Thought of the Day

On days when things seem to be collapsing in on you from all sides, there is always a silver lining and it is this - workouts fueled by rage are a beautiful thing.

You aren't half sore afterward though.


23 miles planned for Saturday - I am runner, hear me roar.

Or whine.

Or squeak.

Or something :-)

Season of Mists

Autumn, how I love thee. It was 57F when I started my run at 4:30 this morning, with low humidity and the sky a wonderful Van Gogh mosaic. I rolled along at an 8:10 pace and just tuned out. I looked at the stars and found myself thinking of my old gran, dead these past 15 years. I wondered if she was up there somewhere watching me (probably wondering what the hell I was doing up at this hour). I hoped she was proud of the man I'd become and the person I hope to be. I only wish she'd had a chance to meet Nancy and her great grandkids - they'd have loved her like I did, with her secret stash of toffees in her apron.

A great start to the day.

It's gotten a lot easier with Nancy's dad. Gavin told him off a few days ago for refusing to say please or thank you. After a night of sulking he appears to have come round and his attitude is a lot better. That may be partly because we're working him hard - we're making him walk to the bathroom rather than pushing him in the wheelchair. He bitches and moans and claims he can't do it, but he's perfectly capable - we're hard taskmasters and make him use the walker. He's gotten a lot better at walking, even in the last few days, and Nancy is relentless about making him do his exercises.

His problem is that if he can get away with not doing something, he'll gladly let you do it for him. So we have to constantly keep him under the hammer.

I had to laugh this morning - he needed a clean t-shirt, and the biggest one I had was my old UK Bungee Club shirt. He wasn't very impressed, and I doubt it'll see the day out.

I'm still running my daily mile with Gavin (though I don't count those miles as part of my running log). Last night we talked about bullies. Gavin told me there were two boys in his class who were bullies. I asked him if they were bullying him and he said no, but that they were bullying one of his little friends.

"So I stood up to them and made them leave him alone" he said.

I wanted to explore his thought process, so I asked him why he got involved when they weren't affecting him.

"Because it was the right thing to do" he replied.

He's got a big heart. I could have hugged him.

Actually, I did.

Silicon Relay

I took a bye week from my Saturday long run, but my headache has finally receded to a dull ache and I woke up this morning ready for the silicon relay race - always a fun morning of running and socializing.

Nancy's dad has been driving me insane with his constant demands and complaints that we aren't keeping him entertained or satisfying his every whim fast enough, so I was looking forward to getting out of the house for a while.

And I had a good day - I ran a very comfortable 45 minute 10k (almost exactly the same time I ran last year) on what was a cooler but still very humid morning. Have to be happy with that.

And I got a chance to catch up with a lot of friends I haven't seen since I stopped leading the Monday night trail run and backed out of Round Rock Fit. It was great to see everyone.

As for retaining our trophy, I'm almost certain our team ran the fastest time in our division but it never got recorded so we have no idea.

You see, they'd changed the timing chip setup this year. We had one disposable chip per team which we were supposed to loop around a rubber bracelet which was then worn around the wrist and passed between each runner on the team.

The problem was that it didn't work very well. What with all the pulling and rubbing and passing between 5 sweaty guys, it seems to have stopped functioning after the first two (of five) legs.

And it appears that this problem affected a lot of teams (the results page show 252 of the 404 teams are listed as not completing all 5 legs). I have no idea how they're going to sort out that mess.

So the cup was awarded to another team who finished about 10 minutes after us. I'm good friends with the captain of that team, and had actually given him a lift down to the race. To his credit, he told them he couldn't take the trophy because he knew they hadn't won.

I didn't care too much either way - I already have two of them - but I did want our team to show in the official results, so I went over to the timing van and had a chat with the guys there. They were really good about it, and updated their database to include the missing legs.

So in the end nobody claimed the trophy - we all went to the beer garden instead and had a good laugh about it.

And that's exactly as it should be.


PS. all morning I was seeing Stephanie's team. Everywhere I turned, there were those red "Bear Wrestler" t-shirts. So glad I got a chance to cheer for her on her 5k leg.

Crash Bang Wallop

You ever get one of those headaches where the slightest movement of your head makes it seem it's about to explode? I blame pixies - evil little faye folk with nasty little pick axes whittling away on my brain.

Or does that make me sound too much like a superstitious welsh village boy? (there be beasties in them there hills)

OK, let's try again. For the last few days a heavy metal rock band has taken up residence in my head, and brought a refrigeration unit with them (aka fever and chills). At least today I can move my head (slowly) without it threatening to split apart. So that's good, right?

I hope I recover quickly because I'm supposed to run a 10k leg on our Silicon marathon relay team on Sunday. We've won the Governor's cup for the last 2 years and are hoping to make it 3 in a row. It's one thing when you pull out of a solo race (or run it easy), but it's a whole different ball of wax when there are 4 other guys on your team depending on you.

So give it a rest pixies!!!

Gavin and I have been continuing our daily mile runs (at least until the pixie onslaught) and I've found myself really looking forward to them. It's the first thing we do after we get home from school, and it's a great way for us to decompress and talk about the day. I find he's much more likely to open up and talk to me while we're running together than he is when we're at home.

So Wednesday evening I went to pick Gavin up from school to find his teacher white and shaking, and Gavin with an ice pack on his head. She told me that he'd come sprinting down the corridor, slipped on the wet floor and crashed head first into the water fountain. She said that in all the years she'd been teaching she'd never seen anybody hit their head that hard and was convinced he'd knocked himself out, or at the very least sustained a concussion.

But no, he got back to his feet and shook himself off. He loosened a few teeth (again), had a fat lip and a bruise on his head, but apart from being a little shaken up seemed fine. I asked him if he wanted to go home and lie down or go to gymnastics class, and he was adamant - gymnastics class.

I kept a close eye on him, but he was fine. I thanked his teacher the next day for looking after him and she kept shaking her head and saying she couldn't believe he bounced straight back up like he did.

"But that's why he's the Gavinator" she said.

I just shrugged my shoulders - it's not the first and it certainly won't be the last. Mother nature seems to have dealt him the same cards as me - clumsy as all get out, but with a hard head to compensate.

Bob Harper's Inside Out Method : Yoga for the Warrior Review

I have also reviewed the other dvds in the series - "Pure Burn, Super Strength", "Body Rev, Cardio Conditioning" and "Bob's Workout".

This is the third of four dvds in Bob Harper's "Inside Out" series that I've reviewed, and this one is a very different beast from the blood and thunder of the others. You have a 15 minute "yoga abs" or the full one hour workout to choose from, and while the simple menu system, progress bar and countdown are all still here (hooray), there are no weights involved - all you need is a mat.

My main problem with yoga dvds in general is the boredom factor, but Bob is a very good yoga instructor and really motivates you to keep going. I have done both workouts three times so far, and they've held my interest each time.


The Minions
Two girls (Leah and Kristin) and one big muscular guy (Robert) who does the modified version. I'm not going to say much about them - they're not as interesting as the ones from the other discs, but they are much more bendy and have far better balance than me, so good on 'em!!!


15 Minute Yoga Abs
Ok, first of all there's not much yoga about this at all. What you do get is the most intense 17 minute ab workout I've ever done - it is just relentless. I have a strong core and I'm really good at ab work, but this was not easy. Bob keeps your core engaged for the entire 15 minutes by transitioning seemlessly between routines, and by the time we got to cooldown my abs were on fire.

Within the 17 minutes he hits crunches, twists, scissors, extended leg crunches, core rotations, half boat twists, half boat crunches, half boat arm pulses, boat extensions, crunches (again), bicycle, leg extension crunches, mountain climbers, plank, mountain climbers from dolphin plank and any number of pulses and holds on the majority of the above.

And like the other workouts, there is absolutely no rest between sets. Make no mistake, it may be only 17 minutes long but it ain't no picnic.

If I only had 20 minutes and had to choose the best workout to do from any I've ever done, I would pick this one hands down.


1 Hour Yoga
Much different pace to everything else in the series, I call this one my reward workout because it always leaves me with a warm glow - I finish it feeling totally relaxed and peaceful. That doesn't mean it's easy by any means, but it's a nice contrast to the other more intense routines.

It does a lot of the traditional yoga poses such as downward dog, crescent, warrior and triangle poses, chaturanga, chair pose, extended side angle, half moon, bridge, wheel etc etc, but also throws in some curveballs like shoulder press from downward dog and one-legged pushups.

Bob's instruction is spot on. He explains each pose as you go, and strikes just the right balance. Minion Robert does a lot of modifiers which I found myself following (especially on the balance poses), so I know I've still got a long way to go before I master this workout, but I'll keep trying.

Perhaps my favorite progression was extended side angle into wrapped extended side angle (a bind pose) transitioning into bird of paradise, purely because it was the only one I could do that Nancy could not.

On the other hand, I really have to work on some of the other balance poses.


Summary
This is strange in the sense that the shorter workout is really the harder one, although I enjoyed doing both of them. I have two basic requirements from yoga dvds - they have to keep me interested, and they have to leave me relaxed, stretched and happy.

This one ticked both boxes.

Running for Jelly Beans

Some days present you with unexpected moments to cherish, and Gavin provided one such gem Sunday afternoon.

To say that Gavin has a huge excess of energy would be like saying Scooby Doo was partial to the occasional scooby snack. That's great when it comes to things like gymnastics class, but not so great when he gets in trouble at school because he can't sit still.

So after he spent the weekend revolutionizing and innovating the noble art of naughty ways, I decided to switch tactics. We've signed him up for Marathon Kids, and I decided to see if I could channel his energy into running. He'd already found the bag of jelly beans in my handheld that were left over from my long runs this weekend, and I told him I'd give him a challenge. I said that I didn't believe he could run a whole mile without stopping, but that if he could prove me wrong he could have all the jelly beans he'd found.

Of course he immediately agreed to the challenge.

I have a 1 mile loop around my neighborhood, and I told him the only place he could walk was when we had to cross the road. Otherwise, if he stopped running at any point I won the bet and there would be no jelly beans.

And off we went. We both carried our own handheld water bottle (he wanted one "just like daddy"), but of course he insisted on carrying the one containing the jelly beans.

I was pretty confident because there's a nice little hill in the middle of the run that I was sure he wouldn't get up without stopping, but he proved me wrong - he just took it in stride and glided up it like it wasn't there.

We enjoyed ourselves. He listened to what I had to say, relaxed as he ran and we had a great chat and some quality father-son time. As we came down the last part of the loop he said to me "daddy, do you want me to show you how to run properly" and took off. And when he went, he really did go. I had to kick it in to keep up with him - I'd say he was doing a good 9 minute mile.

Cocky little devil - that's my boy.

We got back to the house and I stopped my watch at 11:50 (yes, I admit it. I'm that dad who timed his 5 year old running a mile - how sad am I).

I was so proud of him. He didn't care - he was already into the jelly beans.

He even gave me one. Because "you ran well too daddy".

Back to Back Weekend

It's been a long week. Nancy's dad was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and moved in with us. He's unable to walk or do much for himself, so Nancy and I have been alternating vacation and working from home so that somebody is with him during the day. We'll need to figure out something for the longer term, but he starts outpatient therapy for half days next week so hopefully that will ease things a little.

To top it off, Gavin and Dylan both had to go to the doctors this week with various infections and are both taking medications. Dylan came home from daycare on Friday, went down for a nap and slept right through.

Well, right through until we were getting ready for bed that is. I ended up sitting with him while he wanted to play. It was 1 in the morning before I finally got him to go back down.

So when my alarm clock went off at 3:30am for my 20 miler I had a few choice words for it!!!

My plan was to get an initial 7 miles by myself, then join some friends for a Scenic loop before adding on whatever was needed to make it up to 20. It was one of those mornings where I was super forgetful. First I had to go back home for my Garmin, then I realized half way down to Town Lake that I'd forgotten to eat any breakfast. 20 miles on an empty stomach? Great idea genius!!!

Oh well, I figured I'd see how long it took for me to bonk.

So I did the initial 7 miles, and arrived back at the rock to see my friends disappearing around the corner, having already started their run (jeez guys, I'm only 3 minutes late). I chased them down and settled in for the duration (to be fair, I don't think they expected me to show).

I ran a little conservatively, since I had a stiff back (from all the kettlebell swings) which didn't particularly enjoy the hills. I finished out the scenic loop and was about a mile and a half short, so I took the trail that looped around to Deep Eddy, cut up to Lake Austin and ran out to Exposition and back. I hit 20 about half way back down Veterans, happy to be done.

It took me just over 3 hours, and I averaged right at a 9 minute mile. Not great figures, but not bad considering my lack of calories.

I didn't really have any after effects, and spent long portions of the rest of the day making sourdough bread, pizza dough, playing with my new panini grill (made some great sandwiches for lunch), and mowing down the jungle that was our back and front yard.

It finally looks presentable again - hooray for me.

Then this morning I had plans for another 15 miles. I met Clea at her house, and we ran the 3.5 miles over to Duval where we met up with Steve, Michelle and Michael for an 8 mile danish. Going up Shoal Creek I fell in with Michael and started chatting away. Before we knew it, we were pushing the pace - it was me and Frank all over again. Then Michelle took it on and I went with her. We were running 7:30s and I was wondering why I was doing that when I had done 20 the previous day and still had extra miles to go afterward.

We stopped to regroup at Burnet, and I spent the rest of the Danish portion of the run alternating between chasing Michelle and telling myself to back off and not to be so stupid. Ego eventually got the better of me and I ran a fast last mile or so.

Steve was kind enough to bring extra iced water to top us off, and Clea and I set off for the last 3 or so miles. We slogged up Duval and continued chatting away. The last few miles along 51st absolutely flew by. We were running strongly (about 8:10-8:20 pace), and I couldn't believe it when we hit 15.

As a reward we decided to walk the remaining quarter mile or so as a cooldown.

I had none of the soreness I experienced after last week's 17 miler, probably because I'd hydrated well all week. I ran today's 15 miler faster than yesterday - at an 8:30 average - which I was very pleased with, especially since it was so horribly humid.

One of my (few) advantages as a runner is that I recover really quickly from these long runs. These are the kind of weekends when I can put that into practice.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather. 35 miles this weekend though - gotta love that.

Bob Harper's Inside Out Method : Body Rev, Cardio Conditioning Review

There's no 10 minute workout. You know what a 10 minute workout is? It's a warmup.

- Bob Harper

I have also reviewed the other dvds in the series - "Pure Burn, Super Strength", "Yoga for the Warrior" and "Bob's Workout".

This is the second of four dvds in Bob Harper's "Inside Out Method" series that I've reviewed. "Pure Burn, Super Strength" was hard, and I wasn't expecting this one to be any different. The back of the box claims "if you've got heart, you can get results". Let's see how true that is.


Overview
The menu system is identical to Pure Burn - clean, simple and straightforward. The options are the 1 hour cardio workout, a 25 minute "Butt and balance" workout and two trailers.

Once more we have the great feature of a "progress bar" and countdown timer on both workouts, plus it flashes up the exercises you're about to transition into. These are great features and I don't understand why more exercise dvds don't have them.

I could get spoiled with all this.

Equipment needed for the workout is again very minimal. One heavy weight (or kettlebell), a pair of lighter weights and a workout mat.


Introduction
This time Bob is already on set - prowling around like a caged lion. It flashes arty-farty onto subliminal clips of him slamming minions, then we're into it. There is a short cheesy speech before the hour workout, but you're into the shorter one almost immediately.

One thing I really noticed in these workouts (it probably applies to Pure Strength too, but it was more noticeable here) is that Bob and his minions perform the mirror action of his instructions. For example, when he tells you to do something with your right arm only, all the minions do it with their left. I can see why they would do that (to match the same side you're doing as you look at them), but it was really confusing at first.


We Who are About to Die Salute You (the minions)
A different set of minions on this dvd. They still look super fit, and while not as entertaining as "mouth breather", slacker and "feisty momma" they still do a great job. One of them does give Bob some sass (though she regrets it pretty quickly as he hammers on her thereafter).

Again, you only find out who they are when they're being yelled at, so in case you missed it:

Roxy - looks like she's about 12, but she's an absolute workout machine and at several points is using weights that are almost as big as she is.

Zach - the spitting image of former Wales and British Lions rugby player Dafydd James. Tall and lanky he really tries to keep going. I kept an eye on him because he seemed to flag at all the same points I did.

Becky - aka the feisty one. She does all the modifications and is picked on by Bob quite a lot after giving him a bit of verbal.


20 minute Butt and Balance
The box says 25 minutes, the menu says 20 minutes, it's actually 23:30 minutes and is a lot harder than the beginner's workout from the strength dvd. What I liked about this one is that after a quick warmup almost everything is done using one leg only which isolates that leg and engages the core by forcing you to concentrate on balance. From stationary lunges we move on to weighted deadlifts and modulate into single leg deadlifts, then single leg bentover rows and on to front leg lifts. Then we repeat with the other leg. Other exercises such as lateral raises and front shoulder raises are also done while balancing on one leg.

Then just to be sure we get our money's worth we finish off with chair pose. Bob tells us that we're only going to have to hold it for 30 seconds and promises relief, but with 5 seconds to go he tells us we're going to go straight into pulses. Bastard!! After the thigh burning pulsing is complete we get to (agonisingly) hold it again while Bob laughs at us. Double bastard!!! The minions are just about collapsing at this point. I am good at chair pose, but I was yelling at Bob along with them.

A great little workout if you're short of time (or need to work on your balance like I do).


1 Hour cardio
Billed at one hour, the workout runs for just over 61 minutes. We start out with some nice relaxed dynamic stretching and some punch and uppercut combos which warmed me up nicely.

Hmm, nothing too hard so far. Little did I know. As Bob says when the minions troop on stage "they have no idea what's in store for them".

The workout gets going with deadlifts using a single heavy weight, and it becomes obvious real soon that this is a kettlebell workout in disguise. The deadlifts transition into deadlifts with rows, and then into single arm rows. Then we continue the squats with double arm swings, single arm swings, then alternating swings. It was fun swapping the weight from hand to hand by letting go at the top of the swing and catching it with the other hand (Nancy might have had something to say if I'd dropped it though). By the time we get through another lot of double arm swings, more deadlifts, suitcase swings (then more switching and alternating, all with squats of course) I'm starting to feel it.

Then we move into weighted squats and weighted squat jumps, and I realize this is an hour-long workout based almost entirely on squats. I'm not ashamed to say I was taking water breaks here and I lost count of the number of times I yelled "you've got to be kidding" (or words to that effect) at the screen.

Then we held squat position while pushing the weight out in front and back, then pushing it overhead and back, then holding it up (while still in squat position). My legs were really shaking by this point.

"Now put that weight down" may be the nicest thing anyone's said to me all year.

But no, we're immediately into handwalks, plank, pushups, mountain climbers (as fast as you can) and scorpion pushups. The best I can say about that lot was that it was at least a break from squats!!!

Ah, little did I know. After a "rest" (otherwise known as jumping jacks) we're straight back into more sets of squats. And there's still over 40 minutes to go. The minions are absolutely dying, and so am I.

When Bob asks Becky if her legs are burning and she says "no" I could have strangled her!!! Luckily I didn't need to as within minutes Bob takes his revenge and has her near collapse. When he asks again a few minutes later, she's obviously learned her lesson and mumbles "yes".

Show those minions who's boss Bob!!!

Like the strength dvd, there is absolutely no rest in this workout. There is a short waterbreak late on when the minions stage an uprising, but that's about it. And I love it that the minions are struggling along with me. All three of them have to break position at numerous points. And so did I because Bob is relentless.


Summary
By the time we got to the cooldown I was completely spent, drooling, lying in a pool of sweat and muttering "terrible things I have seen" to myself. Bob is an absolute beast - a cold blooded merciless torturer who will push you to your limit and beyond, then laugh and get you to do a few more. This is an absolutely awesome tough workout. An hour of squats? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how much that can improve your hill running?

When I recover from the workout I'll let you know. I do notice my back is very tight today, maybe from losing a bit of form on the last set of swings and deadlifts when I was tired near the end.

Maybe I'll give the yoga workout a go tonight to stretch it out a bit.

Liquid Running

When I was a kid, I occasionally read a comic featuring the world's only goalkeeping fish. A very bizarre concept to be sure (though somewhat more PC than many of the other unsavory characters in that particular publication), but with all the sucky suck suck humidity generated by the storms and torrential rains of the past week, Billy the Fish would probably have done a better job on Saturday's long run than me.

I've been feeling a bit run down for the last few days. Nancy's been sick all week, and I suspect I got a taste of the tail end of it. Whatever it was, I've definitely been dragging ass.

I also know I haven't been drinking enough, and I'm pretty sure I started Saturday's run dehydrated. If you look at a list of things not to do before a 20 miler, I could probably tick most of those boxes this week.

I know better than that, but sometimes real life gets in the way.

The run didn't start off too badly, but around mile 7 I suddenly got all light headed and dizzy. I decided not to do the Scenic Dr loop, and cut up Enfield to Exposition instead. I slowed down my pace and while I didn't feel too bad my heart rate wasn't coming down either.

I went back across 15th, up through UT and took Manor Rd back up to Mueller, then turned around and retraced my steps back down for a mile or so and waited for Clea. I figured it was a nasty uphill last few miles, and the least I could do was keep her company for the last bit.

So we did the last few miles together, and I think we were both glad to be done - she finished off with 20 miles, while I bagged 17 and lived to run another day :-)

Then back to real life.

Nancy's dad had a day pass on Saturday. He's being discharged from hospital on Tuesday to come live with us, so this was a trial run. He can't be left by himself because he can't walk and is still confused. I'm not sure how we're going to juggle that, work and the boys - it's going to be hard, but we'll figure it out.

Sunday I did an 8 mile Danish with Steve and Megan. They were going to add on another 4 miles, but I'd had enough of running this weekend so I just headed home. I ran well enough, but my legs were sore when I woke up on Sunday, which never happens. That definitely points to dehydration the day before.

I've had enough of this heat and humidity - I'm ready for the cooler weather.

The plan for this week is to drink a lot more (water), eat more, keep up the weights, do some hard midweek runs and try and tag the 20 again next Saturday (while praying for better running weather).

I may not make all of that, but I'll do my best.

Bob Harper's Inside Out Method : Pure Burn, Super Strength Review

I have also reviewed the other dvds in the series - "Body Rev, Cardio Conditioning", "Yoga for the Warrior" and "Bob's Workout".

I recently purchased the complete 4-disc set of Bob Harper's "Inside Out Method" dvds on pre-release from his website and am working my way through them. Bob is best known as the "nice guy" trainer from the TV show "The Biggest Loser", with the implication that he doesn't push his folks as hard as Jillian Michaels (the "nasty one"). I suspect this workout series is attempting to shift that image a tad (at one point when one of the minions is complaining, he jokes "come on, I'm the nice one, you love me"). I don't really care about any of that, but I always do a lot of research on workout dvds before I purchase them and everything I'd read pointed to these being excellent kick butt workouts.

I also know that Bob is a really good runner, and I've always felt that his workouts were a huge benefit to my running.

So the first dvd I worked my way through was "Pure Burn Super Strength". The claim on the back of the box (in all caps mind you) stated that "Bob will push you and your muscles farther than you ever thought possible".

My goodness - that's quite a promise. Let's put it to the test.


Overview
The first thing I noticed when I put the disc in was that after the obligatory "don't copy this or we'll take your firstborn" and "if you die working out it's not our fault" messages it went straight to the main menu. Not having to wait through annoying commercials every time I put the thing in was a nice surprise. A silly thing perhaps, but I appreciated it.

The menu is nice and minimalist - it is one-level and you have the option of the 1 hour workout, a beginner's 20 minute workout and two trailers. This is set against the backdrop of Bob looking mean and some suitably "well hard" music - I guess designed to "pump you up" for the work to come.

The other thing that I liked was that both workouts have a "progress bar" and countdown at the bottom of the screen, so you know exactly where you are during the workout. As you cycle into different circuits, it also flashes the new target zone (for example, weighted squats or tricep extensions).

Not so good was the "arty" camera work. This isn't too obtrusive, but there are some points during the workouts where they use stop-start filming, black and white stills and various other arty camera effects. You may enjoy it or you may not. For me it was a little distracting.

The equipment you need for this workout is minimal - a set of dumbbells and a mat (unless you want your carpet covered in sweat).


Introduction
Whichever workout you select, you get the same introduction montage. Bob on one knee backstage looking grim, Bob tying his shoelace with purpose, Bob smacking his fist into his palm, Bob stalking menacingly onto the set, and Bob giving a short Churchillian speech ("today's the day you change everything").

Once I'd stopped laughing, I was ready for the workout.


The Minions
Minions are important because they are the folks on screen doing the exercises and represent the oiled, shiny bastions of fitness to which you aspire.

In this dvd, there are three victims being worked out, and they all look crazy fit. They get a handslap each in the beginning, but then we're straight into it and we only learn their names when they get yelled at during the workout (and this happens a lot).

So in case you missed it, here they are:

Helen - feisty momma who gives Bob an impressive number of dirty looks (which is maybe why he picks on her so much) and has an equally impressive endurance. It's a shame the microphone didn't pick up some of the names she called him :-)

Francisco - muscular eye candy for the ladies, but seems to slack off a lot. Constantly sneaks a few cheeky breathers when he thinks nobody is watching, though Bob does catch him a few times ("if I turn around and he's not doing it, we're going to start all over"). Even Helen starts railing on him at one point, which was so funny it nearly made me drop my plank position. Still, makes me feel better when I'm still going and he's collapsed at the back sucking wind :-)

Stephanie - a mouth breather from the Monica Seles school of grunting, Jim Carrey could learn a thing or two from her facial contortions. She does the modified version of the workout.

I liked this set of minions - they were very likable. Their mannerisms give them character and let me relate to them a lot (especially when I was struggling along with them).


20 minute Beginner's Workout
This was the first workout I tried when I was pushed for time one night, and Bob emphasizes that it is a starting point for beginners. It runs at 19 minutes including warmup and cooldown, and it's not very hard. Bob does give a lot of tips about good form which is great, and to be fair he gets in a lot of moves like weighted sumo squats, bicep curls, tricep extensions and kickbacks, lunges, deadlifts, rows and front, lateral and posterior lateral raise combos.

It did leave me wondering if these workouts were going to be too easy.


1 Hour Workout
That thought was very quickly put to bed. This is the main workout on the disc, goes for just about 67 minutes, and when I say "goes for 67 minutes" I mean it goes for every single second of that 67 minutes.

The initial warmup consists of some dynamic stretching, leg swings and pushups. Nothing too strenuous, and then we get into it.

And there's no messing about. First up are weighted squats which transition to pushups, then bicep curl and shoulder press combos, then weighted squats again - this time done at pace with a quad burning hold at the end. Then weighted burpees, then we add in pushups, then we hold half way down. Then we mix it all together and move on to something else.

While none of these moves are particularly hard on their own, here's the thing - Bob transitions from one set to the other smoothly, and with ABSOLUTELY NO BREAK INBETWEEN. If he has something to explain, he'll do it while you're hammering reps or holding a squat position, or pulsing bicep curls. But once you're out of one move, you're straight into another. He has designed the workout to transition from one body part to the next in such a way that allows you to workout one part, give it some respite while you work out another, then go back and hit it again. And again. And again.

And this is an hour long workout.

Yes, it hurts. Yes, it's hard. But it's also motivating when you see the super fit minions struggling as well. Even Helen, who seems to be the strongest of the three, was flagging in parts (and Stephanie looks like she's going to puke at one point). I was sweating like a Southern baptist at the playboy mansion, and I was only 15 minutes into the thing. By the time I got to the planks, pushups (again) and weighted t-stands my muscles were forming coalitions to take industrial action against me and were on the verge of staging a walkout. Little did I know I still had matrix lunges and abdominal circuits still to go.

The only thing I modified was one section that did jump lunges. I don't like jump lunges - they're horrible for your knees and I just don't do them. Everything else was fine, though I did use padded weightlifting gloves for the portions where you're doing pushups or t-stands with your body weight resting on the dumbbells. But maybe I'm just a wuss.


Summary
I am in really good shape, I do weights regularly, and I can run a respectably fast marathon and/or ultramarathon and not be sore the day after. But I felt this workout. Two days later my hamstrings, quads and shoulders were still singing. I've done a lot of Jillian Michaels' circuit training workouts, and those are tough too, but not like this. The thing with Jillian's dvds is that you know if you're struggling with something you're only going to have to do it for 30 seconds or so before you move on. Here you could be pounding it out for several minutes, and coming back to it later, maybe with a few variations thrown in.

At several points during the workout, Bob has an interval where he says "I want you to do as many as you can, as fast as you can, in the next x seconds" and then counts down. I love that because I find I'm really pushing myself and testing my endurance, trying to beat the minions (even though I know that as soon as his countdown finishes he'll have me onto something else immediately).

On the negative, there is a big gap between the 20 minute beginner's workout and the full hour bad boy. If you struggle in the beginner's version, you're really going to struggle in the full thing.

For me, I wanted a good hard explosive workout to add to my rotation in preparation for my winter races, and this fits the bill nicely. I hope the others are as good as this.

Juiced

A pint of green goodness

This is my new post-run pick me up - a yummy fruit smoothie. I got the idea and recipe from the No Meat Athlete website, which is a veritable treasure trove of interesting articles and recipes.

I used spinach and spirulina instead of greens superfood and made up a batch of super cubes on Friday. It was delicious, thick and filling, and it certainly hit the spot after yesterday's 18 miler.

And speaking of said 18 miler, I met Clea at 5am and we ran South to UT and cut across 15th and down to the rock where we picked up Steve. We then did a Scenic loop and parted ways with Steve at Duval and 38th to continue back up North and finish the run on the Eastside. We finished off strongly with 8:20s for the last few miles and we clicked over to 18 miles just as I tagged my car.

It was a nice run, we held it steady and chatted our way through the miles. Breaking it up into the three parts - dubbed pre-Steve, Steve and post-Steve - seemed to make the miles go by much faster, and a very good sign was that we increased our pace in the last few miles, even though they trended uphill. Generally you run a faster pace in a race than you do during training runs (for me it's about 30 seconds a mile), so I think we're right on track to hit our goal at Frankenthon.

Next week we're up to 20 miles, and we have some ideas to tinker with the route to get an extra water stop as we nearly ran out yesterday (huge kudos to Mike - Clea's husband - for having some iced water waiting for us at the end).

This morning it was an 8 mile Danish run. There were four of us, and I paired up with Frank. As we joked during the run, we seem to bring out the competitive edge in each other because we always seem to push the pace and egg each other on. Today we averaged in the 7s and dipped into the 6s at numerous points - I think that's the fastest I've ever run that loop.

But it was gratifying to know that I could hold that pace after yesterday's 18 miler.

So we waited until the bakery opened and I got to take some cupcakes home again. We have visitors this weekend, so I took a selection. Dylan certainly went to town on his portion of the chocolate one as the picture below demonstrates.

The remnants of a chocolate cupcake

He got dumped into the shower with daddy.

Tonight our visitors are looking after the boys for a few hours while I take Nancy out for a meal at Hudson's on the Bend, a posh eatery in West Austin. This is probably going to be our last chance to have a date night for a very long time, so we're going to make the most of it.

7 Years Bad Luck

They say that it's 7 years bad luck to break a mirror, so what do you think I get for smashing the heck out of this rather nice one?

Until earlier today it hung very elegantly over our fireplace. Now not so much.

The funny thing is that after it fell (and made one heck of a crash on its way down), Gavin stood there, looked at it, looked at me, shook his head, and with a deadpan expression said "wow daddy, and you call me clumsy".

Thanks Gavinator.

He also said that he wasn't mad with me "because you'll get enough of that from mummy".

Very kind of him.

I did relay that story which helped reduce my sentence somewhat.

Actually, I think Nancy is looking forward to shopping for another one :-)


***Update***

Since I smashed the mirror this afternoon, the following things have occurred:

1. I discovered a decapitated and dismembered (severed leg) action figure of Gavin's - obviously a casualty of the mirror

2. I exploded a bottle of Dr Pepper all over the kitchen

3. I dropped most of the gourmet sourdough grilled sandwiches I'd made for everyone's supper onto the floor

4. I knocked the salt and pepper shakers onto the floor. Of course they both shattered. Of course they were both full.

5. I threw some of the spilled salt over my left shoulder and then couldn't remember if that was supposed to cancel out the bad luck or double it!!!

6. I was peed on while changing Dylan's blowout diaper in what was obviously a premeditated retaliation for his brother's action figure.

I'm going to have a beer. And try really hard not to drop it!!!

Tearing it Up

There are days when life stresses seem to come at you from everywhere and you need some kind of release valve. My solution when this happens is to throw some workout clothes on and tear it the f*** up (pardon my French).

Such was the case on Wednesday, so when Dylan went down for a nap that evening I launched myself into one of my new strength workouts and really went for it. There's nothing quite as good as a workout fueled by aggression, and I hammered it. Squats, lunges, deadlifts, curls, presses, extensions, raises, one leg, two legs, combos. All manner of variations, from one to the other, no respite, over and over, faster and faster. Hold, pulse, fast. Go go go.

By the time Dylan woke up an hour later, my legs were shaking, all the twitch fibers in my arms were firing and I was a sweating pile of jello.

But I felt great.

Then I woke up yesterday and my hamstrings, butt and shoulders were not so great :-)

So I did (the somewhat pompously named) "Yoga for the Warrior" last night that really helped. There were some poses (especially the balance ones) that I couldn't do (just how far can you hop across the living room trying to keep your balance before admitting defeat), but it was a wonderfully relaxing and stretching workout - one of those where you get a glow halfway through and feel better and stronger the more you do.

I'm still a little sore today but it feels good, you know?

And after another week of heat and humidity, the weather is supposed to drop into the 60s for my early morning run tomorrow.

Gotta like that.

Debunked

I took delivery of the new bunk bed for the boys yesterday, and am very happy - it's a twin (single) on top with a full (double) below. We had considered getting one with twins on both top and bottom and a staircase that doubled as drawers. That was pretty cool, but with Nancy's dad increasingly looking like he's going to be coming to live with us we figured this one would give us more options when my parents come to stay.

So it's set up in our second bedroom which is now Gavin's room, and will eventually become Gavin and Dylan's room. I shared a room with my brother for a time while growing up - we had bunk beds, and I fondly remember all the fun times we had chatting away into the night and playing jokes on each other.

Last weekend I cleared out the room in preparation (hence no pictures on the wall) and moved the full bed that was in there to the third bedroom (which I also cleared out). I took advantage of the rooms being empty to vacuum and shampoo the carpets, and move furniture around.

Both rooms looked like cozy little havens, though now that Gavin has moved in I don't give it long before it becomes a warzone!!!

So the Gavinator claimed the top bunk (obviously), but I got to read him his bedtime story in the bottom bunk last night. I love this second bedroom - it's probably the coziest room in the house. And I love the smell of new wood from the bunks.

My next weekend project is going to be to design and build a trundle drawer to go beneath. They had one that went with the bed, but it was expensive and not very well built. But I'm a very cunning, patient and detail-oriented woodworker, and I know I could do a much better job. Plus I wanted to design a custom fit as I didn't want to have to move the bedside table every time I pulled the trundle out. I've modeled my design in 3D using Google Sketchup and have calculated all the materials required.

All I need now is to find the time to build it.

On the running front, the wonderful weather from the weekend has been savagely and brutally murdered by the heat and humidity demons. I did 7 miles yesterday morning, and keeping under an 8:30 pace was not nearly as effortless as it had been a few days earlier.

That may also be due to the fact that my new workout dvds arrived Monday. I tried out one of the 25 minute "beginner" workouts - it wasn't that hard, but there were some good power moves, "feel the burn" holds and combos that gave me a taste of the pain that awaits in the hour-long sweatfests.

I will try each of them out and post reviews.

Whatever it was, I was feeling a little tired and run down by yesterday evening. You know when sometimes your Garmin goes on the blink and you need to do that secret hardware reset thing? Well that was me yesterday - I needed a hardware reset. So I went to bed early last night, slept like a rock and woke up completely refreshed this morning.

Maybe I'll try one of the hour-long workouts tonight.