I'm still Sure!

S

Sure!

0
My old journal won't let me post anymore and seems to have misplaced my last post, so I'll just start a new one... what's a career in IT worth if not becoming adept at finding workarounds???

Since I'm starting anew, here is an updated "about me":
- Turned 50 in September 2013 and am feeling great! Age is really no big deal - at least not so far!
- My fitness is geared at maintaining my ability to run, jump, play, and work hard.
- Over the past several years, my focus has been on a slow body recomposition - small amount of weight loss, lots of fat loss, strength gains (lean muscle mass is welcome!), and maintenance of my endurance skills in running and hiking.
- I play hard! Lots of hiking and running, but I fit in a fair amount of rock climbing, trampoline, telemark skiing, snowshoeing, and playground stuff. On a good year add mountain biking and kayaking.

Current "stats":
5' 7"
135 lbs (highest ever was about 155 in 2005), within a few lbs of 140 has been "normal" for 3 years
BF% (calipers) ranges around 16 - 17.5% over past 18 months

Long term goal is "compression of morbidity" - stay active, healthy, fit, mentally alert, then die quickly when the time comes. Skip those pesky diseases of western civilization brought on by inactivity and poor diet.
 
Lost post from last Friday:

Friday 10/4/13
134.2 Had hoped I might do an outdoor workout this morning w/ T as I was going in late, but it was waaay below freezing so playing on the bars just wasn't going to be any fun.

At the gym, mixed up various inclines for 2 miles on the treadmill, ranging from 15% to 3%, most done at 12%. Climbed 750 feet over those 2 miles in 25 minutes. Was having some asthma symptoms (wheat and Phoenix air are a bad combination for me) and had no inhaler handy, so didn't push as hard as I might have.

Woke up rather pissed off about ruined weekend plans, but honestly, my gripes are minor compared to millions of people who are hugely impacted by the shutdown. Anyway, took my "mad" upstairs to the weight room and knocked out good rounds of pushups, pullups and T2B in a short amount of time.

New "record" for pullups done in a session at 20
3 sets of 10 pushups
20 T2B
100 KB swings - moved up to the 20 lb KB

T suggested we might transfer our endurance weekend to a 100 miler that easily supports a drop to 100 km near the end of the month. Hm... maybe that is the way to go. Not much elevation gain on that course, so not best suited for me as I am so strong on steep hills, but I've been on the course and I like it well enough. Will have to mull on this.
 
So far so good on the new thread, so will just continue here... liked the continuity of the old one, but...

Had a good weekend - took off Saturday for the AZ White Mountains. Drove a few hours, hiked a short 1 mile loop for a rim overlook, scoped out Pinetop, then found our trailhead and did a quick 9 miles in about 2:45. No running because the trail was really rough and rocky, just cruised along at a good pace talking and enjoying the forest scenary. Yummy dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, then found our hotel. (Gotta luv the free night stay on work travel points!)

Sunday morning went to a different trailhead and started off undecided about doing a long or short version. This trail had some nice views, and has potential for good cross country skiing. When we got to the connector short-cut trail, we decided to take it so that we had time to drive to the ski resort about an hour away and check it out. 5 miles hiking in 1:10.

We couldn't get close to the resort base which was disappointing, but our view from a distance looked promising. Might have to come and give it a try with our tele gear. Home early enough to let the demon cats out for a perimeter walk.

Monday 10/7/13 136.2
Finished off a really good weekend with an outdoor run around Shoe Hill with Tom. Little over 32 minutes.
3 x 8 pushups on the deck
 
Something has been going wrong with the forums. I can't open my subscribed threads or anything. I posted in my journal and it didn't show up until I refreshed the page. Did you try that?
 
JustinRVA said:
Something has been going wrong with the forums. I can't open my subscribed threads or anything. I posted in my journal and it didn't show up until I refreshed the page. Did you try that?
Click to expand...

Refreshed, logged out, cleared cache - all the browser tricks I know. It was just odd that I could post in 2 other people's journals, one of which I am subscribed to, but not my own. Maybe it was time to start fresh - the old journal had been going for 18 months. Thanks for the response.
 
135.6 and it was warm enough to get in a yard workout - Yippee! Storm is coming so there was a breeze all night and the temp was 50 F - plenty warm enough to play outside. How I have missed that these last couple of weeks!

Warmed up with a nice speed rope set of 500 (or thereabouts), no Achilles pain
- OHP 5 x 50, 4 x60, 1 x75!, tried for 80, but only got the bar to my eyes, 1 x75 (struggled as I didn't wait long after the failure at 80)
- Front squats: 6 x 50, 6 x 70, 6 x 90, 4 x 90
- Monkey Bar Laps: 2, 1
- Stepups w/50 lbs 20 each leg
- T2B 6, 6, 4, 4, 4
- Campus touch-ups 6
- Pullups 3 on rings (did these last so arms were toast)
- Cartwheels 6, 6, 2, 6 (10 of these were right handed - trying to get a decent right handed cartwheel after only doing lefties all my life)

- Misc leg stuff in between arm exercises for recovery: step-ups 40, step cross overs 50, jumping toe taps 50
 
135.2 super windy this morning so was back in the gym, oh well. With winter coming, I better get used to it.

Incline treadmill/power walking for 20 minutes. Did a long bout of 5% grade and 5.0 mph, but mixed it up before settling into that with steeper incline and about 4.5 mph.

BOSU balance work felt good, it had been a while. The 10kg medicine ball is feeling normal again.
3 long songs worth of lunges - BOSU lunges, step back lunges with ball, and mixed tick tock and side lunges
Pushups because I've committed to at least twice a week, although having done only 1 set, will do some more later in the week.
 
136.2 and our first real snow of the year - won't last long, but still, not really ready for slippery roads.

EFX for 20 minutes of intense cardio that required no thinking, then upstairs for some hard work
Pullups - mostly kippers, 14, then straight chinups 6
T2B 15
hanging knee raises
100 kb swings
step-ups with 60lbs - used the machine for this as I haven't figured out an easy means of adding weight at home, the 25lb plates are as big as it gets at my house save the 45lb'ers and I am not ready for those! Was surprised what a difference 10 extra lbs made in terms of effort!
 
134.6 and stinkin' cold this morning! Nice weekend forecast so am hoping to get outside and play one of the days before we get to work replacing the roof on a shed. Anyway, headed to the gym without any particular plan in mind.

Started off walking fast on the treadmill, but after 2 minutes felt like running so kicked up into gear. On the TM if my hands are starting to bump the front panel I know it is time to speed up. That just kept happening until I was up to 7.7 mph (a little under an 8 minute mile). Was feeling great until the heat buildup smacked me - sheesh! Stupid not to have looked for a machine with a fan nearby. Anyway, made myself finish off a 5k - went to 3.2 miles so a tad more than 5k. Was happy to hit that at 27 minutes - not bad (for me) considering I walked the first 2 minutes.

Did a couple sets of pushups in between some foam rolling.
 
Today was a bust exercise-wise - start of a week long road trip and had to get out of town early so no time for anything. Hoped to get out and walk this evening but that didn't work out either - grrrr. I'll enjoy a desert run come morning. The weekend was good!

Saturday 10-12-13 134.6 lbs Yard Workout with T
- Speed rope sets of 200 x 3, then started working on double unders 10, 12, 12 - got a ways to go on this skill, best was that my achilles managed a lot of jumping without getting too grumpy
- Pullups on the rings 4, 3, 2
- OHP 5x55, 3x65, 2x70
- Front Squats 5x65, 5x85, 5x90, 4x95 was new max, then..., 4x105!!!
- T2B 5,4,5,4,4,4,2,3
- Monkey Bar laps 2 (hands got tired and sore from other stuff)
- Slackline - this was the best! Haven't tried to turn around on the line all summer and after just a few attempts, I actually managed a 180 turn and kept walking!!! Got 3 in all.
- Cartwheels and speedbag

Sunday 133.2 AZ Trail Loop run, 5.6 miles, 54.48 minutes. Cals 584, avg HR 159, max HR 169 Nasty strong winds for the last 2-3 miles made this really hard. Achilles was a little stiff to start from the Saturday jump rope, but eased off pretty quickly. Was more tired the rest of the day than I would like - this distance should be very noticable.
 
What's not to love about a run that starts by hopping a fence to get to the desert beyond? Ran out on rough CA desert road next to the train tracks. After a bit decided I was really hoping all the Dean Koontz desert dwelling creepozoids were still asleep. Since once out in the desert one "can't get there from here", I had to jump over a train to get back to the hotel side of the tracks. Great run!
 
Good job on the squats. I've done front squats, like, once ever. I'm pretty sure I probably couldn't balance 135 if you had a gun to my head.
 
Trying to picture Sure jumping over a train and wondering why she's not part of the olympic team.

I would say Justin has definately got the shoulders to make balancing a front squat easy. I usually have a crossed grip so the bar starts rested on my shoulder held back by my hands, at least half the time I let go with my hands having it just on my shoulders. The alternative is holding the bar straight with elbows high in front and this also puts the bar on your shoulders.
Once it's there the movement is surprisingly easy. Just a case of remembering not to lead back as far with the hips, more knees on the front squat, so hits quads more than glutes.
 
Yep, I do the arms crossed thing although mostly the weight is resting just in front of the joint, on the meat of my uppermost arm. While doing the squats I was really feeling it in my quads, but noticed my gluts were sore too by the next morning. I find with a front squat I can really focus on the squat, whereas if the bar is on my back/upper shoulder, that part of me is so unhappy I lose the appropriate focus.

Sheesh, in 2 days I have driven over 430 miles and visited 6 sites. I scoped out the 'fitness center' as I checked into the hotel - was really hoping for a good bar to do some pull-ups, but it doesn't look promising. Guess I will just go for another desert run, no trains here. Actually, I am down near the Mexican border so will be dodging big AG equipment and likely border patrol...
 
Good run for me, such an advantage to be over 5000 feet lower than home!
25 minutes running, then a very minor set of pushups, triceps dips on the coffee table in the room, some squats and some static lunges - was trying to be kind to the room below mine.

Now I am waaaay late and must get my butt in gear to go see more folks on the tour.
 
Whew! Tried running a new direction from the hotel and ended up on a sand dune - sheesh, that was some hard running, but fun too. Fooled around for a bit going up and down and sideways, then made my way down to a dirt path along a canal where the sand was only an inch or 2 deep so I could actually get some decent running done. Was chatting with a friend yesterday about speed - encouraging her to go faster for a few short races before she considers another marathon, so felt obligated to do a little speed work myself. Picked a very perky (180 bpm) song and went for fast feet - could really notice the bushes going by faster.

No real idea on distance and too lazy to try and figure it out as it doesn't really matter. Got in a solid 30 minutes of something I loved!

Now, just 400 miles, 3 site visits and a lot of hours in the car is keeping me from being where I really want to be - home with Tom and my demon cats. Get out of my way, I am headed for home!
 
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