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.
So last week I didn’t commute to work on my bike. We are having a typical weather pattern for this time of year. It rains in the wee morning hours like around 3:30am until around the time the we get daylight. It has to do with the way the island land mass cools faster than the ocean in the evening. During the evening hours, the clouds move over the islands as the land mass cools faster than the ocean. When the sun comes up the land mass heats and the clouds move out to sea and we get sunny hot days. When I commute on the bike I usually leave the house before daylight so I can get to work by 6am. Every day last week it was raining in the morning. Most of the time it was light rain and while the rain itself does not bother me much, its the traffic environment that concerns me. I mean it is slippery out there and its dark. Cars are on the road and it just adds another unsafe layer to the commute.
Ok, since I didn’t get any cycling done I attempted to pick up my running volume. I was able to run 5 days last week. All the runs were only 5k, but as some of you know, I am somewhat limited by my knee injury. So for me, it was a big deal. I mean, I am not doing 10+ mile runs like I did during marathon training, but this is the highest weekly volume that I have done since my injury last November. I would be happy to just remain at 5k for a while as long as my knee holds up. Ice is my friend. The knee hurt a bit so I made sure to take a couple of days rest. Hey, who knows, maybe I will do a 5k event after football season.
I only got a couple days of swimming totaling 4000 yards and strength trained 3 days. Oh, btw, I completed my 4th round of P90X. I don’t think I will do another round for a very long time. I want to continue with Tabata workouts and some traditional lifts. Most importantly I want to continue running.
I am sure many of you folks have seen the movie “A Few Good Men”. Well, check out this re-enactment of infamous court seen. This guy is awesome.
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.
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.
Yesterday I did a few rounds of Tabata training at the gym and a P90X chest, shoulders and triceps. Today was Plyo X and a kettlebell workout.
Ok, so as planned, I went to the gym to not only workout, but to see if the angry woman would be there. If you don’t know about what makes this woman angry you may want to read about the incident I had with her at the gym last week… click here and here. Like clockwork she entered the fitness room an hour and a half before her scheduled fitness class. She went straight for me with her claws out and proceeded to rip me a new one. She must have spent 3 minutes chewing me out. It was an animated tirade too with the old neck and head motion accompanied with the finger to the face. Again, I gave her the passive-aggressive dumb look. You know, the look of someone who doesn’t speak English. Toward the last part of her one-sided “discussion” I cocked my head slightly to the right and grinned a bit. She really went through the roof through and ended her dialogue with the words, “you dumb ass”. I loved it, I didn’t say word. A couple of the guys who were there the last time she went off was there as well. They were doing everything they could do to keep from busting out in laughter. At that point she started taking the equipment out of the storage room and set the stuff up right next to me again. I guess she was going to show me who was the boss. So as she set the equipment down I picked it up and return it to storage so I could get a rise out of her. Man, she went absolutely ballistic. Her friends had their hands on their hips and telling her to get the manager. After a few choice words she said, “I am going to get the f#@%ing manager and get you kicked out of here”. Holy cow, since I spoke with the manager last week I was going to use that strategy. Now, I thought, she is actually going to do it for me. So off she goes. When she returns, she is having a heated argument with the manager. I heard him tell her to pick up the equipment and put it back in the storage room and that the fitness room is for the use of all the members and that she can’t set her stuff up an hour and a half before a class. She kept yelling at him. He finally told her that if she didn’t put the stuff away he would suspend her membership. At that point all the guys in the room began to applaud. She and her friends complained while putting their stuff back. She gave me a stare that could kill. As she left I said, “have a nice day” to which I received two middle fingers. It was a great. I only said 4 words throughout the whole ordeal.
As far as my workouts go there isn’t much to report. Yesterday I did my scheduled plyometrics workout and today I did the prescribed P90X back and biceps workout. Both workouts were done just as per the program outline. However, instead of ARX I substituted a few rounds of plyo tabata and abs/core tabata.
Ok, so I ran into one to the guys that was in the gym when I had that run-in with the woman who put her workout gear in my way. He told me that she belongs to a group of women that work in the office building where the gym is located. The gym is in a huge sub-level floor of a high rise. He said that they come down during a break and set up their stuff an hour and a half prior to the fitness class then go back to their offices. They return during their lunch break for the class. He told me that he was still in the gym when the woman came back and she was furious that I had chucked all her stuff in the storage room. She actually lost the space she was trying to reserve. He said he enjoyed listening to her gripe to her friends and said that she was going to read me the riot act if she ever sees me at the gym. Anyway, I discussed the situation with the manager of the gym and she said that if they pull that nonsense again, just let her know.
I can’t wait until the next Monday fitness class!
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.
