Staying Alive tapering

It would be great if I could remember when I get tired that the first thing to go is my brain. But I never do, because my brain is what I remember with and it's gone by then. I'm really no better than your average two year old having a meltdown about not needing a nap. Though at least I can self-medicate. Something to look forward to, two year olds!

But also, seriously, not that I'm being unserious about self-medicating, I can plan. And use that part of my brain that I call overmind. Overmind is a mechanism that, in a saner moment, you set up as an autopilot to run when you've lost your marbles. There are some things that I should probably get tattooed on my body like in Memento, like Yes, you can do five skate practices per week for a week, but you have never been able to keep up that pace for more than two, three weeks tops without having a horrible emotional collapse. That's sort of wordy, though. But it's like that first shot of Bushmill's is fine and the problem with the second shot is that it makes you think the third shot is a good idea. I may have used this metaphor before, but this was a formative experience for me & by "formative" I mean that I was thirty-nine. In any case, the worst thing in the world is being in the grip of the notion that you have to keep up with five practices per week, minimum, because if you were really hardcore you would double up on Thursday and Saturday practices.

Cats are going to climb up trees, but a cat can think ahead about how to get down the tree. I mean, actual cats don't.

Also I've been reading some things about tapering where you cut back on your training before, say, a big race. Or a bout. Or in general:

If you taper for the last five to seven days of each month, you'll find that your fitness will move upward in sizable jumps, instead of just creeping up a little or - worse yet - stagnating at the same level.

So here is my tree escape route and tapering plan. I would like to work at Level 4 most of the time, or four skate practices per week and adjusting the levels of Sunday practice and 100s over the month. Right now, I'm at the bottom of Level 4 and just doing pushups; last night I thought I'd have to drop to Level 3 because I strained my hip flexor at team practice, but it seems okay this afternoon.

LEVEL	SUN PRACTICE	SKATE PRACTICES	100s
5	speed	scrimmage, team, league, league	100 jumps, 100 squats, 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups
4	boot run skate bike	scrimmage, team, league, league	100 jumps, 100 squats, 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups 100 squats, 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups 100 crunches, 100 pushups 100 pushups
3	boot run skate bike	scrimmage, team, league	100 pushups 100 crunches, 100 pushups
2	speed	scrimmage, team	100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups 100 squats, 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups
1	speed	team	100 jumps, 100 squats, 100 bridges, 100 crunches, 100 pushups

Staying Alive struggling with time debt

A very interesting article that starts with declaring time bankruptcy!

Staying Alive don't be a hero

Extra points if you noticed the zombie subtext around here for the past few months.

I think I need to take it down a notch. And by "it" I mean, my ego. Now that I'm finished with rioters practices, I'm going to take Sundays ...off. Maybe for a month. Maybe run Sunday mornings and go back to sleeping in Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Go back to actually cooking at least on the weekends. Or at least that's what eating frozen pizza and Twinkies while watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution made me think.

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
MORNING sleep in	MORNING 300s	MORNING run sleep in	MORNING 300s	MORNING run sleep in	MORNING 300s	MORNING sleep in
PLAY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	PLAY WCR league
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
PASTIME	PLAY WCR scrimmage	HOBBY	PLAY WCR Fury / circuit + Fury	PLAY WCR league	PASTIME	PASTIME
EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING

The New 300s

Just to keep it interesting. I changed to crazy pushups that I learned secondhand through Ying O'Fire from Josha Krueger at Kru Strength + Fitness, and swapped in bridges for squats as part of my hamstring improvement program.

As usual, I have no instructions for how to actually do these exercises. Go see Josha, she runs an amazing boot camp on Saturdays for WCR skaters, or come to circuit and I will show you what I know.

Stand arm circles forward bend ...right foot crossed over left ...left foot crossed over right KRU PUSHUPS x 36 child cat cow

Lie back BRIDGES two foot x 10 right toe up x 10 two foot yes/no x 10 right leg up x 10 two foot raised x 20 left leg up x 10 two foot yes/no x 10 left toe up x 10 two foot x 10 knees to chest

Roll over pigeon with right leg ...left quad stretch pigeon with left leg ...right quad stretch KRU PUSHUPS x 36 child cat cow

Sit back c-curve CRUNCHES legs straight x 10 legs bent x 10 legs bent up x 10 legs straight up x 10 ...left x 10 ...right x 10 legs straight up t x 10 legs bent up x 10 legs bent x 10 legs straight x 10 cobra

Roll over KRU PUSHUPS x 36 child cat cow

Lie back doll stretches ...right leg up ...right ankle over left knee ...right knee over left knee ...spinal twist to the left ...left leg up ...left ankle over right knee ...left knee over right knee ...spinal twist to the right Sit up split leg stretches ...right side over right leg ...right front over right leg ...left side over left leg ...left front over left leg ...front over center butterfly stretch arm stretches ...right arm across chest ...left arm across chest ...right arm over shoulder ...left arm over shoulder ...arms clasped behind back ...arms clasped in front and overhead

Entire sequence Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Staying Alive run #3

There's a moment when you're sleeping when you do not want to get up ever, and then it's okay and you can get up. But then you're drinking a little cup of water, poking around facebook, and you do not want to run ever & you know that you will be okay if you just put on your clothes, but you're too pokey and you're finally dressed but only have twenty minutes before you have to get in the shower.

And then you have to go out to the schoolyard and do suicides. That'll learn you.

ETA: The forward/backward suicides were actually not bad, I think because I remembered to have a little orange juice before I went out. What really needs work is getting my butt DOWN for the side/side suicides, there's those hamstrings again...

Forward/backward and side/side suicides, two sets each, 20 minutes

Staying Alive running for dummies

I'm superexcited because I thought that kilometers were longer than miles and that a 5K was six miles & have been down on myself for only being able to do half of a 5K in forty minutes, but I had it backwards! Miles are longer!

A 5K is just a bit over three miles, I can already run a 5K!

Staying Alive run #2

I wasted time quailing over whether I wanted to leave my nice warm house and run when it was 34 degrees out, when I know that thirty-four degrees is perfectly fine for a run. Wear a hat, fingerless gloves, a light jacket, sports bra and a light long-sleeved t-shirt, leggings and running pants, socks, and shoes, you'll be cold for the first block and plenty warm for the rest of the run.

So I didn't get out until 7:30 and I have to be in the shower by 8:00, I set a timer for fifteen minutes and went. I got to one and a quarter miles. The thing is, you know that it took you fifteen minutes to get to where you are; it'll take you fifteen minutes to get back at the same pace, so no lollygagging on the way back. So I ran my whole run. A 12 minute mile is still not spectacular, but it's a minute and a third faster than I was doing—

run 2.5 miles, 30 minutes, 12 min/mile

Staying Alive run #1

So I did run this morning, I was actually awake at seven and nothing hurt from last night's scrimmage—

—three miles in forty minutes, WHICH IS SAD. The minimum time for the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test is 30 minutes, and a perfect time is 21 minutes. Am I seriously ever going to be able to run this twice as fast as I am now? Though this time I did a half at a run, so 1) whoa, I ran 1-1/2 miles without stopping, and 2) I did that part in about 8 minute miles. Wait, no. Something is wrong with my math. Whatever! The second part I did in intervals: sprint, walk, run. I'm loth to change this, because intervals are probably what I need. Also I get bored more than tired when I run, so it helps to break things up. Obviously I don't get tired, I'm running 13 minute miles. I want to make at least a 10 minute mile, maybe I can make myself run faster just to get it over with.

run/interval 3 miles, 40 minutes, 13.3 min/mile

Staying Alive

As predicted, I am bored now with 300s. But can't stop doing them, because I don't want to fall behind in the pushup competition at work —which I am winning, by the way, with 5,863 pushups so far this year— and I also want to keep working on my lower body and core strength.

But I also want to run, which I also need for the aforementioned lower body strength. Particularly hamstrings, I have big quads like a lot of skaters and itty bitty hamstrings. Better hamstrings will help me sit more when I skate, the better to take blocks and the better to juke with.

But I also want to sleep a lot.

I think this is the same number of practices that I was doing before, but the practices are harder. Hinc is somnus. I have injuries for the first time: recovering from a bruised rib, and right shoulder is taking a beating probably unnecessarily from trying to protect that rib. Also I fell and slid on my left shoulder, which is nothing compared to what's going on with rib and right shoulder but looks quite garish and gets the most attention. Which is how it goes.

Just have to figure out when I can run.

ETA: Run Tuesday and Thursday mornings, come on. Come on, yes you can.

And then if I can do something besides work, work out, skate, and sleep.

SUN	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT
MORNING sleep in	MORNING 300s	MORNING sleep in run	MORNING 300s	MORNING sleep in run	MORNING 300s	MORNING sleep in
PLAY WCR Rioters	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	PLAY WCR league
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
HOBBY	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	WORK Office	HOBBY
PASTIME	PLAY WCR scrimmage	HOBBY	PLAY WCR Fury / circuit + Fury	PLAY WCR league	PASTIME	PASTIME
EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING	EVENING

Brow Ha Ha

I know I've been really busy when I finally notice my long fingernails, which I usually cut short because I type for a living. So I was looking at my nails and suddenly thought, Great Scott, what do my eyebrows look like—

You guys! They're so bad!