsequent week, leaving more ability to do more reps on the 2nd set.  Then, on the next week (which would be the third), I could bump up the number of reps on the first set, and keep the reps on the 2nd set the same as the 2nd set from the previous week.  Follow?  If not - don't worry - there are only 5 workouts for chest & back, and 2 are finished already and two occur in the last month of the P90x schedule, so it really doesn't matter.

But anyway, it does help illustrate my goal numbers for this week and why I (for the most part) kept set one the same as the previous week, and opted to increase the reps for set two.

Day 11 - 2700 yd swim - 11/17

I'm still working on tweaking minor aspects of my swim stroke.  Today I mostly concentrated on keeping my hand lower during the catch - I have a tendency, in my attempt to elongate my body as I reach my arm forward, to keep it outstretched.  As a result, it tends to be closer to horizontal, and I can feel the drag it creates - as opposed to when it is lower (hand maybe more like 1 ft below the surface) and the induced drag feels less.  I'm still not sure exactly why that is - you'd think that being horizontal in the water would be more streamlined.  Maybe it is for the hand itself, but then again body position is affected by hand placement - and usually a large contributor to drag is the body itself, when the legs are lower than the torso.  So by lowering the hand, it helps keep the rest of the body in a more streamlined position.  At least, that's what seems to happen - so I'll go with that.

A few times during these swim sessions, I get a lap or two that feel exceptionally nice and smooth.  I usually try and make a mental note of which laps they are so I can go back and look at those lap times to compare, but I usually forget, or after a lap of being conscious of how things feel really good, I end up inadvertantly trying harder (ie, using muscles more) which ends up being counterproductive.  So I think one of the next goals will be to try and emulate those good feeling laps as much as I can - I at least have a sense of what the entire stroke should feel like, so it gives me a little bit of a direction.

54 laps - 45:47

Day 10 - Yoga - 11/16/11

I was originally doubtful I'd be able to make it to yoga today due to flight times returning home, but yay for finishing early and catching an early flight!

And I needed it.  Between minor residual soreness from Sunday, and the workouts Monday and Tuesday, I woke up Wednesday morning and knew I had to get to yoga - at the expense of my next workout, if necessary.

Nothing too major from this class - I got into toe stand again this time (a tad easier).  The top of my right foot was still aggrevated, especially during kneeling poses where there is a lot of weight on it - but it wasn't as sensitive as it was last week.  So that is a good sign that things are healing.

Day 9 - Shoulders & Arms - 11/15/11

The main reason why I ended up doing legs & back yesterday - with the legs being a day after a hard workout on the half marathon the day before, and the back on short rest - was because I knew that this evening I'd be in a hotel.  I can do the leg routine in a hotel room, but I have no pull up bar, so my workout would be limited.  Hotels, however, often have dumbbells - and the shoulders & arms routine is one that I feel I get a huge benefit from when using dumbbells.  As a result, it was possible for me to get a good workout in today while also seeing what kind of weights I'd need to get, if I were to get dumbbells.  See?  I think of everything!

Unfortunately, it also means it is hard to compare against last week - because all I know is that I used the blue band last week - but no idea how many equivalent pounds that ends up being.  But I can say that I found a set of 15's and 20's are definitely adequate for this workout for me.  Most of the things like curls or presses were good with 20 lbs, while some of the fly and tricep stuff was better with the 15' lbs.  The one exercise I couldn't really do was the outstretched shoulder fly, because the lowest weight they had was 15's, which was still too heavy.

Other than that - because I was able to select the proper weight to limit reps not on time elapsed before they went on to the next thing, but instead my own fatigue - I'm pretty certain that I'm going to be feeling sore in my arms starting tomorrow and into Thursday.  But, its a good kind of sore, because I brought it.

(Except I didn't do ab ripper today, I'll do that tomorrow)

Day 8 - Legs & Back - 11/14

As I suspected, the back workout today was affected by the fact that it was only Saturday that the previous back workout occured.  This morning I could tell I had worked out the back muscles and they were still recovering.  I had toyed with the idea of switching around my schedule this week to accomodate, but decided not too because doing so would be more hassle than it'd be worth.  So, instead of trying to increase reps today, I'd do what I could - if I could match last week's numbers, great.  If I fell a rep or two short, oh well - thats ok too.

I actually ended up doing reasonably well.  I was at least able to match the reps from last session, but I did have to take a couple extra mid-set breaks.  On the other hand, though - there were a few spots (like round one of the wide front, or the closed grip overhand pullups) where I was able to add a rep or two before taking a break.  So, all told - I'd call it a wash.  Considering it was only 48 hours of rest, I'm pretty happy with that.

The legs were definitely still fatigued from yesterday, though.  Wasn't much of a big deal on stuff like the lunges and squats - that just meant pushing through a little more adversity - but I definitely lost something on the wall squats, specifically the single leg ones.  I had just gotten to the point of being able to maintain for the full 60 seconds, but this time I had to take a break during the entire middle 20 seconds.  Thats fine, though - after taking 13 minutes off a half marathon PR, I'm ok with it!

As will be the case going forward, I won't put links in the text of each post - there is a link on the bar above that should bring you to a google docs spreadsheet that I update with my progress.

Day 7 - Monson Half Marathon - 11/13/11

I guess this would be filed under 'cardio' in the P90X workout schedule.

So today was the Monson half marathon.  I approached it with the attitude that it was a race at a time when running miles are down, and therefore I'd push myself to try and keep up the intensity.  Reason being is that through talking with people and doing some research, I've come across the idea that one way to maintain running conditioning during a down period is to make the runs more intense (ie, not all LSD).  Due to road conditions around these parts, the winter is definitely a down period for running.

I ran part of this course with my dad last Sunday to get a feel for it, get a sense of hills and what-not. I've only run 3-4 times since the marathon, so I really had no major preconceived notions of my performance because I had no idea how much dropoff to expect.  My previous half marathons (and PR) have been in the 1:53 range (not counting the half marathon in the patriot half iron) - an 8:40 min/mile pace, or so.  There were two primary factors in the back of my mind that led me to believe that I was likely ready to break through that plateau, though:

• Previous half's were done at a time when it was pushing the envelope of my conditioning - either being the first half I've ever done (Lowell Sun '08), after IT band issues (Lowell Sun '10), or building up to that kind of mileage in minimalist shoes (Worcester '11).  This was the first time I was doing a half where I had little significant reason to be cautious, so I could just go.
• Two of my September threshold runs were 10 miles in length - with eight of those being in the 7:40 min/mile range, for an overall average of right around 8 min/miles.  Those runs were on a flat course with an average HR below 155.  A third threshold run was hillier, but done at the same pace of around 8 min/miles, but with a HR of 161.  Since I didn't let it all out on those runs, I knew that I could maintain that HR/intensity for the time required to complete the 13.1 mile distance.

However, this course had some hills - and from looking at the course profile, I knew the first half was mostly all uphill:

So really, the biggest question was how would the hills impact my performance.  There was potential to completely burn out in the first half, making for a very long and brutal second half.  Even with the downhill - once you are gassed, just putting one foot in front of the other can be a challenge.

Since I knew the course to be fairly hilly, I did a few things for this race that were new - things I had recently heard were beneficial, but had no experience with:

• Compression pants:  A couple weeks ago, my sister got me a pair of compression pants.  I've always thought of them as somewhat gimmicky, but when they arrived and I put them on, I noticed that my legs felt more springy.  I immediately thought that any small benefit could easily be worthwhile during the ironman next year - so they were definitely worth trying out.
• Carbo loading technique: Everyone has heard of this, and I never really paid much attention because I've heard conflicting reports on its effectiveness.  However a few weeks ago I came across an article discussing the results of a study where the methodology of carbo loading was optimized.  See link in the sidebar for more details.  Once I saw that study, I decided to give the technique a shot.  So yesterday, after the P90X Chest & Back session, I did the quick 3 minute balls-to-the-wall run, following by consuming a bunch of carbs.  I didn't quite match the nearly 750g of carbs that the technique calls for - but I didn't hold back on the Mountain Dew or the left over halloween candy or the chocolate chip cookie for lunch after the workout.
• Caffeine:  Speaking of Mountain Dew - I've always avoided caffeine before a race figuring that it is a diuretic and that I wanted to retain as much water as possible.  However, I've read things recently that caffeine can help improve performance.  Apparently it's a debatable topic, but I figured what the hell - there are already so many unknowns in this race, I mine as well give it a shot.
• Stronger Legs: Not so much an unknown, but recently I've noticed a big difference in leg strength.  The first major indication was being able to do the P90X Legs workout the other week without being sore for days, the second indication is the noticibly longer holds on the wall squats - both regular and single leg.  The last indication is that the past couple yoga classes, the sitting portions of awkward pose (similar to wall squats) are much easier than they were before.  So I was hoping that the increased leg power might help with ascending hills, as well as recovering quickly from said ascention.

Oh, I should also mention that I saw Dick & Rick Hoyt before the start, as they live in the nearby area.  I don't know if they ran the race or not - I didn't see them at the starting line, so I'm guessing they were just present for support of Team Hoyt.  If you've never heard of them, google them.  You'll be amazed.

So, as usual, I started off relatively slow as a warm up (the joke between my dad and I was to 'start slow, and then taper back from there') for the first mile.  But something was wrong - the first mile clicked at just over 8 minutes.  Shit!  I better slow down, because otherwise I'm going to be gassed pretty quick.  But my HR was < 155, which is high for a first mile, but not terrible.  The problem is that I didn't feel like I needed to slow down.  I'm not sure why, but I decided to keep up at a similar pace, maybe slow down a bit on the steeper portions - but I was finding that after those sections, my legs were re-energized pretty quickly, and I could resume buzzing along at a sub 8 min/mile pace. 

For the next few miles, I just kept up pace and it felt fine.  Which was surprising because my HR was at least 165.  Typically at that intensity, my endurance starts to plummet, but I wasn't feeling nearly as strained as I would have expected.  Very odd.  The concern was how I'd feel at the halfway point of the race - would I burn myself out?

As the miles clicked by, I continued to be surprised by how strong I felt.  I have to admit, I was keeping myself motivated by passing people on the hills - there were a few times I was keeping pace with someone nearby, but eventually we'd hit a hill and they'd drop back.  I switched to using mostly calf muscles for ascention, giving the quads a brief break.  During the downhill parts, I picked up speed - but not too much.  I think this ended up being a smart strategic move - the downhills gave my body a chance to recover, and my not flying down them, I had a longer period of time for that recovery so that I was re-energized for the next uphill.

By the time I hit mile 11, I had been on a downhill slope for a couple miles and hit a mini wall.  My overall pace was slowing down slightly because cadence was dropping - so I had to start consciously thinking about that to maintain a high foot turnover.  This is where the race became mental - at this point I knew I was going to beat the 1:53 previous PR, but now it was a matter of pushing it for the last two miles, and not having the ego hit by being passed.  Honestly, those last few miles - that was a huge part of what kept me going.  I'd pass someone, and I didn't want to be that guy that passed someone, only to have peaked too early and then crash before the finish line.  Plus, by this time, my foot was starting to hurt again, so I just wanted to be done.  And the only way to do that was to run faster.

So anyhow - how did it go?

Absolutely crushed it.

Remember how I said my halfs PR was in the 1:53 range?  This was a full 13 minutes faster!  Are. You. Flippin'. Kidding me?

And this was on a hilly course!  Where the hell did I ever pull that from?!  And on a right foot that is not 100%! (which was actually fine and painless until mile 7 or so, BTW)

I'd have been reasonably happy with something in the 1:53 range, figuring 'eh, it was a hilly course, haven't run much at all in the past few weeks, and on a bum foot'.  I'd have been really, really happy with a 1:45 - knocking 8 minutes off a 13 mile course, around 40 sec/mile faster than before, is significant improvement!  But a full minute/mile faster?!  I really pulled some magic out of my ass on this one.

Day 6 - Chest & Back w/Ab Ripper

So, this workout was supposed to have happened yesterday, but because I was gone all day, I punted it to today.  For the time being, I am skipping plyo (even though it's on the P90x schedule) because I am trying to minimize high impact activities until my right foot feels 100%.  Plus, I'm doing a half marathon tomorrow - so I'm not sure how the idea of minimizing impact and then doing a half marathon reconciles with each other.  Whatever.

Anyhow - since there's no plyo this weekend, it gave me an opportunity to catch up on the Chest & Back.  The only potential problem I could see was that I am looking to do the Legs & Back on Monday - meaning only one day of rest in between workouts involving pull ups.  So I'm a little concerned that my pull up numbers will be low on Monday.  On the other hand, maybe I'll just grin and bear it.  Maybe I'll end up surprising myself.

I haven't done this yet, but I mine as well start - logging on here how many reps I do for each workout.  It'll give a better way to demonstrate improvement, as opposed to just saying 'yay I did more!'  Plus, maybe the improvements will help motivate someone to give P90x a shot, seeing some real actual results. 

Link to Chest & Back Results

The heavy pants, lawnmowers and backflys were performed with resistance bands instead of dumbbells.  Even using the thickest band (blue), it is still tough to really feel like I'm working muscles much, so I usually go with an isometric hold at the top of the exercise.  It provides something, but I don't think it is as effective as actual weights would be.  As a result, the count for those exercises aren't really good for comparison, as they are usually an indication of how many I did before time expired, as opposed to how many were done before muscle fatigue set in.

Day 5 - Rest!

Writing this the day-after.  Due to work scheduling, there was no time for working out at all.  It wasn't exactly restful, though - woke up at 4am to catch a 6am flight to DC, spent the day in a data center (didn't even have time to get lunch), caught the 7:30pm flight back to Boston, got home at 9:30, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Later today, though - Chest & Back.

Day 4 - 2500 yd swim

Kinda odd to be labelling a swim as day 4, since there is no swimming in P90X, but whatever.

Anyway, short update because I have to catch a 6am flight and need to get to bed.  Intended to do 1.5 miles (54 laps), but was cut short at 50 because the pool was closing.  I got there a few minutes later than intended, and didn't go immediately after work because the local swim team uses up 6 of the 8 lanes until 8 pm.

Interesting note - when I got to lap 44, I knew I wasn't going to get another full 500 yds in, so I kicked up the intensity a little bit to try and maybe eek out an extra lap or two before I had to go.  I figured each of those last six laps would be a solid two seconds faster than normal (down to about 48 seconds).  Well, two of the six were about that much faster, the other four were either par for the course at that time (around 52 seconds), or only slightly faster at 51 seconds or so.  Regardless, what I might toy around with is increasing intensity for the last ten laps or so - not so much to improve time (it won't make that much difference) - but more to see if I can locate any additional form streamlining improvements due to the increased drag.  But also don't want to go too much more intense - because obviously the return on investment of time vs energy expenditure is very low - so anything I do I want to be done with an eye towards maximizing energy efficiency.

2500 yds - 42:26

Day 3 - Yoga

I normally never post anything about yoga classes - primarily because there's not that much interesting that happens and is worth reporting.  Once you get past the shock of the first class and the heat and humidity (which is certainly worthy of a post), and then you get to the point where you can go through the entire class without a break (worth of another post) - occasions are few and far between that are worth posting about.

But today happened to be one of those days!  Over the past year (holy crap - I've been doing yoga for a year now!), my flexibility improvements have been drastic and obvious.  I credit yoga a huge amount with being able to remain injury-free up until the marathon.  However, there are two places that I find I still struggle with - hips and knees (in that order).  For those two reasons, one particular pose has always been a far off dream to be able to do - the toe stand pose.

To try and describe it would be a waste of time, so here is what it looks like:


There is a process to be followed to get into it, starting with bring your foot up to your thigh, dropping your knee, and leaning forward.  Over time, I've been able to lean forward, with my foot on my thigh, enough that instructors have encouraged me to fall forward in an attempt to slip into the next phase of the pose.  Problem is that I've always been paranoid about my knee - not because I've had knee issues - but I've been paranoid I'd screw something up, torque it and rip my ACL right in two.

For whatever reason, today I decided to throw caution to the wind, and lean forward.  To my amazement, I was then able to bend my supporting knee and sort of get into the pose.  I say sort of because I didn't look anything like the above picture.  My leg wasn't really horizontal (my knee was higher than my ankle), there was no way I was balancing on my toes on one foot (I was balancing with the help of my hands on my side), and my back was nowhere near straight (I was hunched over like a leprechaun).  BUT I managed to be in sort of a sitting position, so I'll take it!