10 6 3 EDI; 2009 races

I went up to work out with Will today (I love these days and the workouts they involve) and learned that I'm only about half-way there on all these manual hold exercises. Perhaps because I don't always do them with a partner? Anyway, I do really well on the up part of each exercise but poorly on the down part--the part where gravity is working with you. I forget to keep my muscles turned on.

10 6 3 EDI, 10-second manual hold, 2 sets

• Lunge with Russian lunge: The first 10 were OK. It all went downhill from there. First, I forgot to pop up immediately after the manual hold (pretty much did that on all exercises today; where was my head?!?). Then it took me forever to complete each jump. By the second set, I was leaning forward and over-thinking everything. I wanted to do it right, but then I was just thinking how tired I was and that I wouldn't be able to do it. So sometimes in the middle of a rep I'd just not jump because I didn't think I could (even though I could do it). Only once or twice did I forget to turn it on at the bottom (although now that I think about it, I shouldn't have to turn my muscles on because I shouldn't ever be turning them off), and the bruise on my knee is evidence of the fact. I couldn't complete the last 3 of either set (left leg) without having to stand between the manual hold and the jumps. Oh, and I kick out rather than up. What in the world.
• Will: standing extreme hamstring with rebounds (yeah, I'm not sure how), 5 on, 10 off through 30.
• Glute ham: The first 6 went well. Actually, in the first set, I went all the way up on all of them with assistance only from myself. However, my upper body was always lagging behind, and I basically was just falling to the ground, not using my hamstrings/quads. Sometimes I wish this were easier, but then I probably wouldn't get any faster or stronger. Maybe I just wish I could do it right all the time.
• Will:1-leg squats, 35-lb plate, 5 on, 10 off through 30.
  
• Curl: light bar with a 5-lb plate on each side. Again, I curled up correctly but down incorrectly, basically just by letting it fall and not by lengthening my biceps.
• Will: standing curl, 45-lb bar, with rebounds (or was it altitude drop? I don't know the difference), same 5 on, 10 off through 30.
• Bench press: 45-lb bar. I forgot to engage my legs during the first set but did much better the second. The whole "chest up, shoulders down" thing has been hard--he said my right shoulder kept wanting to come up, and I couldn't feel that at all.
• Crate crunch: This was weird with a manual hold (arms on shoulders, I think), since I hadn't known you could do it that way; altitude drop to start. Again, I didn't crunch up fast enough. What a frustrating workout all around!
  

I add Will's exercises in here so that you can see how hard this progression gets and so that if he ever tells me to do them, at least I'll have some reference to how.

After that, I got a little work done (race schedule, for one thing, which looks like this for now):

• Runs
  

1. 2-14-09 Preds 5K
2. 3-14-09 TK Classic half-mary
3. 4-11-09 Purity 10K
4. 4-25-09 CM Marathon
5. 5-25-09 5K at Greer (Monday)
6. 7-01-04 MFY 5K
7. 10-11-09 Chi Mar—TOV

• Bike Races
  

1. 4-17-09 Harpeth training camp
2. 5-02-09 Sumner County RR
3. 5-16-09 Highland Rim RR, TT
4. 5-27-09 NC.com crit series
5. 6-20-09 Avery Trace RR, TT
6. 7-25-09 TN state TT
7. 7-26-09 NC.com crit
8. 8-01-09 Allanti RR, TT
9. 8-02-09 Allanti Crit

• Tris

1. 5-17-09 Memphis in May Olympic
2. 5-31-09 Madeira Beach Sprint
3. 6-27-09 Old Hickory Lake Sprint
4. 7-11-09 Half IM in Muncie
5. 7-19-09 Olympic in PA
6. 8-30-09 IM Loo

I met some random guy at Panera where I was working, did a little shopping, then went to watch the IceMen hockey game (3-4 loss).