Strength Training – Shoulder, Chest and Triceps – Sep 30, 2008

I was damn tired after doing the tempo run and had a hard time getting up in the morning. I managed to wake up at 5:45 am, had the protein drink and reached the gym at 6:30. Although I worked out only for 40 minutes, I managed to do some decent enough exercises for Shoulder, Chest and Triceps. Here is a list of the exercises done today.

 

Workout Date	Workout Name	Body Part	Exercise	Order	Set #	Reps	Weight	Tempo	Notes
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Cardio	Elliptical	1	1	0	0		50 calories
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Rope Chest Flies	2	1	12	12		On rope machine ( wide rope and weights) , facing away from the machine, hold rope wide and pull the rope straight forward with arms as straight as possible
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Jumping Jack	3	1	20			Jump with legs wide and hands above head
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Rope Chest Flies	4	2	10	12		On rope machine ( wide rope and weights) , facing away from the machine, hold rope wide and pull the rope straight forward with arms as straight as possible
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Jumping Jack	5	2	20			Jump with legs wide and hands above head
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Rope Chest Flies	6	3	10	12		On rope machine ( wide rope and weights) , facing away from the machine, hold rope wide and pull the rope straight forward with arms as straight as possible
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Jumping Jack	7	3	20			Jump with legs wide and hands above head
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Shoulder	Dumbbell horizontal lift	8	1	12	10		With dumbbells in both hands, knees slightly bent, lift hands horizontally up and forward (be careful to not lean backward)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Hop Bench Jump	9	1	10			Hop on to a small bench and come back down to the standing position
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Shoulder	Dumbbell horizontal lift	10	2	12	10		With dumbbells in both hands, knees slightly bent, lift hands horizontally up and forward (be careful to not lean backward)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Hop Bench Jump	11	2	10			Hop on to a small bench and come back down to the standing position
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Shoulder	Dumbbell horizontal lift	12	3	12	10		With dumbbells in both hands, knees slightly bent, lift hands horizontally up and forward (be careful to not lean backward)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Machine Hammer Pushdown	14	1	8	70		On Tripceps machine, place elbows on the support and push down both hands like a hammer, hold and bring it back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Wall Jump	15	1	30			Jump and hit the wall with both hands (like a Hi-Fi)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Machine Hammer Pushdown	16	2	12	80		On Tripceps machine, place elbows on the support and push down both hands like a hammer, hold and bring it back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Wall Jump	17	2	30			Jump and hit the wall with both hands (like a Hi-Fi)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Machine Hammer Pushdown	18	3	12	80		On Tripceps machine, place elbows on the support and push down both hands like a hammer, hold and bring it back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Reactive	Wall Jump	19	3	30			Jump and hit the wall with both hands (like a Hi-Fi)
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Dumbbell Incline Press	20	1	10	20		On a incline bench, with biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell straight up and take it back down to chest
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Abs	Ball upper abs	21	1	20	0		Lie on the ball with hands on ears and come up with upper abs
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Dumbbell Incline Press	22	2	10	25		On a incline bench, with biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell straight up and take it back down to chest
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Abs	Ball upper abs	23	2	20	0		Lie on the ball with hands on ears and come up with upper abs
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Dumbbell Incline Press	24	3	10	22		On a incline bench, with biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell straight up and take it back down to chest
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Abs	Ball upper abs	25	3	20	0		Lie on the ball with hands on ears and come up with upper abs
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Chest	Dumbbell Incline Press	26	4	10	20		On a incline bench, with biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell straight up and take it back down to chest
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Rope Pulldowns	27	1	10	75		Using rope, bring down the rope, elbows firmly in place, bring down the rope and lift slowly back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Rope Pulldowns	28	2	10	85		Using rope, bring down the rope, elbows firmly in place, bring down the rope and lift slowly back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Rope Pulldowns	29	3	10	85		Using rope, bring down the rope, elbows firmly in place, bring down the rope and lift slowly back up
29-Sep-08	Chest,Shoulder,Triceps	Triceps	Rope Pulldowns	30	4	10	85		Using rope, bring down the rope, elbows firmly in place, bring down the rope and lift slowly back up

 

The Tempo Run – Sep 29,2008

After doing the Marathon cycling yesterday, I was not sure if I will be able to do the tempo run in the morning today. I got up pretty early (3:00 am!) since I went to bed early (10:00 pm). I decided to give it a shot anyway. I always wanted to do some Abs exercises / pushups after the run but somehow I don't have the energy to do these after the run. So, I decided to do these before the run today. After having my breakfast and protein drink at about 6:00am, I started with the Abs / Push Ups at 6:45 am. I did about 100 lower abs and 100 upper abs exercises and about 50 pushups. It was about 7:20 by the time I finished these and the Sun was also out finally! The Campion trail in Irving , where I usually do my Tempo runs, is pretty well shaded for the most part. I reached the trail at 7:45 am. Here is how I did the 8 miles tempo.

Warm up : 1 mile – 9:40 min/mile

2 minutes break (Walking)

Tempo Run for 4 miles: 8:30 min/mile

3 minutes break (Walking)

Tempo Run for 2 miles: 9:00 min/mile

2 minutes break (Walking)

Cool down for 1 mile : 9:30 min/mile

Although I felt a little sore in the calves after the run, it was fine after I did the stretches. One great way to heal your legs is to put some ice in the cold water in the bath tub and lay your legs / lower body in it for 10 minutes ( the same thing that I did after my long run).

Here are the average stats from the GPS. Note that the heart rate is only 4 above the long run which means that I could probably sustain this pace for a longer time !

29-Sep-08

Mon

Running

Tempo Run

8.25

1:17:01

9:20

6.4

1053

162

 

Marathon Cycling – Sep 28, 2008

After doing my long run yesterday (15 miles), I slept for about 10 hours in the night but felt good in the morning albeit had some soreness in the leg. It was fine by the evening and I decided to do some cross training on my Trek Cycle. I started about 6:30pm and was doing about 15 miles / hour. I wanted to do only 20 miles but I was feeling really good after 20 miles and so decided to at least do a cycling marathon (>26 miles). It was really dark by the time I finished 23 miles but I managed to pull off 6 more miles in the darkness (although I don't recommend it to anyone!). I was not too exhausted even after 2 hours of cycling and it's a really good cross training exercise. One small trivia is that I tend to burn as many calories during 2 hours of cycling as I do in 2 hours of running. I have noticed that I tend to burn about 125 calories for any kind of cardio exercise (Elliptical / Cycling / Running / Stairs etc..) Looks like the body has a way of figuring out how much energy to use irrespective of the challenge you throw at it. Amazing..aint' it ! The other thing is that my cycling pace has also improved a bit and the heart rate is also coming down. Signs that my lungs/heart are improving! Here are the stats from my Forerunner. Note that you can change the settings on your GPS watch depending on the activity you are doing (running/ Cycling / Other Activities).

Date	Day	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
28-Sep-08	Sun	Cycling	Cycling	29.1	2:00:00	4:07	14.6	1525	131

The Longest Run So Far – 15 Miles – Sep 27, 2008

Today was the longest run that I have run in my life, 15 miles! Since I didn't do my long run last week, I was a little wary of doing 15 miles today. I was also going to ry the "Gu" gel packets to keep myself energized during the run. I woke up early at 5:30 am and had my coffee and Protein drink and reached the White Rock lake , carpooling with some fellow Asha Runners. I was not sure if I will be able to run faster. So, I just decided to run with the 10 min and over group. I downloaded a bunch of audio books yesterday and started listening to the "Freakonomics" book during the run. The pace was slow initially but there were about 5 or 6 girls who were doing faster than 10 min (In the entire group, we had about 4 or 5 guys and about 15 girls !) I started running with these girls but still felt that I was running well within myself. After about 3 miles, there was only one girl who was doing faster than 10 min pace. So, we just paired up and started doing a faster pace, between 9 – 9:30 per mile. I just breezed through the first 6 miles in about 59 minutes. Although, this is the pace that I usually do, this time I was not feeling tired after 6 miles. After about 7 miles, I took the "Gu" gel. At this point, the rest of the group caught up with us since the other girl took a restroom break. Myself and the girl just took off at the 7^th mile, we were doing very good pace at about 9:00 min / mile for the next 2 miles. I realized that we had left the rest of group far behind. We did about 9:30 – 10:00 min /mile pace for the next 3 miles and finished 12 miles in about 2:00 hours (including the water breaks). After the next half mile, I was really tired and asked the girl to go ahead. I started walking for about 2 minutes and then started again. I finished the next 2 miles in about 21 minutes. I was really tired at this point and started taking a break after every half mile. I finished the last mile in about 12 minutes. I had also finished about 2 chapters of "Freakonomics" which included knowing about the Japanese mafia, crime rate in US, bagle business and a variety of other funny applications of Economics.

Since the other Asha folks were running the half marathon, they were doing only 8 miles today. They were waiting for me. So, I just went straight from the run to join the group without doing any post running stretches. We had a good breakfast at Einstein bros. I came back home, took a short nap and did the post running stretches. As suggested by one of the Asha runners, I put in a lot of ice in the bath tub with some cold water and cooled down the legs, knees and other joints for about 10 minutes. Then I cooled down the legs with some ice packs and wrote this blog after the Ice pack treatment J

As you can see from the Forerunner stats, I finished the 15 mile run at about 10:00 min / mile. I took some water breaks and some traffic interruptions for 7.30 minutes making this entire run (including the breaks) for about 10:30 min/mile.

Date	Day	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
27-Sep	Sat	Running	Long Run	15.12	2:32:04	10:03	6	1966	158

Hill Training in Gym – Sep 25,2008

After doing some strength training this morning, I decided to some hill workout in the office gym. I hate running on a tread mill but you get very few good hills in Dallas. So, I had to resort to doing the "Treadmill Hill" running. I started with a normal gradient running at 6 miles / hour, then slowly increased the gradient to 10 and then 15 and brought it down to 10 and 5 etc..It was very had running on the incline in the gym. Moreover, it was really boring running on the treadmill. I managed to run 3.5 miles in 45 min. But it was a good workout to get used to the incline.

Here are the stats from the Treadmill

Date	Day	Activity	Type	Miles	Time (HH:MM:SS)	Avg. Pace (min/Mile)	Avg. Speed	Calories Burnt	Avg. Heart Rate
25-Sep	Thu	Running	Hill	3.5	0:45:00	12:40	4.7	526	145

Strength Training, Back and Biceps – Sep 25,2008

 

And the strength training continued today after a good interval training yesterday. As you might have noticed, Tue & Thu are my strength training days. I alternate these with Back/Biceps on one day and Shoulder, Chest and Triceps on the other. Today was the Back/Biceps training day.

Here is the log from today's training:

 

Workout Date	Workout Name	Body Part	Exercise	Order	Set #	Reps	Weight	Tempo	Notes
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Cardio	Elliptical	1	1	0	0		100 calories
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Core	Isoprone	2	1				30 sec hold
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Core	Isoprone	3	2				30 sec hold
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	4	1	12			With hands on the hip, one Leg Squat with no weight.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Core	Isoprone	5	3				30 sec hold
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	6	2	12			With hands on the hip, one Leg Squat with no weight.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Core	Isoprone	7	4				30 sec hold
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	8	3	12			With hands on the hip, one Leg Squat with no weight.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Pulldowns	9	1	10	105		Grip is at the end of the bend
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	10	1	10	35		Holding 35lbs weights in both hands, do squats bending down
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	11	2	12			Holding zero weights in both hands, do squats bending down
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Pulldowns	12	2	10	105		Grip is at the end of the bend
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	13	3	10	35		Holding 35lbs weights in both hands, do squats bending down
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Pulldowns	14	3	10	105		Grip is at the end of the bend
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Squat	15	4	10	35		Holding 35lbs weights in both hands, do squats bending down
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Bicep Curls	16	1	10	20		On one leg and do Bicep Curls. Alternate legs for every 5 reps
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Reactive	Hops	17	1	15			Standing at one place, put hands down and hop and come back to same position.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Bicep Curls	18	2	10	20		On one leg and do Bicep Curls. Alternate legs for every 5 reps
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Reactive	Hops	19	2	15			Standing at one place, put hands down and hop and come back to same position.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Bicep Curls	20	3	10	20		On one leg and do Bicep Curls. Alternate legs for every 5 reps
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Reactive	Hops	21	3	15			Standing at one place, put hands down and hop and come back to same position.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Row Pull	22	1	10			Machine row pull with outer grip
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Hamstring	Lunges	23	1	20	25		Keep both feet wide apart and take one foot forward and bend down to squat position. Alternate the legs doing these lunges
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Row Pull	24	2	10			Machine row pull with outer grip
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Hamstring	Lunges	25	2	20	25		Keep both feet wide apart and take one foot forward and bend down to squat position. Alternate the legs doing these lunges
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Back	Row Pull	26	3	10			Machine row pull with outer grip
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Hamstring	Lunges	27	3	20	25		Keep both feet wide apart and take one foot forward and bend down to squat position. Alternate the legs doing these lunges
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Hammer Curl	28	1	20	15		With biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell up to elbow level and take it back down.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Lunges	29	1	20			Alternating the legs, do the lunges without any weight
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Hammer Curl	30	1	20	18		With biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell up to elbow level and take it back down.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Lunges	31	1	20			Alternating the legs, do the lunges without any weight
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Biceps	Hammer Curl	32	1	15	20		With biceps in both hands, bring th dumbbell up to elbow level and take it back down.
25-Sep-08	Back & Biceps	Quadriceps	Lunges	33	1	20			Alternating the legs, do the lunges without any weight