Last week I got in 5 days of running for a total of 25 miles. I did a spinning class at the gym too. I have a new found respect for those workouts. The instructor varied the pace and even provided intervals. This went on for an hour. I also had an open water swim for 2200 meters.
The knee is holding up on the runs. The dull pain still exists, but I have learned to live with it. I will continue training at my slow pace until the knee gets stronger. If my knee holds out, I would like to do some full-on sprint intervals at the end of next month. For now, however, I need to keep strengthening the knee.
Wow, I know it I have been falling behind on my blogging. My life is not that exciting so there isn’t too much to report.
Well, this week I was able to log about 60 miles on the bike, about 5000 yards swimming and a couple of 5k runs. My left knee gave me a bit of a problem on the runs, but I am sort of used to it. The dull pain is tolerable. It is when I get the real sharp pain that kind of creeps me out. When I come off the curbs I try to come down straight and stable, however, if there is any torquing motion I am reminded that my knee injury is permanent. One thing about having this on-going injury is that I have to really focus on how I run. It sort of takes some of the fun out of just getting out for a pleasant run. I am like that 56 Chevy with all the original parts. The car runs, but the parts are old and can go out at any time 
!
I also got a couple of strength training sessions done last week. Since I completed a 4th round of P90X, I did Tabata sessions with weights..
I have been getting the itch to begin triathlon training. I miss having a “race” for which to train. If I can get my knee to consistently hold up for 5k runs then I can, at least, do sprint triathlons. The danger, of course, is that I will be tempted to buy a new bike! However, I may have to put off training until January since I have committed to coaching Pop Warner football. That is a 6 day a week commitment! I have been trying to run scenarios in my head as to how I could still train. If its not possible to do I will just wait until January and just do some sort of fitness maintenance until then.
Boy, this has been a busy summer for me. My grandchildren and my parents have been coming to O’ahu (from the island of Molokai) every other weekend. I have to admit that I really enjoy having the grandkids at the house. Those times are precious. They were here this weekend and I will be seeing them again in a couple weeks.
I got some cycling time in this week due to my bike commutes. It has been a great way to get some extra cardio done. I also got to go out on a couple of short 5k runs too. Although it is still slow going, my knee held up well so I am going to call it a good week for running. I was also able to get my P90X strength workouts done as well.
I am struggling with my nutrition and as a result I am gaining weight, or more importantly body fat. I have to get my lifestyle back to wear it was last year. I can still get decent workouts done, however, I am sure I could perform better carrying less body fat. I don’t need to get down to 8.5% like I was last year, but I would like to get down to 10-12%. Ok, so the food log starts tomorrow.
Today, I took the family to the Pacific Aviation Museum. It is located on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor. The exhibits are located in a renovated hanger just a few hundred yards from the Arizona Memorial. As some of you may know, the Arizona is a battleship that was destroyed by the Japanese Navy during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many of the crew are still trapped within the ship which lies underwater. Next to the Aviation Museum is a control tower that still has bullet holes from the raid.
Cycling to work has been a great boost for my training. Normally, I like to get training rides on my road bike, however, I need a more sturdy bike for commuting. My route to work sometimes take me to roads that are a little rough. The mountain bike’s bigger and sturdier tires handle those roads well. I also have to carry a bunch of stuff to work like my laptop, change of clothes, lunch and some other little items so I carry them in bags that mount on my bike. Another reason I like to use my mountain bike is because I don’t like to use clipless pedals while in the hairy afternoon commutes. I want to be able to get off my pedals unimpeded.
Bike with bags - Ala Moana Beach Park
The picture above shows my bike loaded with my bags. This was taken during today’s commute.
My mountain bike weighs a considerable amount more than my road bike. When I add the gear I carry in the bags I would say that I am pedaling nearly 40 pounds more than when I ride my road bike. I try to pedal a 90 rpm cadence so with all this weight I am getting a great workout. I try to ride between 10 to 15 miles each way. During the ride home I am usually pedaling against a pretty strong head wind (thanks to our tropical trade winds) and I get some hill training when dealing with the ride up Diamond Head crater.
I can definitely feel the benefits of my daily commutes. Now, pedaling the road bike is a piece of cake. The most dramatic improvement is pedaling my racing bike up Diamond Head.
View of the entrance to the Ala Wai Boat Harbor
You probably can’t see it very well, but there is an outrigger canoe just above the seat of my bike. Outrigger canoe races are big here. Folks from all over the world come here to compete. It takes a lot of endurance and upper body strength to take these things out on the open ocean. I used paddle about 20 years ago. We used to paddle 20 miles on training days.
This morning’s cycling commute was interesting. I was riding along the Ala Wai Canal this morning. It is a great place to ride because there is a nice bike lane and it is a long, straight stretch of road. I can actually get moving pretty fast along that portion of my morning commute. Along the canal there is a running path. I have run this stretch more than a few times myself. It was a typical morning. There were a few people doing their early morning runs. As I got passed a line of parked cars a runner jumped out into the street to cross. She came towards me at an angle and I had to steer inward towards the curb to avoid hitting her. My bike tires hit the side of the curb and down I went. I was moving at a pretty good clip at the time so the crash was YouTube worthy. Anyway, the woman was pretty shaken up and asked if I was alright. Other than the road rash I was fine. I kept apologizing and I told her that I was ok. I think she was more shaken up than I was. She said she was looking for cars and when it was clear she jumped off the curb. I had just passed a bunch of parked cars and I saw with a woman running at me. I am glad I did hit one of the cars. I mean, I would have done some damage to the vehicle. There were a couple of problems that led up to the incident. First, she did not cross at a crosswalk or intersection. Second, she said that she was only looking for cars, she was surprised when there was a cyclist bearing down on her.
When I got to work I had to scrap all the little rocks out of my road rash. I used soap and water to clean up then I used hand sanitizer to disinfect. That stung like crazy!
To get some cycling time I have been commuting to work on my mountain bike. I chose the mountain bike because I don’t have to clip into my pedals. When driving in traffic, I just feel that I need to have my shoes free of the pedals in case of an emergency. I also have bags that attach to my rack becauseI need to carry my laptop and a change of clothes.
It is still dark when I leave the house, however, I get to see the sun rise just about the time I am traveling on a road that goes along the beach. It makes for a pleasant ride. There aren’t many cars on the road when I leave the house. I also try to select a route that takes me off the main arteries. I don’t take direct routes not only for safety, but also so I can log training miles.
The afternoon ride is very different from the morning commute. There are a lot more cars and folks drive with reckless abandon. I really have to be focused. I also have to climb up the backside of Diamond Head so I get some hill training done. Unlike my light road bike, the mountain bike with all my gear is a lot tougher to pedal up hill.
Another benefit to riding my bike is that I can listen to my audio books. Jeff turned me on to author Lee Child. I am currently listening to “Bad Luck and Trouble”.
Cleaning up at work after the morning commute is a bit tricky. I am able to freshen up in the restroom. I have soap at work so I basically wash my face, head and neck. I also have wet wipes to clean up. If, for some reason, I get sloppy sweaty I can head over to the gym a block away and take a shower. However, cleaning up in the restroom seems to do the trick. After freshening up I change clothes.
With our tropical weather, it gets quite hot after 10am so I sweat like you read about on the ride home, especially after climbing the road up Diamond Head crater. Its cool, though, because I can shower up when I get home.
Here are a couple of photos that I took this afternoon on my commute home.
I had the opportunity to get a 20 mile bike ride done today. The weather was absolutely beautiful so it was great day to be out on a ride. During the ride I went around Diamond Head Crater twice so I got some good hill training. I tried to stay planted in the saddle and glued to the aerobars. After doing the hills around Diamond Head, I did some sprints intervals down Kahala Avenue. I used this workout to substitute for the P90x Cardio X workout. Quite frankly, Cardio X is a weak workout and I don’t really like doing it.
Late this evening, I did few rounds of Tabata. As usual, I used my kettlebells as well as my Tower 200 and good old fashion bodyweight exercises. A couple of rounds were dedicated to core training.
Btw, I am excited about the Survivor finale tomorrow (Sunday). I know, I know… a lot of folks think Survivor is dumb, but I am hooked so I watch it. I sure would like to see Russell get voted out. I want know why everyone is scared of him. It will be interesting to hear the jury if he makes it to the final three.
According to the P90X schedule, I am supposed to be on recovery week. However, meat heads think recovery weeks are over-rated! So as a bonafide lifetime member of the “Meat Head Club for Men” I have continued doing my regular workouts. If you need information about joining the Meat Head Club (yes, there is a women’s chapter too), please contact our club president Jeff of Dangle the Carrot. Please be warned that you must pass the hundred pushup challenge to apply.
Seriously, though, the reason I am not doing the recovery week is because I simply lost track of the schedule. During my first round of P90X I was counting the days until recovery week. Now, these workouts are just a normal day at the office. However, all serious athletes and fitness enthusiasts know the value of recovery week. This is the time that we actually get stronger. So I am just going to continue with the workouts for the rest of the week and do recovery week next week. I don’t really feel that bad that I over ran recovery week because I feel pretty energized this week and, besides, as you P90Xers already know, there are some P90X workouts during the so-called recovery week that are butt kickers… can you say core synergistics?
Yesterday I wanted to do a session on my bike so I hooked it up to my indoor trainer and did tabata intervals. Man, that is a humbling workout. I was trashed after the first round of tabata. I thought my lungs were going to burst. 20 seconds felt like 20 minutes. I ended up doing a total of 3 rounds of 8 sets of 20/10 tabata intervals. I needed to rest a couple minutes between each round. After the tabata intervals I rode for an additional 40 minutes. When I woke up this morning, I could still feel the tightness in my quads. I was supposed to do P90X Plyo X, but I decided to substitue the workout with cycling
Today I stayed on schedule with P90X Shoulders and Arms. I used the Tower 200 minimally for this workout because I wanted to go heavy for a change. I loaded up my curling bar and the dumbbells and went to work. Even though I haven’t been doing heavy lifts for quite a while, I somehow still maintained my strength. I did a lot of the curling with 45 llb dumbbells and I loaded the curling bar with 95 lbs for the first set and 115 lbs for the last set. Obviously, I substituted some of the dumbbell movements with the curling bar.
After shoulders and arms, I did a quick abs workout and some kettlebell swings.
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I did chest and back this morning. To get more resistance I substituted the pushups with dumbbell bench presses for the second half of the chest workout. Again, I felt that the workout was moving kind of slow so I hit the next button to quickly go to the next exercise. I wanted to keep my heart rate up. Instead of pull ups I used my Tower 200 for a change. Its good to change things up to keep the workouts interesting. Immediately after the chest and back workout I did Ab Ripper X. ARX gave me a bit of challenge this morning. Whenever I do ARX directly after my main workout it gives me a bad time. I normally like to do it as a separate workout later in the day.
Later in the day I jumped on my bike for a 20 mile ride. The ride was right in the middle of the rush hour. I don’t normally like riding during the commuting hours, but I just needed to do some sort of aerobic workout. Running would have been a better choice if I could count on my injured knee. However, I didn’t want to deal with the knee pain. Fortunately, the ride was uneventful.
Yesterday I did a run and after just 1 mile my knee gave in with a sharp pain. I had to limp back to the house. After some ice and walking it off it felt a bit better. I am really disappointed because I wanted to give the Tin Man Triathlon a try, but I don’t think my knee can handle the training. I may start a walking program along with P90X leg workouts to see if I can rehab it.
Instead of doing the 100 pushup challenge workout today I did P90X+ Upper Body Plus. It was a good workout. I felt strong. I wanted to layoff hard core pushups because I am really going to try to get my 100 pushups this weekend.
After the P90X+ workout I cycled for about 30 minutes to try and loosen up my knee a bit. I had low grade pain in my bad knee all day.
I have seen a few videos of folks doing 100 pushups, however, for the most part they are not very strict. I don’t bad mouth them though because just doing anything for 100 reps is tough. Personally, I like to do very strict pushups. I came across this guy who did 87 very strict pushups. Towards the end of the set he takes breaks at the top much like I have to do. Trust me, when you do them with strict form, you will be sore.
