Seven Decimal Six

02/08/13
6.5 km 29 minutes

04/08/13
6.5 km 29 minutes
Now I can move up in distance. Yipee!

07/08/13
7.6 km
Forgot the time at which I began running since I was so excited. I'm not too sure yet if I will increase back to 10 km and then start monitoring my time or do it in a more stepwise process. I'm leaning towards the former since I see no particular reason to linger in the lower distances.

09/08/13
3.5 km cycling warmup
3X(20X34.1kg) goblet squats
5X10 chinups
3X10 dips
5X70.5kg squats
3X79.5kg squats
1X88.6kg squat
14 pushups
stretching
30 pushups
3.5 km cycling cooldown

I decided to start cycling to the gym. I use no gas and save time by already being warmed up when I get there. I don't have to worry about packing my bag since I arrive in my workout gear and shower at home.

Twenty Nine

30/07/13
'Scientific' workout

I didn't have time today so I had to resort to the super short workout, it wasn't challenging enough. I will need to perform other exercises next time I do this workout.

31/07/13
6.5 km 29 minutes

Finally! Just two more sub 30 minute clockings and I move up in distance.

01/08/13

'scientific' warmup

3X(12X61.2) squats

20X13.6 + 2X(20X11.4) standing dumbbell shoulder press 

3X(20X61.2) trap bar deadlifts

5X27.3 dumbbell bench press

3X27.3 dumbbell bench press

2X29.5 dumbbell bench press

13 dips

stretching cooldown

15 dips

I tried to use the 29.5kg weight for the set of three presses but I couldn't manage it. For the last set I somehow was able to do two reps.

Stagnating on the runs

26/07/13
'scientific' warmup
3X(34.1X10) goblet squat
3X(20X18.2) dumbbell flat back bench press
5X10 pull ups
5X70.5 squats
3X79.5 squats
1X84 squat
9 dips
stretching cooldown
12 dips

27/07/13
6.5 km 31 minutes

29/07/13
'scientific' warmup
3X(20.5X20) dumbbell bent over row
5X(10X27.3) barbell shoulder press, heels together
5X(10X61.2) squats
5X88.6 deadlifts
3X93.2 deadlifts
1X97.7 deadlift
39 push ups
stretching cooldown
32 push ups

Split Squats

18/07/13
6.5 km 31 minutes

22/07/13
'scientific warmup'
(5X10)X(
split squats 13.6 kg each hand both legs
standing dumbell shoulder press 13.6 kg heels together
stiff leg deadlift 52.3 kg
)
5X84 kg deadlift
3X88.6 kg deadlift
1X93 kg deadlift
40 pushups
stretching cooldown
30 pushups

23/07/13
6.5km 31 minutes
hamstrings felt stiff from yesterday.

The heatwave is over, running is easier. I will move up in distance after three sub 30 minute runs in a row.

Recovery

13/07/13
6.5 km 30 minutes

14/07/13
'scientific warmup'
3X(20X22.7kg) overhead barbell squat
3X(20X15.9kg) in each hand dumbell walking lunge
5X8 pullups
22 pushups
stretching cooldown
35 pushups
The pushups were more difficult than usual. The gym just got new equipment and that includes mats that are ~5cm thick vs ~2cm. I liked the more challenging pushups.

15/07/13
6.5 km 30 minutes

16/07/13
'scientific' warmup
5X84.1kg deadlift
3X88.6kg deadlift
1X93kg deadlift
5X(12X18.2kg) flat back dumbell press
3X(20X22.7kg) military press
7 pullups
stretching cooldown
11 pullups

Illness

I've been quite sick for the past week, it has been very unpleasant.

25/06/13
6.5 km run 33 minutes
I decided to run while sick and it actually made me feel somewhat better, I had my mind taken off the pain in my throat and all the movement shook loose phlegm that I was able to cough/spit out. Obviously I couldn't give a full effort hence the shortened distance and lengthened time.

29/06/13
6.5 km 31 minutes
Felt much better due to being almost fully recovered. This run was HARD

30/06/13
'scientific' warmup
6X(4X22.7kg) flat dumbbell chest press
5X(12X61.2kg) squat
3X(20X36.36kg) bent over barbell row
3 hammer grip chin ups
stretching
8 hammer grip chin ups

01/07/13
6.5km 31 minutes
I ran the first half of this run faster than the second, I was definitely on pace to break thirty minutes but then it got hot.

02/07/13
'scientific' warmup
2X(12X31.8kg)+3X(12X27.27kg) overhead standing barbell press
3X(20X61.2kg) trap bar deadlift
10X5 full bridge

no cooldown since I was working out with a friend and we were in a hurry. My first set of overhead press was with the lighter weight, the next two were with the heavier one since the other was in use. I was struggling mightily on my last set.

06/07/13
6.5km 30 minutes
This was a good run, had I set out earlier in the morning it definitely would have been cool enough for me to break 30.

I was sick as a dog for a few days and then the strangest thing happened. Over the course of less than an hour my very sore throat went away, my body aches were gone and I felt clear headed. I could feel myself getting better by the minute, it was very odd. I felt like wolverine.

The gap between the second and the sixth is filled by the camping trip I went on with my family. I ran around with the dog and threw around some logs, any physical activity I did was for joy and play. I would sprint and my dog would sprint with making sure I didn't get too far out of his watchful eye.

Rest Day

17/06/13
"Scientific" warmup
(20X29.5)X2+19X29.5kg Incline barbell press
20X70.45+(20X61.2)X2 Squat
10 Full bridge
Stretching cooldown

I worked out with a friend and forgot to do an exercise to failure in my hurry to finish as he was already waiting.

19/06/13
10 km in 49 minutes
It was pretty hot. I wish I made the decision to run the day before.

20/06/13
"Scientific" warmup
(20X61.2)X3 Deadlift
(20X22.7)X3 Standing barbell shoulder press
5X10 pullups
30 pushups
Stretching cooldown
40 pushups

While I was cooling down I spotted a woman from high school graduating class who had been seeing a friend of mine several month prior. She was predictably on a cardio machine.
I was pretty tired for the first set of pushups although talking to my former classmate gave me extra time to recover.

Introducing variation in exercise

13/06/13
Scientific warmup
10 (5 each leg) walking lunges with 22.7 kg dumbells in each hand
4X10 walking lunges with 15.9 kg dumbells in each hand
3 sets of 4 flat back chest press with 25 kg dumbells
2 sets of 4 same as above with 22.7 kg
5 sets of 12 (6 each arm) alternating standing shoulder press 13.6 kg
13 pull ups
stretching
13 pull ups
The pull ups were done until failure. On the first set it was my grip that failed, on the second set I just couldn't  pull up anymore.

14/06/13
8.6km run in 40 minutes
It was really hot, my time was a pleasant surprise

15/06/13
scientific warmup
10X61.2kg deadlift
10 pullups
6X(4X84kg) deadlift
5X(10X22.7kg) overhead squat
5X10 full bridge
55 pushups
stretching
40 pushups
This was my first time performing overhead squats at first picked up a 40.9kg barbell and immediately realized that it was too much. My shoulders are really feeling it today, my hamstrings are sore as well. The pushups were performed to exhaustion. I am also becoming somewhat bored with the warmups, time to change it up.

16/06/13
10km run 48 minutes
Due to the circumstances I ran only a couple of hours after eating and suffered cramps.

Upping the Distance

12/06/13
7.3km 34 min
The run was pretty hard, it was hot and somewhat humid, I am surprised that my time isn't slower as the heat was really making me hurt.

I am going to be taking the hard route towards reaching my 800 goal. The easier route is to immediately begin running intervals, the downside to that is that I won't be aerobically as well developed. The first 90 seconds of a run are anaerobic, it is during those last thirty seconds that aerobic conditioning really kicks in.

Some background on my running history: I ran cross country and track in high school grades for the last three years. My best times were 4:58 for 1500, 10:47 for 3000, 2:31 for the only 800 I ran, and 17:43 for a road 5K although my 17:56 for an XC 5K might be the stronger performance due to the less favorable surface. All of these records are over half a decade old. I should sign up for a 5k happening a few weeks from now to assess my running fitness.

Eighty Four

11/06/13
Scientific warmup
50X43.2 deadlifts-focus on form, eyes forward, feet shoulder width apart, lower back tight and unrounded, shoulders unhunched, hip drive and glute activation.
50 pushups
Stretching cooldown

After my warmup I decided to do some squats and did 10 reps of 61.2 followed by four reps of 84. After the deadlifts I did another ten of 61.2 and two of 84. I can't wait to hit 100 in my squats and deadlifts. I found that my lower back was the limiting factor for the deadlifts, although my forearms were pretty maxed out as well. I need to increase the muscular endurance of my lower back. The pushups felt good and I had a lot less trouble than last time, I really struggled with the last four.

In addition to performing one exercise to failure at each workout I will also be choosing an exercise for heavy lifting each time.

As I was driving to the gym a sudden thought struck me: "I want to break two minutes for the 800 this summer". It's time to get serious about my running, Phase one is increasing the length of my runs from 6.5 km to 10-12 km.

Back in the Gym

08/06/13
Scientific warmup
50X43.2 squat
50 pushups
Stretching cooldown
After about thirty squats I was feeling some strain on my lower back, I'm not sure why though. I kept my weight over my heels, my back straight, and my eyes forward. My legs felt good throughout. The first thirty pushups were easy, the next ten were difficult but the last ten were very hard and I barely struggled through them. I think I should introduce exercising to exhaustion in my workouts, at the end if each workout I will choose an exercise and perform it to failure.

Mostly Running

I didn't lift a lot this week although I've picked up the habit of doing the scientific workout as soon as I awake each morning.

02/06/13

scientific workout warmup

(4X79.2)X6 deadlifts

(10X27.2)X4+10X22.7 overhead press

8X5 hammer grip pullups

I was forced to switch to a lower weight for the overhead press as my previous weight was being used. I felt really good on the deadlifts, although if I went higher keeping form would probably have been too difficult. I concentrated on activating my glutes and it made it easier to maintain good form. I didn't stretch afterwards as I had an engagement party to get to.

04+05/06/13

6.5 km run 33 min

Running on the Grass

Going out of my way and driving to a trail is too inconvenient, instead I just ran on the grass by the sidewalks. The other day I didn't have enough time to go to the gym and complete a full workout so I did the scientific workout at a good clip.
30/05/13
Scientific workout with 10 pullups tacked on to the end of it. I maintained a high intensity (about 7/8) and felt pretty good. It certainly won't get me squatting 100kg but it is a great routine to do while short on time. Another plus is that many of the workouts can be substituted and have numerous variations.

01/06/13
6.5 km run on the grass. I estimate that around a fifth of my run was unavoidably on the pavement. Not too bad. I am considering easing into running in my Vibram fivefinger Bikila as I already lift weights in those shoes. I have previously trained in fivefingers and found it to be to my liking.

One hundred seventy five

Just noticed I accidentally left this post as a draft.

28/05/13
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
(4X79.2)X6 squats
5X8 pullups
5X8 full bridge
Stretching cooldown
I had some problems keeping good form with the squats, although I managed to prevent myself from bearing weight on my toes. I was always able to start each set of pullups with 1-4 really high ones with the bar coming sometimes all the way to my xiphoid process but I could maintain it. The bridges felt really good. I felt strong and stable, I ended up doing an extra set of these as well as the chinups. I also did 5 reps of squats on my last set.
You may have noticed I started recording the weight in kilograms. Yay SI.

Workouts and how I plan them

It isn't clear from my posts but I don't take breaks between sets, instead I run a circuit. Exercise one, followed by exercise two, followed by exercise three and repeated until I'm done. Anyways, here are some recent training sessions:

25/05/13
Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 deadlifts
12X40X5 dumbbell flat bench press
12X5 hanging straight leg lift
Stretching cooldown
I probably could have gone with 45 for the bench press. I feel like I might have been rounding out my lower back for some of the deadlifts, I need to make sure I have prefect form so as to avoid injury. The main difficulty with the leg raises was that my forearms were getting tired and my grip weakening. All in all a good workout.

27/05/13

6.5 km run in 31 minutes.

Hotter than the last run but a cool wind kept me feeling good. My hamstrings were sore from the deadlifts and so was my lower back (but not as much), which lends credence to the theory that I was rounding out the lumbar portion of my spine.

My Framework

As promised I will now be talking about my philosophy in working out. First though I'm logging today's (24/05/13) workout.

Running 6.5 km 31 minutes. The run felt good, my quads were sore from Wednesday but it didn't seem to affect the run too much. A cool spell has hit the city so that made the run much more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.

On to the promised section.


My General Fitness Philosophy
In psychology there is a concept known as the Era of Evolutionary Adaptedness EEA) which is the period between two million and sixty five thousand years ago. The theory being that we are still mostly those animals that were built through natural selection to survive in the wild. Modernity is but a drop in the bucket of our history, in essence we are still cavemen.

People would live in groups of about fifty as hunter gatherers. Our bodies and brains bear out our evolutionary legacy. When I think about being fit I try to think about it as being caveman fit. Can I outrun a predator if startled? Would I be able to doggedly wear down a large herbivore? How adept am I at evasive maneuvers (climbing trees and rocks)? How far can I make it across a choppy body of water? Most importantly, will I be able to handle myself when faced with an aggressive fellow homo sapiens?
Our muscles and nervous system are built to quickly adapt and become more efficient at repeated movements, performing many sets of barbell chest press will cause muscular hypertrophy and result in large chest muscles best suited for more chest presses. This paradigm informs my attitude on workout design.
To put it simply: I try not to do any particular exercise too many times in the same way.

I apply these same evolutionary principals to my diet. Bread is a no-no, this means no burgers (damn) but yes steaks (yay). Refined sugars are as always, evil. There are a few core ideals that stand out as being most important in guiding food choice. Is what I am about to easy recognizable as food as opposed to being the output of a machine? Is what I am about to eat mostly plants? These are by far the most significant questions to ask myself, the rest is just details. I will admit here that these questions are taken from Michael Pollan's ideas.

Second Post

My next post will include my general outlook on nutrition and fitness, meanwhile I will log yesterday's workout.

Light 'scientific' workout warm up(jumping jacks pushups wall sit crunches step ups squats dips plank high knees lunge push up and rotation side plank)
12X145X5 squat
nX5 pushups
mX5 dips
Stretching cool down
The warm up felt good. I ended up doing twenty pushups a set. The first set of dips was 12, but for the rest I had to switch to dips off a bench and I did twenty.
The 'scientific' workout is supposed to be done at a high intensity (8) with ten second breaks between each exercise but since I was using it as warm up my intensity was much lower (started at 3 and ended at 6) and I also didn't take any breaks. I still timed 30 seconds for each exercise.

First Post

165 cm. 64-69 kg. ~15% bf.
I feel like a short man in a tall man's world and need to compensate by being fit and healthy. It's time to buckle down and get serious about improving by tracking various personal measurements and daily (in?)activities.
Following is the annotated summary of my 17/05/13 workout.

Ten chinups and ten pullups with a short break. 5 minutes on the elliptical. Another round of chinups and pullups. Twenty by 135 trap bar deadlifts. I had to pause a couple of time a to wipe my hands. Twenty wide placement pushups with feet raised about thirty cm. Twenty bent over rows 45 each hand. Repeated three times. Five pullups and five chinups repeated twice.
The final sets of pulls and chins were significantly more difficult.