Friday Triple Play

Eat more, do a face plant, and bike commute. WTF? First up is the sequel to yesterday's post and those from earlier in the week. Sorry if this doesn't really fit the template. I think it's close enough. As I said a few days ago, lately my workouts have lacked spark, and I've been unable to push my HR up, despite relatively moderate training volume. Sure, last week was 13+ hours, but that was on the heels of several mundane 7-8 hour weeks, as well as a three day in a row rest break. Something is not right.

Then Rightcoast compares me to my superstar teammate and chronic borderline anorexic The Cronoman. Of course I scoffed. Just the extra puppy skin permanently stowed around my mid-section from my fat days amounts to more excess poundage than the intrepid warrior has on his entire frame. But then I took inventory of my recent symptoms - unexplained lackluster performance, dizzy spells, occasional binge eating due to ravenous hunger, inability to concentrate or even think clearly... holy shit, I am turning into Marro. Could I be starving myself? Kind of hard to believe. Even on my rest days I take in at least 3000 calories. I know, I keep track. On workout days it's closer to 4000 or even over. Maybe my timing is bad.

As an experiment, Wednesday afternoon I headed to the vending machine, and instead of settling for a Zoe's bar (priced at $1.75, but the machine is programmed wrong and will fork it up for just 75 cents), I went with both a Snickers bar AND a bag of Cheezits. That's 600 calories total. This was around 4:30 pm. I went to Elite a few hours later and had my best workout of the year. There was a class going in the studio room when I got there, so I started in the gym with an hour of lower body weights, step ups, jumping, squat thrusts, etc, then headed up after the class for my normal plyo. I should have been exhausted by then, but I was still going strong. Too strong in fact. The cornerstone to my plyo workout is to take the 20 lb Plyoball (biggest one they have), hold it like a basketball jump shot, squat down, and leap straight up, thrusting (huh-huh) the ball at the ceiling. Repeat 20-30 times.

I was getting so much height that I had to make sure I was between the ceiling fans. Sometimes I try to catch the ball, but with the 20 pounder, if I don't catch it just right, it takes a toll on the tendons in my wrist, so usually I just let it fall to the floor. That extends the rest between tosses by a second or two, but makes up for it because I have to bend over and pick up the ball. They have no air in them, just sand, so there is no bounce. I did one set of twenty, then did some other stuff, then went back for one last set. After six tosses, BOOM, sand flying everywhere. The ball had split open. Ooops. It's a signal. I turned it in at the front desk, put on dry clothes and left. The parking lot was well lit and I had the sledge in the car, so I finished up with forty swings on each side. The extra food seems to have done me proud. Maybe 75 kg is where I belong. 74 if it's the week before Green Mountain maybe, but 73 is probably not a good idea. Live and learn.

Thursday I again upped the food intake a bit. I'd ridden the trainer for a half an hour before work, but at 6 pm I was suited up and ready to go run the hill. I hadn't made it over there since the thaw and was anxious. The woods were not bad at all. There was some mud and erosion damage from the melting, but all in all the main trail was in good shape. I got to the base of the access road, hit the timer and went up. It seemed like it was taking forever. There were even a few boarders riding the small patch of remaining snow on the ski slope. I pushed hard at the top, but only got my HR up to 165, yet stopped the watch at 7:37, by far my best ever time running. That's an 8:30 pace on a 9% grade. Hell, last week it took me six minutes on my friggin' bike.

On the way down I tried to really run in order to get used to downhilling. It was getting dark when I hit the fireroad, but not nearly as bad as the last few times I ran here in the fall. Coming up the grade from the low point on the path, I was flying and feeling great. I kept running hard down the steep trail that comes out behind the state police horse stables. Uh-oh. I tripped on a rock and did an over the bars style Superman takeoff. Boom. Ouch. Big ouch. My knees both got whacked really hard, and one of them managed to bounce up into the back of the other thigh. I just got right up and kept running, before anything had the chance to make like Archie Bell and the Drells from Houston Texas and do a little thing called the Tighten Up. Biggest concern was: Did I tear my brand new tights? Looks like no. Finished the run, 8.9 miles in 1:10, 7:50 pace, but since it included lots of muddy trail, a steep-assed hill, and a faceplant, I'll take it.

Last but not least, I rode my bike to work today. Woo-hoo. Surely the earliest in the season I've tried this. My commute is a piece of cake though, 42 minutes driveway to driveway. Got here early too, so I had an omelet, bacon, and a muffin. And I just had a Snickers bar, and it's only 10:15. I've got to do this more often. Thanks for reading.