More New Stuff (means more to practice)

Here is this morning's workout. We did each pair in sets of three.

• 20 squat swings—no weight
• 1-min lunge each leg
• 20 glute ham raises to arm's length
• 1-min standing ham
• 20 deltoid raises—10-lb dumbbell
• 1-min push up
• 20 rebound curls—light bar
• 1-min preacher curl—10-lb dumbbells

After the first set, Will asked what I felt; I said like I was just doing it, not using my muscles. That's what it looked like, too. So on the second one, I tried to actually use my muscles but felt slow (it was supposed to be as fast as you could go). Still not right. So after the second set, we tried shudders where, on his command, I was supposed to turn on and then immediately off all my muscles. We did about 4 before he asked if I was even doing anything. I was, but it was evidently not what he expected. The rebound curls still need some work, and during the preacher curl, he had to remind me to keep driving my chest up and breathe with my diaphragm instead of my chest (something about using your oxygen better?). Anyways, now I have to practice, in front of the mirror, shudders and breathing and fast altitude drop/rebound curls.

In my effort to be slightly more social than normal, I arranged a lunch with the other ladies from work. In my office of 19, 6 are women: Beth, Delana, Kelly, Lisa, Sara, and me. We typically go for lunch when Amy comes but not much more often than that. I found coupons for a free meal at KFC, so I suggested we go. We drove over there and found out that the coupons weren't good until 1pm (it was 11:30), and the parking lot was ridiculously busy; even the local news station was there! Instead of stopping there, we headed to Jalisco, a new Mexican restaurant a block away (Donelson has tons of restaurants!), but saw a sign on the door saying "Opening Soon." So we ended up at Bar-B-Cutie and had to pay for lunch. I had been hoping for a free lunch, but we'll just try again next week, just later in the afternoon (like 2pm when fewer people are out!).

Did my 1-h ride (at 15, 3×5 min Z4 @ 3-min spin). It was actually 56:56, 18.01 miles, 19.1 mph, and felt great. Z2 parts were around 135. Z4 parts were around 168 and up to 180 (but only for a few seconds). I could really get used to HR rides, as long as my HRM stays reliable!

Tonight was the last night of Inversion, and that usually means a party or cookout or something. This year was no different, and we met on the church lawn, prayed over the Peru team that's heading out Saturday, and had some food. It was actually dry, and the volleyball nets were set up, so I was hoping to play a few games. Alas, the courts were always full when I had time to play. I spent most of the evening talking with Jesi and her new friend Ashley and Jonathan. I think that's all I talked to (oh, wait, I also met Emily, who will be helping lead worship in Peru).

Brick

Wednesdays are brick days, and they are fun. Bricks are the most race-typical and they help me prepare mentally and physically. It was relatively short—45-min bike, less-than-3-min transition, 30-min run.

The ride I did on the trainer, so it was exactly 45 minutes. Since I've been riding on the trainer, I've really been trying to focus on things that I'll need to do while racing: drinking at least every 15 minutes, keeping the HR up (today was supposed to be Z4, and I was between 138 and 164 the whole time), working hard to push and pull on the pedals, sprinting a little, adding in hills here and there. It's been good, because it's keeping me honest and focused.

Today's transition was 45 seconds. I decided to go sockless in the Zoot shoes, so I put on some vaseline and threw on the shoes (no race belt or visor to worry about, nor helmet or sunglasses to take off).

Then it was off to the corner of Franklin Road and Mallory Station and then back as far as I could make it in 30 minutes. Today was supposed to be in Z2; I was between 138 and 164 the whole time—either my ride wasn't in Z4 or my run wasn't in Z2, because the HR was quite similar between the two. I made it to the corner of Moores and Landings 15 seconds faster this week than last--that has been my 30-minute marker. Good news! Especially after not having run much. It wasn't that bad without socks; if I hadn't been thinking about it, I probably wouldn't have noticed a difference. However, more than 30 minutes might not be so good (remember this for sprint distances!).

It's still been raining, and I told the people at work that if it was raining, I'd play the Great Dalmuti with them on Wednesday, so today was game day. Fun times in the conference room!

Rebounds

Something new again today, but Will was home to explain—100 rebounds. Basically it's start around the top, drop down, and then rebound up as quickly as possible. Oh, and don't think of it as 1 set of 100; think of it as 100 sets of 1, so you should be doing each one like it's the only one, and each one should look the same as the previous and the next.

• Lunge: 100 on the right, 64 and then 36 on the left (the only reason I stopped was because Will said stop [only he didn't mean stand up, but I didn't know that]; I wanted to do all 100 without stopping).
• Standing ham: We had to do this one twice, because when he asked how many I did as fast as possible, I said probably about 40. It was actually supposed to be glute ham, but maybe next time.
• Wall squat: I started to get tired around 90, and that meant I was drawing my knees together (not good!)
• Curl (light bar): This one I still need to work on. First, I wasn't getting the full range of motion with my arms—they should go all the way down to my hips and then back up. I also still am not very fast, and the bar keeps dropping farther than I think it should. The one time I tried the push/pull away thing, I threw the bar toward my face. Oops!
• Push up on knees: For the last 30, I only did half push ups. But 100 push ups is a lot!
• Crate crunch: Pretty sure I didn't get the rebound part of this.

When Will first said to do the lunge, he said I might not be able to do it, and that was OK. He said it was going to be hard and if I had to stop, I could stand up and then finish. But I was determined to do them all; it was all in the attitude. I didn't just want to prove him wrong; I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and I wanted to use my attitude and determination to push myself even when I didn't know if I was physically able to do it.

When he said to do the push ups, I immediately thought there was no way I could do all 100 all the way. I didn't say it, but I must have looked it, because he said, "Why are you thinking negative thoughts?" I wanted to ask him how he could read my thoughts; he said later he could practically feel my negativity. So I readjusted my attitude and just focused on one at a time, doing it right, and not worrying about the next one. I didn't necessarily do them all right, but I did them all, mainly because my attitude was positive; I COULD do it. Zach was in there with us doing the 3-minute extreme slow; now I know that the second way I did it (starting up and pulling down rather than starting down and going further down) was the correct way!

I finally broke out the running shoes again after having been off since April 25—pretty much 9 days off! Ran the MFY loop in just over 47 (not too bad for trying to stay in Z2 except for 2×4.5-minutes in Z4 @ 1.5-minute jog; I don't think I made it up to Z4, and I don't think I stayed in Z2, so I've got some work to do on the HR). Then I swam 300m. I wish I could let things not bother me, but today the guy swimming next to me in the lane was bothering me so I got out. I would try to let him be ahead of me, and he'd wait for me. Then he'd stay right next to me. Then I'd try to get ahead and he'd catch up to me to stay right next to me. Then he'd stop and stay on the wall so I couldn't flip turn. Then I'd had enough and left. Maybe tomorrow, definitely Thursday I'll get back in the water.

Developing Self-Discipline

Monday is a day off, and usually that means doing nothing related to exercise and doing a lot related to thinking and improving in the other areas of life. Some things are important to study and do, and self-discipline is something we all can work on. Dr. John MacArthur has some great advice on how to cultivate self-discipline in your life; this will translate into every area of your life, including your work, relationships, spiritual walk, and everything else. And there are 7 things, which means one for every day of the week (as if you could learn this all in one week!).

Developing Self-Discipline

John MacArthur
Practically speaking, how can a person develop self-discipline in his or her life?

Here are some things that have helped me through the years:

1. Start Small. Start with your room. Clean it, then keep it clean. When something is out of place, train yourself to put it where it belongs. Then extend the discipline of neatness to the rest of your home.
2. Be on time. That may not seem very spiritual, but it's important. If you're supposed to be somewhere at a specific time, be there on time. Develop the ability to discipline your desires, activities, and demands so that you can arrive on time.
3. Do the hardest job first. When you do that, you will find it easier to do the simpler tasks.
4. Organize your life. Plan the use of your time; don't just react to circumstances. Use a calendar and make a daily list of things you need to accomplish. If you don't control your time, everything else will.
5. Accept correction. Correction helps make you more disciplined because it shows you what you need to avoid. Don't avoid criticism; accept it gladly.
6. Practice self-denial. Learn to say no to your feelings. Learn to do what you know to be right even if you don't feel like doing it. Sometimes it's even beneficial to deny yourself things that are acceptable to have, like a doughnut in the morning or dessert after dinner. Exercising such self-restraint helps you develop the habit of keeping other things under control. Cultivating discipline in the physical realm will help you become disciplined in your spiritual life.
7. Welcome responsibility. When you have an opportunity to do something that needs to be done, volunteer for it if you have talent in that area. Accepting responsibility can force you to organize yourself.

The first small thing I'm going to work on is washing my breakfast dishes (the egg pan; everything else goes in the dishwasher) before I leave for work and washing my supper dishes (the grill or pans and salad bowl) before I go to bed. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

My fun Monday activity (Mondays are my days to do something with someone; broad, I know) was to hang out with Davey (9) and Elijah (13) Masters. Blair was still there when I arrived, so we chatted a little about his recent trip to Korea. Then we played some Phase 10 (Davey picked it up really quickly, and Karthi said later she enjoys card games) and looked at the pictures in a book about birds. Elijah and I watched a little Home Improvement and George Lopez. When Karthi came home, we talked fast, for about 30 minutes, about everything but the kitchen sink. I love godly women who listen, and she is definitely one of them.

Hoping to Run Soon...

The workout from Will was something new: 3 minutes extreme slow. He actually called to explain, so I think I mostly got it.

• Wall squat: Start just above 90* and pull down to the bottom during the entire 3 minutes. If you get to the bottom before 3 minutes are up, start back up again.
  
• 5-min standing ham (still not doing glute ham)
• Push up on knees, on hands only: I don't think I did this right, because I started down and then didn't have any where to go. See following points.
  
• Curl—standing—with 12-lb bar
• Push up on knees: This time I did it right—I didn’t start at the bottom, I started at the top and worked my way down as slowly as I could, which got faster after 1.5 min and I did about 3 times up and down but kept trying to pull down slowly.
• Curl—standing—with 24-lb bar: This time I used more weight and tried to pull down slower because on the first, I had 60+ seconds while I was at the bottom and I didn’t know if I was supposed to start again). I really tried to focus on lengthening my biceps.
• Crate crunch: Again, not sure whether I did this one correctly. I think I did more of a 3-minute iso than a 3-minute extreme slow.
  

30-min ride on the stationary bike:

• Farmer’s Bluff (there was a coast and sunshine…it was great because it’s been raining for the last 3 days!)
• Calories: 368
• Avg Power: 164.48 (I beat the pacer by nearly a minute; it should have been way more because he was set at 110 watts. It must go by speed, also.
• Miles: 6.91

I stayed on for an additional minute or so, but the actual 6.9 miles took me 29:40 something. And I kept my cadence at or above 100 for the majority of the time; I never saw it go below 96 and I didn’t let it stay there for long. I saw it get up to 117 on some of the downhills.

New Trainer Record

I was supposed to have raced today, but I decided not to due to the rain that we've had over the last two days. It rained all day yesterday and was still raining this morning when I woke up. The rain didn't seal it for me, but the fact that I would have been racing with the juniors did. I was not going to risk injury for a 24-mile race with juniors and 3 other preregistered Cat IV women (2 of whom were my teammates and I know that neither of them showed up). Now, if I had gone, a win or place would have pretty much been guaranteed, but it wasn't worth it.

So instead of racing, I rode my bike on the trainer on my back porch, again. Only today was 3 times as long as yesterday. It was 3 hours, with, at 2:50, 5 minutes in Z4. Well, I couldn't just do 2:50 of nothing, so after a 20-or-so minute warmup, I set my phone to go off every 20 minutes. At that interval, I stood up for a minute and made sure to get my heart rate up. It was good because it kept me honest (otherwise I'd have just sat there reading the whole time) and it made me focus on my HR. I was probably around 130-145 for the 2:50, up around 165 for the 5, and then back to 115-130 for the final 5 minutes.

The 3-hour bike was supposed to have been followed by a quick transition and a 30-minute run, but I'm still not wearing tennies. I figure that I'll let the blisters and toes heal as much as I can so that I don't have to deal with my feet all summer.

Praying for healing!

That might be all for the day, but if Will sends me a workout, I'll do it. No workout! After church, I headed over to Farkas' to hang out with Luke and Lauren, but no one was home so I left a message and then saw and talked to Bennett as I was leaving; he said they were out with friends, so I went home and watched a little Monk.

Storms...Thus No Swimming (toes)

I guess I feel safe knowing that the Ys close the pools if it's raining and lightening, but it sure puts a damper on training (I called 2 and both pools were closed). So, due to the storms today, there was no straight 3,000. I'll try it next week, since I can't really put flippers on anyway.

I did ride, though, 1 hour on the trainer on my back porch while I watched the rain. At 15 minutes, it was 2×5 minutes in Z4 @ 3 min spin. I got my HR up to 160–170 during those intervals. I doubt that's Z4 but I could not get it up any higher. It was between 140 and 142 for the rest of the ride.

Here's my setup

Here's the view from my aero bars...through the trees beyond the blue van is a road, so if I need a distraction (which I'm learning not to need) I can be the nosy neighbor, watching who's coming and going

The next few pictures are for the "nasty!" record. This is what happens to some endurance athletes and is now nearly a week after the marathon.

Blisters on the inside of my left foot, under my big toe nail (enhanced in the next picture) and under my third toe nail. I'll likely lose the big one and perhaps the other one as well.

Most people's nail is directly against the skin. I measured it and now after having been draining the blister for 2 days, I still have an extra 3/16-in. protuberance and haven't worn shoes all week (hello, flip flops at work!)