Blackbirds are Indestructible

Work It, Bird!

Raven J. Blackbird -

Just another workout log. Because every day is leg day.

Date: 30 December 2017
Weight: 245[1]
Workout: C25K W1D1

I'm considering signing up for a later incarnation of a race similar to Atacama Crossing; in March 2019 there is a 150-mile ultramarathon in New Zealand which is run (no pun intended) by the same folks who do the 4 Deserts series. It doesn't count as a qualifier for the Antarctica race, which is sort of a bummer, given that I think it would be cool to run with the penguins, but it also isn't in a desert at 10,000 feet above sea level, either. I don't want to sign up just yet, though, because if it turns out that I can't get the requisite training in and I have to bail, there's still a $600 cancellation fee. Instead, I'm going to just start running again, and in three months or so I will see how things are going. If I'm making acceptable progress such that I think I can get ready for the race in a year, then I'll sign up. If not, I'll keep training for a future desert run. I mention this because I decided that the best way to get back into running was to do it as if I were starting anew, and that's with the Couch-to-5K program. It starts off pretty mellow, but that's exactly what I think I need right now.

C25K week 1, day 1 is a 5-minute warm-up walk, followed by 8 intervals of 30-second jog/2-minute walk, then a 5-minute cool-down. I actually ended up doing 10 intervals, since the walk from my apartment to the fitness center counted as my warm-up. The running part itself wasn't bad at all; I varied the speed between 6.0mph and 8.5mph, and it seems that 7.5 - 8 is kind of the sweet spot. Slower than that and it feels awkward; faster than that isn't something I'd be able to maintain for long periods of time. Anyway, biometrics are here, and full list of exercises appears below.

  1. Treadmill - (30s jog, 2m walk)x10, 6 - 8.5mph, 1.0 incline
  2. Lat pulldown - 155x10, 175x10, 195x10, 215x3
  3. Single-leg leg extension - 35x10(L), 35x10(R)
  4. Single-leg leg curl - 35x10(L), 35x20(R)
  5. Single-leg 3-position leg curl - 45x10,5,5,5(L), 45x10,5,5,5(R)
  6. Shoulder press (machine) - 135x10, 135x10
  7. Cable high row[2] - 163x12, 215x10
  8. Cable row - 215x7
  9. DB hammer curl - 35x12
  10. 45-degree agility drill, forwards and backwards

I am still sore from my workout earlier in the week, which isn't surprising given my extended layoff, so I will probably be really hurting tomorrow, but what better way to ring in the new year than to get a head start on all of this stuff and not just be another resolutionary?

  1. This is the real number as of today. I bit the bullet and just stood on the fucking scale. I can't remember the last time I weighed this much, but I think it was at least 10 years ago. If that isn't motivation, I don't know what is. Looking back at my old LiveJournal, it seems that maybe what I ought to do is just go to Japan for a couple of months. ↩︎

  2. I finally used the power of the Internets to find out just how much the plates in the cable machine at my apartment's fitness center actually weigh. It's so much nicer now to know how many pounds I'm lifting, as opposed to just having to say "the pin is in the 9 hole." For reference, the first plate is 4kg, plates 2-6 are 3kg, and plates 7-16 are 6kg, which gives a maximum of 79kg (173.8lbs) per cable - and there are two cables. It's not the same as legitimate free weights, but at least now I know I have up to 350lbs to mess around with. ↩︎