Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Hanging: The Search for the Strict Pull Up Continues

When I started getting serious about doing a strict pull up last spring, I read a lot of different articles online about how to get your first pull up. One of the ones that I read more than once was by a woman who recommended hanging from the bar as a way to build grip strength. I can't find it now, or I'd link to it. It was written by a dark haired woman and included pictures of her demonstrating the exercises she recommended. She especially recommended hanging from the bar by one hand.

And I tried hanging by the bar with one hand. And I couldn't. Not even for a full second, not even for a half second. My hands didn't have the strength to grip the bar together for more than a few seconds at first. Each one alone was hopeless.

But last weekend, for the first time in the new year, I tried hanging by a single hand.

I hung for 10 seconds from my right hand and 5 seconds from my left.

I haven't gotten the strict pull up yet, but I'm getting over the bar without assistance. It's the bottom half of the movement that's my main problem right now. If I swing up half way, I can lever myself over the bar. I can pack my shoulders with a scapular pull up. But I can't bridge between those two positions yet.

I've been working on doing my pull up workouts with a wider grip for the last couple weeks, because one of the cross fit coaches recommended a wider grip to engage my lats more. It seems to be a good tactic so far. I've also tried switching my segment and negative pull up method. I had been using a lifting rack, standing on the floor and lifting myself up for the segment before bending my knees to lower. Now, in order to keep good strict pull up form through the movement, I'm standing on a box to reach a high pull up bar and trying to keep my body in the hollow position through the whole motion. It's making my abs more sore, which I'll take as a good sign.

I'm signed up for the Cross Fit Open that starts on Thursday, and I can't help but hope that I can make my first strict pull up before then.

Or at least before the Open ends five weeks later :)

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

(Not) Leading the Pack

The question was simple. Would I be interested in leading the Run Club? The leader (and founder) of Run Club was going to be out of town unexpectedly, and she wanted there to be a run even without her there.

I considered, and I accepted. Because it wouldn't be all that involved. Pick a route, know the route, make sure everyone stuck mostly together and no one got left alone.

The last turned out to be even easier than anticipated when only three people, including me, showed up.

Now, that isn't entirely atypical. I don't think people weren't showing up because I was leading. I think that might have been a good excuse not to show up for some, and that, for some, any excuse not to run in the dark and cold is a sufficient one. But three to six is a typical number for Run Club right now, so I was okay.

Well, I was okay to start. The two people who showed up were faster than me. And although we started at a "slower" pace, once they warmed up I was thrashing myself to keep up.

We ran a new route, one I'd made up on Map My Run to try and include a detour through Parkcenter Park because I like it. It wasn't quite a 4 mile route, but it was close, with certain options. At the last minute, I decided to reverse it, starting through Williams Park and ending with Parkcenter Park, because that would increase the number of options and also leave the decision of whether we go long or go short for the end.

We ran the first mile in about 9:30, an unprecedented pace for me. After that, it was all I could do to keep up and endure. In some ways, it was a really good training run for me. I want to get faster.

On the other hand, I didn't feel like very much of a leader, yelling out to people a block and a half ahead of me that it was time to turn. But at least I knew no one else was getting left behind...

In the end, taking one wrong turn and all the long options, I ran 3.9 miles in under 39 minutes - they did the same distance, but faster. It was my longest fast run in over a year. I got past the pain of pushing my pace and I finished what felt more like an endurance workout than a Run Club run.

I'd lead Run Club again, but if no one slower shows up I'll probably be more forceful in slowing the pace to a level I can endure comfortably. Then again, maybe I'll treat it as my very own endurance WOD once more and see how fast I can run.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A Case of Monday

On Monday I ran on the treadmill during lunch. My usual Monday routine involves using employee health and wellness release time to extend my lunch hour to 90 minutes so that I can go to the gym and get a workout done. For the last few months, that workout has been my pull up day 1 workout. In January, I sometimes did my tabatas at the gym, but at the end of last year I was trying to do more running.

Now that I'm not doing the tabatas every day, I have switched focus back to running. The pull up day 1 workout is the shortest of the pull up workouts, and on this particular Monday I finished with enough time to do a 20 minute run. Normally when I run during the workday, I do so on the track. The track doesn't to compel me to do a cool down, and I tend to take it a little easier on the track. But on this day, I decided to do a hill run on the treadmills.

My favorite treadmill was open, one of the newer models. It has a television, which helps make treadmills less dull for me, and I like the settings. The hill workouts are fun, and none of the steep segments last too long. The way I set it up, the majority of the run is 1 minute flat, 1 minute hill, and the hill portions steadily increase to a maximum and then start over at the lowest.

I found an old episode of Criminal Minds with which to distract myself and started the run at 5 mph. But my legs were feeling good. I'd taken all day Sunday as a rest day. So I increased to 5.5 mph. The running felt good. The hills were a challenge, but not impossible. My breathing was coming easily, and there was no wheezing. I'm not going to believe that I'm over whatever cold/crud/illness has been plaguing me this winter until I'm feeling good for a few weeks in a row, but I'm hopeful that it's gone for good this time.

I finished out the 20 minutes with 2.5 minutes of 6 mph. It felt good. The last seconds ticked by, and I hit the speed buttons to slow the cool down to 3 mph. I planned on spending only 1 minute on the cool down instead of the 5 the machine automatically chose.

I took three, maybe four steps at 3 mph and then I yelped and lifted my right foot. A sudden pain had struck the bottom of my foot. It felt as if the calluses on the pad of my foot had split open. It felt like a gash, like it must be bleeding. I hopped on my left foot for a moment on the still running treadmill. Then I hopped to the side of it and stopped the machine. Not putting pressure on my right foot, I sprayed it down and gathered my bag. Then I limped over about 20 feet to some benches to examine the wound.

I walked by several people, but only one guy asked if I was okay. I told him what I thought the problem was and that I was going to sit and check it out. At the benches, I took off my right shoe, amazed not to see blood in it. My white sock was, well, as white as it ever was. There was no blood on my, ahem, off-white sock. And there was no blood on my foot. At first glance, it looked whole and perfect.

And then I brought my face and foot closer together and saw a glint of light. Somehow, through sock, through shoe, on the treadmill... my foot had acquired a sliver of plastic, no larger around than a safety pin's shaft, no longer than a key on my keyboard. And this tiny piece of clear plastic had fooled my nerves into thinking that a massive wound had opened spontaneously in my foot.

It was sticking out far enough that I was able to remove it with my fingers. I showed it to the guy who had asked if I was okay, and then I finished my workout with 4 unstrict pull ups (woo!).

I don't know how the sliver of plastic got to my foot, and managed to go undetected through 20 minutes of running, only to stab me just as I began to walk. But I do know one thing.

Such a strange and painful event could only happen on a Monday.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Tabata Challenge - Complete!

On Facebook, I joined a January tabata challenge. The goal was to do two tabatas every day for that month. A tabata is four minutes of 8 sets of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. The 20 seconds always feels way longer than 20 seconds and the 10 way less than 10. I chose body weight movements for the most part, though I got into the gym a few times for it and did things that I can't do at home, like rowing, ring rows and kettle bell swings.

I tried exercises that I thought would be too easy, like handstand holds, and rudely discovered that they were not, in fact, too easy. (I really need to work on keeping my arms from hyperextending during handstand holds!) Even jumping jacks are a challenge, at a sufficient rate of exertion.

Once I started, I couldn't bring myself to stop. I got onto a streak of 7 days - 10 days - 15 days. Even when no one else was posting on the Facebook page, and I felt rather embarrassed to be the only one still doing it. Even when I was exhausted and had trouble finding time to fit even the short tabatas in. Even when I scheduled myself to do burpees... I was driven by the challenge. 

One thing that bugged me about the challenge was that I didn't see a lot of improvements. I didn't post my scores to the Facebook page, but I did keep track and I kept getting lower numbers of reps the second time I did a tabata, sometimes even worse on a third or fourth try. 

And yet, I was the only one on that challenge to complete it. 

There was no prize involved, no bonus for winning. 

The only thing I got out of it was the knowledge that I can take a challenge like that to the end. I know now that I can do those exercises, and that I, in fact, feel better when I do a couple of tabatas to start the day. I know that I can keep going even when I don't want to. 

I'm not going to keep on doing it every day, because I do think my body is in need of some genuine rest days, but I'm going to try and do it more often. Three to four days a week, for February, tracked on a google spreadsheet so I can see if I can improve.