slack

Today was the first day of the bar exam, so excuse me if I can't be doing no hour and a half psycho triathlon workouts this week.

Lord almighty, spring at last

It was something very much like warm today, so much so that I went out and ran for an hour in only one pair of tights (and a shirt, etc.). It felt great to be outside and I got covered in mud, partly due to an overenthusiastic UPS guy who sprayed me out on a dirt road that had recently become liquid rather than solid. Fun fun fun! On the last half mile or so I outsprinted a high school cross country runner.

Yesterday was yoga. The bar exam starts on Monday. If this exam doesn't drive me to drink, I do not have the true alcoholic propensities that I've always believed I possess. Perhaps this is not a good thing to know for sure, one way or the other.

Kill the bike

I did an hour on the stationary bike over lunch, including this really hard "fit test". Afterward, the display turned off before giving me my results. Bloody technology. This week I'm supposed to be doing 6.5 hours of training and I'm up to 5 with 2 days to go. The cycling today was meant to be an easy day, except for the semi-accidental killer fitness test. Those things are usually so easy. My HR monitor thinks I'm excellent after the walk test I turned in. I ran through all the cool functions - now it knows my BMI (20.3) and everything else about me so it can tell me exactly how I'm doing and what I ate for lunch. If the monitor falls into the wrong hands I'm in big trouble.

I keep running but nothing happens

Another early morning at the gym. Yesterday was a half hour of weights, then a half hour running. This morning a half hour on the stationary bike, then a half hour running. The track is half blocked by softball and track team equipment, so the effect is an obstacle course crowded by walkers. The stationary bike is one of those weird recumbent things that doesn't even register me on its fitness test because my pulse stays too low. It keeps telling me to try again.

Snow!

Beautiful snow coming down this morning. I predict that the skis will get wet again very soon.... Yesterday was a great swim workout down at UI, where the pool is nicer than I remembered. I did a warmup, drills, then a 1000m pyramid where I went 25 slow, 25 fast, 50 s/f, 75 s/f, 100 s/f, then back down. All together around 2400m I think. I was tired at the end, but okay. My endurance is getting better.

This morning I did yoga for an hour. I let myself count yoga toward my training hours so I have motivation to do it - it's so good for my flexibility and relaxation, it's always worth it.

A Sacred Place

Today was meant to be a swimming day but we just got a spectacular dump of snow last night, so I got out the skinny skis and went to a state park nearby. Totally amazing. I skied for an hour through untouched snow and only saw another person back in the parking lot as I was loading up to leave. I went down along the river where the quiet was only broken by the sound of water and birds. I saw a large flock of geese, ducks, a cardinal, a red-crested woodpecker, half a dozen red tailed hawks and a bald eagle. When I saw the eagle I'd just come around a bend above the river and he flew out across the water in front of me, not flapping at all, just soaring out of the trees. Everything about the scene was breathtaking and sacred. I felt as if I should kneel, and I remembered a hymn I haven't sung in years:
"For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love that from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise."

Rest week

This is a rest week, where I do only 4 hours of training, chill out, and get motivated for the next cycle. It's called periodization. So far so good, although I seem to be eating a lot of brownies. Monday I took a day off. Tuesday I did half an hour of weights - Power Endurance phase, in which I do lighter weights but higher, faster repetitions. It felt good to switch to something new. Then a half hour running.

Wednesday was a half hour stationary cycling, then a half hour running on the indoor track. I'm breaking up the running by doing agility and form drills, sprinting the straightaways on the track, running backward, whatever. I find indoor cardio about the least interesting thing ever, and I'll be very ready to go when the snow clears up. I should get out and ski but it's, like, COLD. I need to get over it.

Recently I reprogrammed my heart rate monitor so it does more things I want it to do, and I've been thinking over the race from last weekend. It was a very slow time for me (24:40), but also very cold and hilly. I think I ran an okay race for this point in the season, but I faded at the end. After 2 miles I just felt cold and uncomfortable. I need to work on finishing stronger.

In a Prison

I got another weight workout in on Saturday, over my lunch hour from all-day bar review hell. Following along on the "in a prison" theme, I went over to the field house, where the oldest weights known to human kind are available to anyone who can produce legal I.D. to trade for a weight pin. I was lifting with a janitor in his uniform, a former varsity basketball player twice my size, an overweight and very sweaty guy who sat on the machines when resting between sets, and a wiry middle-aged woman who looked like she might be a professor. The weights are along the back wall and the main floor of the gym was curtained off for a gymnastics meet, so random snips of extremely peppy music would go on and off at irregular intervals and otherwise there was a lot of shouting. Gymnastics coaches walked by once in a while and regarded us weightlifters with suspicion. After my workout I went downstairs to the equally prison-like atmosphere of the women's lockerroom, where you have to check out a security pass card to get in and there are big panic buttons every 10 feet or so along the walls. My first time down there I bumped into a small blonde woman as I was coming out of the shower. I excused myself, but she just looked at me in terror and ran off. I suspect there are some stories to tell about that lockerroom, but I don't know them yet, thank God.

Then yesterday - Sunday - we went up to Dubuque for the Winter Iowa Games 5k. I came in third in my age group and got a bronze medal that Bubu likes. I found out later that I could have done nordic skiing instead, which I would have preferred, but I misread the schedule (or it was wrong).