The End of Project225

Well my foray into weight lifting has been fun, but it's time to get back to actual endurance training now. After recovering from the Umstead 100, the next goal became bench pressing 225 lbs. I'm calling it failed, with my current max bench at 200 lbs. I did add 15 lbs to my max bench in only 6 weeks, so that's really good. But I feel like my progress has stalled, it's not doing good things to this 40 year old body, and it's making it harder to run again.

I went out for a long run a few saturdays ago, and ended up cutting it short. 10 miles turned into 6, and my shoulders were in so much pain even that 6 wasn't fun. The shoulder is made up of 3 muscles, and the front one is used in the arm swing motion while running. That was the first thing to fatigue, and when that muscle went it seriously hurt. I decided then that it was time to just stop running until this project225 was over.

I know that over age 40 (well, really age 30) testosterone production begins to decline. That makes it harder to add muscle. Yet somehow I found it easy to put on weight. Regular strength training left me very hungry all the time, something I'm kind of used to in heavy swim, run, or triathlon training times. But this time instead of fueling my workouts, I just kept on adding bodyfat. Came in at 187.8 lbs this week, which is dangerously close to my breaking point. Usually by this point I'm down around 175 and ready for some hot summertime endurance training.

There were some good points about Project 225. I am really enjoying the extra strength. My leg press got up to 400 lbs. My dumbbell flat press got up to 60 lbs in each arm. I still hit some milestones that I've never been able to reach before. I love the extra muscle mass that is currently showing in my chest and shoulders. I was able to add a lot of weight to my bicep curl and the guns are ready for the beach. I am a very heavy sweater, and lifting doesn't make me sweat as much as running does, so that was really nice.

But overall, the belly fat and the way my pants are fitting just doesn't make this worth it. There is some extra stress that is also contributing to the increased waistline. My work contract has just wrapped up at the end of May, and I landed a contract-to-perm job that is kind of a dream. The new office is very close to the house, and I had a 4 day weekend of funemployment between the end of that contract and the start of the new job. Well then there was a timing problem with a background check so my 4 day weekend got extended. Every day after that was a 2 hour call-and-check to see if I can start the next day. I ended up missing 6 more days of work just waiting on the stupid background check and THAT was very stressful.

This time of year the heat has also made my summer depression kick in, so normally I throw myself into my work since I'm really good at what I do. That makes being unemployed really depressing. Not knowing if the dream job will disappear while we're waiting on the background check or not. ugh. so frustrating.

I also found some free marathon training plans available at PR Racer and loaded one into my spreadsheet. So it's time for marathon training to start again. My first triathlon of the year is on Saturday and I feel like I'm ready for a little sprint. Onward and upward folks! One door is closing, but you won't believe the door that's starting to open. If I can actually pull off my plans (to be revealed later) this is going to be really fun.

I been lifting, bro

Tonight's workout was worthy of documentation. My goal is to get my bench press 1 rep max up to 225 lbs. Monday and Thursday are chest days, but really Thursday is supposed to be an upper body circuit. Yesterday turned into a basketball and church day, and tomorrow is a holiday weekend friday, so it's time to drink beer. So that meant I went ahead and combined shoulders, upper body, and leg day tonight.

So this was my Thursday night strength training workout. Exercise - weight x sets x reps

Incline dumbbell press (chest) 40 x 4 x 8
Military press (shoulders) 25 x 3 x 8
Dumbbell hammer bicep curl 25 x 3 x 10
Flat dumbbell press (chest) 55 x 6 x 8
Deadlift (back/legs) 185 x 3 x 10
Squat 185 x 4 x 10
Calf raise 135 x 3 x 15
Barbell curl 50 x 3 x 10
Lateral dumbbell shoulder raise 15 x 3 x 10
Leg press 395 x 3 x 10

I've already worked abs several times this week, but I think this workout was worth skipping swim practice. Usually I can only get in 5 or 6 exercises. Getting 10 done in almost 2 hours is kind of insane.

My favorite day is chest day

The good news is that it's working! My first test for 1RM had my bench at 185. Last monday I got 195 up twice, so really less than 30 lbs to go. This Monday, I tried to work out with 185 on the bar and only got it up about 5 times. That still feels like some serious personal growth.

So officially I'm trying to lift 3 to 5 days a week, and still get in some yoga in the mornings, swim/bike/run twice a week (well, bike once a month) to get ready for summertime triathlon season. We'll just have to see how that all plays out.

The Aftermath

Well now that it's been a couple of weeks since the Umstead 100 things have started to almost get back to normal. There was some normal expected stuff in the recovery time, like blisters and walking with a limp. What I did not expect was a sinus infection. Apparently, the entire body responds to 75 miles of trauma with inflammation and it really blew up behind my nose. A sinus infection was already present before the race (according to the doctor), and the inflammation response blew it up into sinus pressure. The pressure then generalized into a migraine. This got worse every day. Finally on Friday after the race I went to the doctor thinking I needed an antibiotic or something. $300 later I got a shot in the ass that relieved the migraine for about 6 hours before it came raging back. I cannot express how badly our health care system sucks.

Week 2 was more of the same. I sang a solo in the church choir that Sunday, under severe medication. It went ok, but not my best stuff. The antibiotics did nothing. Blisters and muscles felt fine, and I really wanted to start working out again. But this migraine was absolutely debilitating. I haven't had a multi-day headache like this since 2005, and I did not miss it at all. Finally this Friday the 15th was the first day without medication so I thought I would be in the clear. The best combination of meds seemed to be 2 Aleve and 2 Excedrin Migraine at the same time for about 4 hours of relief.

Saturday I ran 10 miles, my basic route to the State Capital. The headache was easing up, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I really wanted to get some miles. I did end up pushing the speed some, and the heat meant that I was a bit under hydrated. But overall it felt amazing just to be out there again. If I go more than about 2 days without a workout of any kind it makes my personality a bit "testy" - not exactly pleasant for me or my family.

So of course tonight (Sunday) the headache is roaring again. I'll medicate up before heading into the office on Monday. This is not an aspect of recovery that I was expecting or was prepared for. In fact, I really wanted to hit the bike today, I'm ready to start triathlon training for this year. Swim practice starts again on Tuesday.

Really looking forward to biking more this year

The big news for this weekend is that my mother-in-law is finally living in Raleigh again! She closed on a condo about 4 miles from our house on friday morning, then we spent the whole weekend getting her moved in. She is very happy with her decision to get back to NC after spending over 25 years in South Carolina. The kids love having her in town. I am thoroughly relieved that she is here too, and will be very glad when she is settled down more and I don't have to lift heavy furniture.

Ladders in a covertible? That's how we roll.

Nana and the Evil Genius

In my goals post for 2016 I left something vague. After the Umstead 100 I wanted to come up with some other kind of challenge for the summer that was not triathlon based. Well it's time to formalize that goal and start working on it! I've decided to try a weightlifting challenge. I've always wanted to be able to bench press 225 lbs - that's two 45 lb plates on each side of the bar. The closest I've ever come is benching 205 during my crazy weightlifting phase in 2003. I think mustering up the testosterone to build my bench after age 40 makes this challenge extra hard and extra fun. I also think working the bench will end up strengthening my swimming as well.

Heavy weightlifting starts on Monday! migraine pending, unfortunately. I'm going to just roll with the punches here and see how it works.

Assessments and Bike Race

I did the Tri Power monthly assessments yesterday. I also got some time on the bike trainer, but that's nothing special. I'm a week late on the assessments, should have been done last wednesday. Here was last month's results:

Pushups (in 60 sec): 15
Wall Sit (sec): 49
Flex Arm Hang: 20
Side Plank: 29
Side Plank Bent Knee: 54
Prone Plank: 35
Extensor Chain: 1:12
Core Strength: 40%

Everything besides pushups and core strength is measured in seconds. That was on 3/24, and here's the results from yesterday 5/6:

Pushups: 17
Wall Sit: 51
Flex Arm Hang: 27
Side Plank: 36
Side Plank Bent Knee: 1:01
Prone Plank: 40
Extensor Chain: 1:17
Core Strength: 70%

The extensor chain is a measure of lower back strength, and I'm really pleased with that time. It's good to see the improvement in the planks too, that means I'm gaining more stabilizer muscle strength. Pushups and the flex arm hang I thought would be higher, I've been working those a lot more lately. But, I did miss 2 weeks in April thanks to that stupid pollen problem. The core strength at 70% is really cool. I didn't expect to see that at all. Looks like the iron gym and situps are really starting to pay off!

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Bike Race

Tonight is the first time trial bike race put on by the Greenville Spinners for this year. They do a series of 4 TT's, once a month. We've had some quite voracious thunderstorms for the last 4 days, even a couple of tornado's touching down. So I have no idea if the race will go off as scheduled tonight. But registration is open from 5 pm to 5:45, and the first rider leaves at 6 pm sharp. One rider leaves every minute after that.

The course is a 10 mile out and back, I think it stays on Perimiter rd which is nice and flat. Perimiter rd is a 7.2 mile loop around an air strip, so I don't know why they didn't just make the race one loop. But it's a time trial, so there is no peleton, no group of racers or a pack to pull away from. Just one guy (or girl) at a time racing against the clock. When everyone is done they compare the times and post the results online. Last year for the first race there was only 2 guys in my 30-39 age group. So I'm hoping for a top 3 finish this time. Seeing as how it's my first bike race ever, I have no idea what to expect or how well I'll do.

My always constant speed goal is 20 mph, so for a 10 mile ride, I'm going to try and beat 30 minutes. It's only 10 miles, so I'm just going to go as hard and fast as I can. No need to save anything for the endurance here, it's straight out muscle pushing. I'll take the little camera and try and get some pics. Last year's winners came in around 20 minutes.

Who the freak holds a race at 6 pm on a thursday? how strange is that? so this whole thing is predicated on being able to knock off from work about 4:30 today to get dressed, loaded up, and on the road. Donaldson center is about 45 minutes from the house, so if I can't leave until 5 I'm not going to make the registration in time. And if the weather doesn't cooporate then it's all moot anyway. I see no need to ride 10 miles in the rain just to get a time in. So we'll see what happens.

Thanks for all the smoothie advice! That's great stuff, I'm going to try as many as I can.

Results

I'm supposed to do the "progress assessments" every four weeks during the Tri Power program to measure how much stronger I'm getting. This plan is really getting the job done too. I feel much stronger, my core strength has never been better, my abs are starting to really shape up, and I can tell a big improvement in overall strength. But the proof is in the pudding. Here's the first (and only) set of numbers from 2/25:

Pushups (in 60 sec): 10
Wall Sit (sec): 30
Flex-Arm Hang: 11 seconds
Side Plank: 19 seconds
Side Plank Bent Knee: 25 seconds
Prone Plank: 20 seconds
Extensor Chain: 50 seconds
Core Strength: 30%

Now here are the numbers from last night:

Pushups: 15
Wall Sit: 49
Flex-Arm Hang: 20
Side Plank: 29
Side Plank Bent Knee: 54
Prone Plank: 35
Extensor Chain: 1:12
Core Strength: 40%

Just because the first set of numbers proved that I was weak like a little girl, I guess there was enough room to make serious improvements. So now I'm up to at least a middle school aged girl. Those numbers aren't quite so bad. Before, I couldn't do a chinup, now I can crank out 2. 15 pushups is at least respectable by Marcy's child-face-punching standards. And the core is nice and strong, I feel more balanced during the bike and run parts. Very cool.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about with Tri Power, it's just a book I found on amazon. Keep your body and your training in balance, it's the key to a sucessful season! I'll run these numbers again in four more weeks when I switch up to Phase 2 of the program.

I am a weak little girl

it's true. You know how much I hate western med doctors anyway. I went to the doctor yesterday, and he basically just said "meh, it could be something", drew some blood and that was it. I was hoping for some antibiotics or some nutrition advice or something. Maybe the bloodwork will show more. But that was just a useless "come see me in 2 more weeks if you're not feeling better by then" kind of thing. If I wanted to take 2 more weeks off from training, I would have waited until then to call him in the first place. oh well, you get what you get I guess.

But really I'm calling myself a weak little girl because I did the Tri Power assessments last night. You are supposed to do these same assessments every 4 weeks to see progress. Let's just say I did not set the bar very high, so progress should be drastic. I'm going to do the same assessments every 4 weeks for the next 8 months on the program, so I am going to post these embarrassing numbers today just so we can all see how far I've gone later. And you can hold my feet to the fire if I wimp out, or don't show enough progress. I love me some trash talk, and I like to take it just as much as I like to give it out.

Pushups (60 seconds): 10
Wall Sit: 30 sec
Flex Arm Hang: 11 sec
Side Plank: 19 sec
Side Plank Bent Knee: 25 sec
Prone Plank: 20 sec
Extensor Chain: 50 sec
Core Strength: 30%

Some of these are pretty obvious. 10 pushups is pitiful. The flex arm hang is supposed to help you if you can't do a chinup. All of the "second" measurements are time to failure. The side plank bent knee is a side plank with your bottom knee bent for stabilization and the top leg raised. The extensor chain was a fun one. It's kind of a superman pose, where your feet are anchored, and you put a swiss ball under your hips and just see how long you can keep your body straight, arms back. it's a measure of lower back strength. The core strength one was really interesting too. A lot of times when we are supposed to be working core, we're actually using the hip flexors instead. Hip flexors are already strong from all the time on the bike. So you lie flat on the floor and put one hand under your back directly below the belly button. there will be an arch in your lower back at that point. Lift your legs straight up in the air, bend your knees 90 degrees, and your lower back will press down on your hand. Lower your legs until your lower back no longer presses down on your hand, and guage the percentage that your legs moved. If your feet hit the floor you have 100% core strength. My legs only moved about 30%. that's a really cool test.

Remember the Tri Power program is all about achieving balance. I've done the same ab excersices for years, and once it gave me a nice 6 pack with smallish love handles on the sides. I think these assessments shows just how out of balance the muscles are. I've got a pretty strong back, and the wall sit is not bad. but my front and side core is certainly weaker. So I'm out of balance. I truly think this program can restore that balance. and that's really cool.

So you see the moves, how do you fare on those assessments? Do you think you're stronger than a little girl? leave me comments with some of your times.

The training plan is finally finished! Ah, glorious. It is really cool, I must admit. I've got a FIRST marathon training plan and the swim/bike numbers for a oly tri plan combined. That phase wraps june 23rd with my hillbilly marathon. Then I'm taking a couple of weeks off, just because I can. Then the half ironman training plan kicks in leading up to the nov 7th Beach 2 Battleship. I pushed it online, you can download my complete plan from this link. It's an excel 2007 spreadsheet, but if you are using an older version of excel, it should convert ok. Email me if you can't open it, and I will get it to you in another format.

I've got three each swim, bike, and run workouts. The FIRST program has speedwork on tuesdays, a tempo run thursdays, and a long run on saturdays. That's the way I like it. The swim team I'm on practices mon, tues, and thurs at 5:30 am. I haven't figured out how or when I'm going to get in the bike rides yet. There's a long ride on sunday's, and I love getting in a long bike ride on sunday afternoon. I think it's the best recovery workout after a long run on saturday. I think there will be a regular group ride I can get into for that. but monday and wednesday rides are shorter, and the Spinners don't have a regular group ride those days. I might do some at the gym, or on the trainer, or find a safe route and fly solo.

The tri power program is my strength training workouts. It has 15 minutes on mon, wed, fri of basic stretching and corrective work. that's not too bad, and I can do it all in the office. Tues and thurs are the main strength days, and it's only 35 mins worth. Not bad. I'm also throwing in 30 minutes of yoga on tuesdays and thursdays. that's not too bad, really.

It's a comprehensive plan, and in the spreadsheet I added columns to track actual completions too. The sheet is preloaded with my races and those distances too. But get a load of these totals: 92.6 miles of swimming, 2,798 miles on the bike, 639.8 miles running, 70 hours of strength work, and 36 hours of yoga. that sounds like a lot. But it's only february, and that's to carry me through the end of the year. how cool!

So I'm feeling better today, but run out of energy really quickly. I did some yoga this morning, it felt pretty good. I have lost some weight being sick, so that's feeling great. I'm going to do a Tri Power workout later on today, and maybe a little bike time if I can squeeze it in. I don't want to rush back until I'm sure I'm over the flu thing, but if I don't get in a good run or decent bike ride soon I may start shooting things.