Body Reconstruction
Body Reconstruction
A Fitness Experiment
Progress Report: Week 16-18
Cardio
Week 16SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
Long RunRestRestRestTempoRestTempo
9.5 mi.
95'0"---8 mi.
77'0"-8 mi.
71'0"
Week 17SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
RestRestEasy RunRestRestRestHM
--3 mi.
25'0" ---13.1
**150'0"
Week 18SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
RestRestRestRestRestRestRest
-------
**182'48" - but who's keeping count? lol.
If there’s one thing I look forward to when I’m visiting my parents, it’s the quiet country roads that seem to wander aimlessly through endless acres of farms and distant tree lines. Road traffic is few and far between, and the only breathing hazard is the occasional pile of horse manure - which is indubitably more agreeable than the occasional mouthful of bus fumes.
My progress has been slow, but steady; now that I’ve been training properly. I no longer give double digit mileage any second thoughts, which is amazing since my legs used to protest at the mere thought of running 5 miles.
And of course, on my last scheduled long run before a big race, it begins to rain - which I’ve come to accept as a long-running gag between the running gods and weather gods this entire training season, as they point and laugh at the haggard looking man (ie. me) running past another pile of horse manure.
Weather God: Hey, you thinking what I’m thinking?
Running God: Yeah, do it!
Weather God(unzipping pants): Take that!
Running God (unzipping pants): ...and that!
My originally scheduled 14 grueling miles turned into a mildly grueling 9.5 with a curiously warm drizzle. My brother, who had recently taken up running, decided to join me that morning. I had instructed him where to turn around at mile 4 (which was the point of no return, given his session base at 5 miles), so I never bothered to look behind me until mile 7.
And when I finally did turn around, there he was; chugging along like a tired, rain-soaked, homeless dog; grimacing with every miserable step. At the very minimum, we had at least 2.5 more miles to go.
As every good brother would, I double-backed towards him, despite his not-so-subtle arm gesture for “just go on without me!” like they do in the movies. But au contraire, mon frere! Nobody’s eating asphalt in slow-mo under my watch! I proceeded to jog behind him, shouting motivational cliches one would normally hear in a gatorade commercial (minus the drum line, of course).
His legs lasted another 2 miles before he collapsed behind a bush, which was actually pretty funny at the moment and in afterthought. I called out to his fiance and she arrived with the car shortly afterwards. After we loaded my temporarily crippled (but oh so proud) brother into the car, they kept the car door open, waiting for me to hop in.
I looked at the half mile of wet asphalt standing between me and my parent’s house, with the rain still relentlessly pouring down around me. My mileage was already screwed for the day, the least I could do was run home.
And so I did.
PS. I finally broke 9 minute miles on my long runs, three months ahead of schedule!
Weight Training
Due to the tapering and my unwieldy appetite, I needed to throw in massive amounts of cross training and weight lifting to offset the calories that would've been burnt on the road. I stopped altogether on the week of the race for fear of soreness and burning up my energy stores. But my efforts were all spent in vain, as we all know what happens in the end :).
Diet
My wife read somewhere that a runner's best meal is pasta, especially before a race. So being the fantastic wife she is, she prepared a week's worth of homemade meatballs for the week of pasta I was going to be eating. Everything tasted fantastic until about Wednesday, when I couldn't even look at another meatball. So we took a meatball break for a day, and resumed on Friday. But again, our efforts may have been spent in vain, we all know what happens in the end :).
***
(xposted on Runners)