The Caine Mutiny
I began to feel a cold coming on last night so I went to bed a bit early get a good nights rest. When I got up this morning I was still congested so I axed my planned morning swim and headed to my man-cave for a cycling session on my trainer. I didn’t have anything interesting on the DVR so I dug up an classic movie dvd… “The Caine Mutiny” with Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Fred McMurray. Ok, I know a lot of you are saying, “I ain’t never heard of that movie”. It’s a pretty old movie. I am an old movie buff. I love movies of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Okay, so I jumped on my trainer and went for 45 minutes. For myself, that is a long time to spend on a trainer. I really have to fight the boredom of riding my bike indoors. The movie helped out quite a bit. I had to do a few standing spin intervals so I could lift my rear end off the seat. My saddle is very uncomfortable.
I used my Tower 200 to do an abs/core workout. It worked out great. I was able to do lying resistance crunches, kneeling pulldown crunches, and wood choppers. There is also an exercise that I saw in the manual where you hook up the ankle straps and grab the overhead handles. From a standing position you pull down with one arm, raise the opposite leg and touch elbow to knee. Its like doing bicycle crunches in a standing position.
Did you know that resistance bands are dangerous? Check it out…
I got to the pool at 6am this morning to get my swim done. I did 1 x 1000 and 3 x100. During the long set I ended up doing my one-sided breathing. It is just tough to get out of my comfort zone when going long. After the long set I worked on bilateral breathing for 3 sets of 100.
During lunch I worked on chest with bench presses and flyes. I then took off for a 5k run. During my run I realized that I am supposed to be on a recovery week from strength training… doh! Around 2 miles into the run, my left knee popped off track. If you are new to my blog, I have a problem with my left knee… chondromalacia to be exact. I was running at a slow zone 2 and I was prepared for it. When it locked up I ended up hopping on my right leg until I could come to a “graceful” stop. It sure beats falling down. I have a way of moving my lower leg until it pops back in place. Its kind of cool because it makes a popping sound like cracking a knuckle. After I got it re-aligned I walked it out a bit and resumed running. This is just a problem that I have to deal with when I run. As my sports medicine doctor told me… just run on it as long as I can stand it.
Ok, I gotta turn in now. I feel like I am coming down with a cold so I hope a good nights sleep will take care of it. I will leave you folks with this short video where a doctor uses a technique to determine if someone has chondromalacia.
Yesterday I decided to jump on the bike and go cycling for 45 minutes. Nothing too intense. It was a nice day and I just wanted to get out and ride. I did a couple of rounds around Diamond Head so I could get some hill training done. I need to get a better saddle to protect the boys and the arse. I wish I could get one of those darn fangled triathlon bikes. I do, however, bave bullhorn style handlebars and aero bars on my road bike. I also have shifters mounted on my aero bars.
As I cruise around YouTube looking at workout videos I notice that my workouts these past few months actually resemble MMA conditioning workouts. I am not talking about the actually combat arts, but the actually conditioning training that these athletes perform. I came across a device that MMA champ Randy Coulture uses. It is called a Tower 200. It mounts on the door. It is something that can easily be incorporated into an i30×5 workout or a Tabata session. I am a sucker for good home gym stuff so I ordered one. It came in the mail yesterday. So I put it up and did a biceps and triceps Tabata workout. It is an awesome piece of equipment. Just by the design of it, you can go from one exercise to another in a Tabata circuit instantly. It can deliver up to 200 lbs of resistance. I am looking forward to trying an abs/core workout on it. My man-cave is set up pretty nicely now with the heavy duty Terrell Owens Bodylastics band system, the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells, my bench and my curling bar and Olympic weights. I also have my gym membership that I use during my lunch breaks.
Here is a videos of Randy Coulture working out with the device…
I worked on my bilateral breathing for 3 x 200. I started to do the next 500 yards bilateral breathing, but somehow I started competing with the guys in the lane next to me. I noticed that when I did bilateral breathing I was just keeping up with my lane buddies. However, when I went back to one sided breathing I was able to pull away from them. This is not really an excuse to revert back to one-sided breathing (or maybe it is). I gotta stop getting competitive in the pool and continue to work on my form and breathing. I am such an idiot. Its just that I am such a slow runner and I actually have a chance in the water.
Ok, so I got home and did shoulders and legs. Doing i30×5 and swimming is not very complementary. I will probably do a recovery week from strength training next week. I will continue swimming though. I may have to figure out a better schedule for swimming and strength training.
Ok, since I am back into my swimming I needed something to make me feel good about not knowing how to do a flip turn (btw, who needs flip turns in the open water anyway). This is the way I train in a pool when I get to the wall.
I got to the “Y” at 5:45am and all the lanes were taken. I had to share a lane for a while. It was cool though because the lanes are wide enough. I really need to work on my bilateral breathing. I am not comfortable breathing on my left side. So the entire session was dedicated to bilateral breathing and stroke form. I notice that bilateral breathing helps me with my body rotation. The body rotations and doing long reaches on the stroke was helping me glide better. I was doing 16 to 17 strokes per 25 yards. Hmm… I wonder if I can get that down to 12-14. It is amazing how little things can make big improvements. I did 5 x 200 all bilateral breathing. I intend to continue working on this for the next few sessions.
In the afternoon I worked on abs/core. While the workout had intensity, it was nothing special. Pretty much plain vanilla.
Hey, have you ever had times when you made a decision and almost immediately knew it was the wrong decision? Here is one of those moments…
I hit the pool at 5:40am. There was a bit of a morning chill accompanied by a breeze, but the water temp was a nice 80 degrees. The pool opens at 5am and there are a lot of people swimming. I had to share a lane for about 10 minutes. I did 3×200 and 1×500. I am still working on my stroke. I need to start bilateral breathing. Before I stopped swimming last summer, I was beginning to get more comfortable with bilateral breathing, however, I am back to breathing only on my right side. Breathing on both sides is a tough thing for me to do. Why? Who knows… more likely it is because I am old dog trying to learn new tricks.
After work I knocked out a biceps and triceps workout. i30×5 was tough today. Doubling up this workout with swimming is a challenge. Today’s workout, while challenging, was good. I still have a good pump a few hours after finishing.
This morning I still felt a bit off kilter so I decided to work from home today. I was getting an anxious feeling, however, because I wasn’t sure how to get my workout done. By the end of the day, though, I felt stable enough to give it a try. So I headed to the pool. It has been a very long time since I have done a swim. I pretty much lost all my muscle memory and conditioning so its like starting from square one. I had to remind myself to sink my buoy, keep my elbows high, rotate my body and reach. In order to work the basics I did 5 x 100 and 1 x 500. I found myself going too fast at times and losing my form. When I caught myself I slowed it down to work on my stroke to re-engage my muscle memory. I currently use Total Immersion freestyle strokes, however, Jeff of Dangle the Carrot has recommend “The Essential Triathlon Swimming DVD” so I plan to give that a try. I enjoyed getting back into the water. I would like to swim more often.
After the swim I did an abs/core workout made up of crunches, supermans, side crunches, cable pulldowns, circle crunches, elbow to knee crunches and scissors.
I am a big fan of the burpee. I used to do them in P.E. class about 100 years ago and I am still doing them. I like the way this guy does variations of the burpees on the playground.
I did my chest and back workout. I am not feeling well, so it would be an understatement saying that it was low quality workout. After chest and back, I just blew off the core workout.
I am not sure what it is, but I have a headache that would take down a moose and I am getting light headed and kind of dizzy. I have been like this all day. The last time I felt like this my blood pressure was through the roof. I hope its better tomorrow morning.
So I will keep this short tonight. I wish I could have had a great workout like this guy…
On Saturday I did Tabata Plyo for my cardio workout. I am really liking the Tabata workouts. Today (Sunday) is a rest day for me. My son started another season of football today. It was a good game. I really enjoyed my status as a “retired” coach. The game is much more enjoyable for me now. I have never watched a youth football game as a “parent/spectator”, I have always been a coach.
My son, Brendan, has a great coach. He is a former linebacker that used to play for the University of Utah. He was roommates (and he is also a relative) with former Pittsburgh Steeler running back, Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala. Chris is retired now and lives in Hawaii. Hey, Jeff… aren’t you a Steelers fan?
Anyway, he came to practice on Friday to talk to the team. The kids really enjoy seeing him. He gave the kids great advice, especially the importance of God, parents and education. He signed some photos for the kids and took pictures with them. My son threw the ball to him a couple times so he could tell the kids at school that he threw the ball to a real NFL football player.
So instead of videos today I decided to share a couple photos with you folks.
A photo that Chris autographed for my son, Brendan.
Brendan and Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala just after getting his ball signed
I crushed shoulders and legs today. Well, at least for the first 3 rounds. I went as heavy as I could on the delts. They were aching pretty good. After the half -way point the burn got pretty intense so I had to drop the weight quite a bit to get my reps done. I could barely lift my arms at the end of the workout. Legs went ok. I wasn’t able to hit them quite as hard as the shoulders. Legs are always a bit tougher for me, well, except for the calves (which I hammere. I was able to push through to the end. It took a bit of time for me to walk normally.
The plyo movements went ok, and again, I looked pretty uncoordinated with the plank pillars. The plyo clap push-ups were hard after round 3.
Just for a change I decided to do P90X+ Abs/Core Plus. I haven’t done this workout for quite a while. Actually, I don’t quite remember the last time I did it. At any rate, the abs/core workout went well.
After having recently performed a couple of Tabata workouts I have become a big fan of Tabata training. I have also been interested in Spinervals, a cyclist’s high intensity interval training method. Tabata is a natural fit for Spinervals. Check out today’s video pick…
