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.