Saturday, February 28, 2009

1 week away!

I did 2 workouts today as I finish up my harder training before tailing off. I did 90 floors in 20 minutes while carrying 20 lbs today. I realize that makes me look like a jackass in the gym but I've stopped caring about that. All drinking will stop by Monday Wednesday and I'll pick up my packet to find out when my starting time is. Good news, they're letting us wear iPods this year. I'm torn on which song to use for my 6 minute climb. I may go with Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups, or the last 6+ minutes of Modest Mouse's Spitting Venom. Whatever I choose will be permanently associated with pain from then on though. I'm taking this extremely serious but all in good fun. I miss competing; I miss winning. I honestly think I have a shot at it. Only 1 person broke 6 minutes last year and he's out this year. I need to drop 48 seconds for 42 floors. So pretty much what, 1.023 seconds per floor or something like that?

Here's what happened last year. I knew to pace myself early but I still flew up the first 9 floors. That's about where most people "in shape" start to become aerobic and their muscles run out of excess Oxygen. My goal this year is to not hit that wall until around 15 floors. Having an extra 6 floors of speed would really help my time. Last year I grounded out floors 10-mid 30's and then I don't remember how hard I ran those last few. There's a landing on floor 19 and 40 so my legs had to adjust to just running on flat ground for a hallway. (2 women got in my way on floor 40 last year) They're starting people on 12 second increments this year instead of 15. There could be a little more traffic.

My goal this year is to, like I said, get through the first 15 anaerobically, then push through to about the 35th floor, and then just all mental for the last 7. I was able to sprint up the last of 5 trips to the top of the mounds on Wednesday so I know my legs have more boost in them. I'm just convincing myself I'm in much better shape this year (I am). All I can aim for is to be under 6 minutes. If someone runs another 5:30 and wins, so be it, I'll just train harder next year, but if I can get under 6 minutes I'll be in really good position for placing high.

3691 total floors

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Last night I took Beth's classes and worked my legs a lot more. They hurt pretty bad but were fine today so I went out and ran the mounds 5 times without stopping. My lungs burnt really bad once I got back to my car and I've been coughing a little but it isn't too bad. There really is something wrong with me that every time I have to push myself to breathe that much it ends up giving me a cough for at least a week. Hopefully it'll clear up soon. I don't have many more super tough workouts left before I tone it down for the week going into the race.


3551 + 50 = 3601 total floors

Sunday, February 22, 2009

80 tough floors through different exercises.

3551 total floors

Friday, February 20, 2009

yesterday's workout

I did 71 floors yesterday in 15 minutes. That's a pretty fast pace actually. I've also been running on the treadmill a lot lately for some 5K's in the future. I think the first is the day after the Met Race. I'm going to hold off on registering to see how my lungs feel. Hopefully I won't get sick like last year with that plagued cough. I did some steps in the aerobic room today as well as some jumproping. That's good for lower leg exercise.


Anyway I'm up to 3471 floors.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Juts 40 floors tonight. I ran a half mile and did some squats on the BOSU ball with a 30 lb. weight. I'm still kicking this cold with Mucisan. (that's not how you spell it)
Somehow I put a few pounds on this week. I was up to 181 for the first time in months. I'm back at 180 today. I took some creatine so that may have done it.

3360 + 40 = 3400 floors

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I did 68 floors of intervals in 15 mintues tonight. It was a pretty tough workout but didn't last that long. Very effecient I guess. My legs are still tired from Sunday's madness. I don't know what I did that much more of but I'll recover. I need to get all of this sickness out of me. Being 100% would be nice.

total floors = 3360

Sunday, February 15, 2009

This weekend I did a few more workouts suing weights and even running a 5K on the treadmill. I'm fighting a possible Strep Throat but so far I'm still okay. Beth just got over it with antibiotics...I don't have health insurance so I'm hoping just to push through it like a champ.



3236 + 56 = 3292 total floors.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

leg workout

I lefted legs yesterday, not as hard as usual. I did 10 minutes of stairs for 58 floors.


3178
+ 58
____
3236 floors

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Back at the Mounds!

I ran (very hard) 10 laps up and down the Cahokia Indians Mounds today. Each trip up is 156 steps, plus a small incline in the middle (4 steps up?) so I round it to 160 steps per lap which is 10 floors per lap. So 10 trips for 100 floors today. It took me about 31 minutes (because of resting and the trips down) but it was by far the toughest workout I've put in so far. In other areas, I hurt my neck/back benching today. I do this every few months or so it seems, I was due. Time for some mild meds...and some beer.


total floors = 3178

Friday, February 6, 2009

This week

This week has been light. I took Monday off as I will be doing every week. Tuesday was a tough circuit class with Beth. Wednesday was upper body only, yesterday just pilates. Tonight will be tougher and then tomorrow we're hoping to run the mounds. A restful week can help.



3078 floors

Sunday, February 1, 2009

70 floors

I somehow put on 5 pounds this weekend. I did 70 floors yesterday and plan on doing more today before I break out my deep fryer for The Super Bowl. I did my squat workout yesterday too. It's just a set of 25 with 135, then 25 on that half-ball balance thingy, then a set of 20 on each, then 15, then 10. Lots of reps. Today I'm taking the Reebok steppers and doing a hard 6 minutes up and down, up and down.