The last few days

I have been busy in the recording studio the last few days. I still managed to do a few good workouts. Yesterday morning I did 10x200m on the track in training flats. I ran 29 seconds for the first 5 and 28 seconds on the second. The day before I did a 3 mile run @ 6 minute pace followed by 2x1 mile @ 5 minutes. I have been taking extra rest days in order to complete more intense workouts without feeling over trained.

2 miles @ 10 minutes then 4x200 @ 27 seconds

Three days ago I did a good workout starting with 10 minute tempo run then followed by 4x200m on a windy, rainy, and cold dark track. I managed to average around 27 seconds with 200m jogs.

14 mile run and feeling fine

Yesterday I decided to put in some miles and ran 14 miles on the nike campus. There are a few hills to contend with but makes for a more challenging long run.

Pretty good track workout despite feeling a little lethargic

Today was another dark cloudy and 35 degrees. It is beginning to feel like winter. I took yesterday off from training since I had a busy day setting up for an early evening gig. I ended up taking a rest day and coming back today with 6x300m cut downs @ 48,47,46,45,45,42 and then finished with another 200m @ 28. I felt a lot better as I got into the workout. My last two intervals were in spikes and definitely helped my speed. My achilles were feeling pretty good at the end of this training session. Hopefully I can continue to keep them strong and injury free.
I have found that sometimes I have to do a special therapy on my achilles in order to break up scar tissue. This means wearing a sock and pressing in with my fingernails in a vertical direction. I wear a thick sock in order to prevent damage to my skin. I will often follow this therapy with some topical DMSO. I also do the contrast showers that seem to help reduce inflammation.

I ended with some light weight training, foam roller, and good stretching. Tonight I plan to load up on some good fresh vegetable and do some serious juicing. My goal is to drink about 2 pints of fresh vegetable/fruit juice to help me recover. My stomach always feels much better if I take some digestive enzymes after I juice.

Alternate with Hard and Easy for Maximum results

Lately I have been training with a lot of intensity one day and taking the next day almost completely off from training. Today I ran an easy 30 min jog as slow as possible since yesterday was a very hard workout for me. By alternating like this, I have had much more productive workouts on the hard days. Sometimes I forget that the real benefits occur when your body is resting and rebuilding from the previous workout. I have been focusing more on recovery and noticing huge improvements in my aerobic fitness. I have not doubt that in 1 month I will be able to run 20 minutes for 4 miles if I can continue doing a lot of intervals at 5 minute pace. When I was running 3:45 for 1500m, a 20 minute 4 minute tempo run would be a bench mark workout. My main focus this winter is going to be building aerobic fitness through threshold training.

Getting Aerobically Fit

Yesterday was a rest day. Today was a V02 max building workout. I started with 2 miles @ 10 minutes. Then 2x1 mile @ 5 minutes. I felt very good on the last mile and probably could have done another 10 minute 2 mile. My goal is to get fit enough to run 4 miles in 20 minutes. Once I achieve this fitness level, I will feel ready to compete.

I finished my workout with 40x400lbs inclined leg press. I think it is great to do lower body weights following a tempo run. I believe I am recruiting more muscle fibers. Also if I am able to go straight to doing weights while still in oxygen debt, I am able to train my muscles to fire in an extremely fatigued and oxygen deprived state. My theory is that this type of training helps me to be able to finish stronger at the end of a race.

I also spent a bunch of time calling up bass players and drummers for some upcoming gigs.

Blood Report

Today I got my report back from my blood test. Everything is perfect according to the doctor. I had a very high red blood cell count and hematocrit. I had slightly low vitamin D levels. I guess that is what what you get when you live where the sun hardly shines.

Easy 30 minute , weight training, and piano practice

Early this morning was my Sunday church gig. It takes a bit out of me and I end up coming home and crashing for about 2 hours. When I woke up I took it easy and ran a 30 minute recovery run. I also did a good upper body weight workout. I need to be careful and not bulk up too much from weight training. I also did some plyometric box jumps. These are pretty difficult when you use a knee high box and jumps. I have also been wearing compression socks after workouts and I feel that it helps speed up my recovery.

I also put in a good two hours of intense piano music on some difficult classical music. I am starting to nail it and ready to do a recital very soon. I am not really a classical pianist but I am slowly gaining more confidence. The key for me is slowing down to practice and listening by staying focused. It is definitely an awesome challenge to take on some of those crazy Liszt and Chopin compositions.

Easy 10 mile run on the Nike campus. Felt great.

I decided to put in some easy miles today. I also treated my body to three ounces of wheat grass after the run. Some call it the green blood since it has nearly the same molecular structure as hemoglobin. What better way to improve your oxygen carrying capacity than putting green blood into your body?

Getting it done

Today I was feeling a bit lethargic since I have been fighting a cold and working hard in the studio. I have also been staying up late to program web sites and fixing bugs. It is difficult doing the job that usually takes 3 or 4 people to do and have it done in the same amount of time. I haven't been getting the greatest sleep. Today the weather was windy, cold, rainy, and dark. I decided I needed a little introduction to my race pace as I prepare for indoor track. I decided to do 2x(400m+300m+200m).
I am saving my achilles by doing my interval training in orthotics and road racing shoes instead of spikes. My workout went pretty well despite the conditions and not being in great shape. So my times were 400m @ 62 sec, 300m @ 46 sec, 200m 29 sec then a one lap jog and 1x400m @ 62, 1x300m@ 46, and 1x200m @ 28. I had about 300m jog rest between intervals. I finished with an intense lower body weight workout. One was doing 50 reps of leg presses of a full rack of 300 lbs. I usually do this until my legs are burning with lactic acid and I do 20 more reps. I was also a bit tired from doing 3x1 mile repeats at 5 minutes the other day.

My recovery included foam roller, stretching, undenatured whey protein drink. I also broke out the juicer and made 2 pints of fresh carrot, spinach, apple, ginger juice. A great way to end my day of training and help my body to recover and hopefully become stronger from a hard day of training.

3x1 mile @ 5 minutes

Did a 3x1 mile @ 5 minutes on the treadmill after taking a rest day yesterday.
It felt a bit difficult. It is a little depressing knowing that I once ran a twelve mile tempo run on the Leif Ericson trail in 63 minutes. I would love to get back into that kind of shape. It gets a lot more difficult to train high mileage as you get older. I guess biological age is all relative and I will continue to train as long as my body can handle it.

12 mile run today

Yesterday I spent working all day working on my pacing robot. I decided to take the day off since I was feeling very tired. I may have been fighting a virus. I ended up having a great time playing the piano in church with a good bass player and drummer. I had someone say I sounded like Vince Guaraldi which was a huge compliment. Today I felt good and decided to go for a 12 miler. It is the longest I have gone in a while for my long run. I through in some surges and felt like I was activating dormant muscle fibers. I think it is imperative to do at least one long run per week in order to maintain aerobic fitness. My long run now is going alternate between 12 and 14 miles.

A link to a race last year

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?video_id=19708

My national rankings

My ranking as a master athlete.

I just created a Facebook music page.

I will try to keep my friends and fans updated with my public performances at this site.

7x400m and 2x300m

7x400m @ 65,64,64,62,66,63,63,59 with 1 lap jog rest.
2x300m @ 46 seconds. I ran all the intervals in road racing
flats with orthotics. My last 400m was in spikes and I ran
it sub 60 very easily. My achilles were feeling a bit sore
mostly due to the cold weather. I ended up finishing with
3x300m in training flats. I also did about 30 minutes of
heavy weight training. Finished with the foam roller and
rope stretching.

Later I created some nice recovery drinks. Pear, Bean, Carrot,
ginger, apple, and grape. Also I took two servings of my favorite
undenatured protein drink made from whey protein, cocoa, coconut milk,
and agave nectar.

This is a very disturbing trend published by the Center for Disease Control

Obesity trends in the United States
If we keep going this direction, it will be the demise of our health care system.
As you can see, we are passed the terrible blueberry stage and now we are in the red. The red is the point of no return.

rest day, fighting a wimpy cold virus. worked on robot

Today I battled a the beginning of a cold and I won. I had to take the day off and rest my body. I ended up spending time working on my robot. I was able to get the a digital compass installed so now it will now what direction it is going. I also figured out how to take my resting heart rate and send it wirelessly to my robot. My robot will log my heart rate during my workouts and even travel the speed that will keep me right below my threshold pace. I have learned a lot about different type of sensors, dc motors, and programming micro-controllers. I think I will be coming up with some cool inventions in the future. My resting heart rate was 41 beats per minute.

light jogging and swimming intervals

Tonight I jogged on the indoor track at All Star Fitness for 30 minutes. I then headed to the pool and swam 4x50 meters @ 48 seconds and 2x25 meters @ 16 seconds. When I swim all out, I get my heart rate up to it maximum. Next time I will measure my max heart rate to see where I am at. I am feeling good and getting good rest and nutrition. I spent the rest of the day working on my robot, booking some Christmas gigs and recording jobs. I also worked several hours on my classical piano repertoire. All in all, a productive day.