Mountain Training - Day 106 - Bike Riding and 2 milestones

How time flies! It’s been 45 days since my last post. Where to begin?

I’ve definitely been outside training a lot more. Mostly running, but doing some stairs as well. There is a flight of 50 stairs in a row that I’ve been going to and will run up and down wearing a weighted vest. But mostly I’ve been jogging.

Now that it’s nice out, it’s been hard to want to go into the gym, though I’m sure the weight lifting and other varieties of cardio would be beneficial.

I went on a 3 vacation to Las Vegas in there and managed to make time for 1 work out. I figure the miles and miles of walking I did the other 2 days counted as exercise enough.

Elliptical at the Park MGM in Las Vegas

Milestone 1:

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Last week, I felt fresh enough to try running the longest I’ve ever ran. I managed to run my first 10k and it felt great. During the run I even ran my fasted mile on mile 5 which is really crazy. I actually was speeding up on the back half. It was the middle 2 miles where I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough juice left in the tank if I didn’t slow down a bit. I ended with a time of 57:18. I ran a bit extra just because I wanted to make dang sure I hit 10 kilometers on the GPS.

Milestone 2:
After losing 15 lbs, I’ve been struggling to break 225 lbs, but yesterday I finally slipped under it at 223. I ate dinner and promptly popped back over it, but at least I have the potential to start moving down again.

Last week I finally was able to go buy a new bike so that is yet another way for me to mix up my exercise routine. This morning, I rode it to work and celebrated with the video below. I’ll be testing out more gear in the coming weeks because we are down to less than 2 months until all of this comes to a head and I tackle the mountain so be looking for more videos and posts coming soon.

Mountain Training - Day 61 - Getting Outside and Breakfast

It’s finally nice out! I’ve been making the most of it running outside a lot the past 11 days.

In fact, I ran 4 miles straight for the first time in my life last Wednesday. It felt great and I gave a little Rocky-esque arm cheer when I crossed my imaginary finish line. I ran it at a slower pace than I’m used to because I was focusing on staying in my aerobic heart rate zone, but I could have ran another mile if I wasn’t on a time crunch for dinner.

Riding the wave of good weather feel good vibes, I decided to do some training on hills with my 23 lb backpack. My goal is to do an exercise wearing it each week because I want to get used to wearing it and work the extra muscles involved with carrying it. I drove out to Pioneer’s Park and ran some laps up and down 2 hills with 60 foot elevation rises. I had an audience while doing it. There was a couple hiding behind some bushes having a picnic watching me. Then when they got up and left, another couple sat down to enjoy the sunset right at my turn around point. I just used it as motivation not to slack and walk more than I absolutely had to. 😉

It’s just over 1,000 feet to those trees

Finally, I thought I’d share with you my morning meals.

I have tried to reduce the amount of sugar in these smoothies since recording this because it felt like a lot once I watched this video back by taking a multi vitamin and lower sugar protein powder in lieu of the chocolate breakfast powder on some days.

Mountain Training - Day 27 - Cold Weather Running

Today was a rest day, but let me tell you about yesterday afternoon.

After complaining about the pain I was in yesterday, I ended up having an awesome workout in the evening. I hit up the chiropractor before lunch and that got my flow back in alignment.

I decided that the only thing keeping me from running outside in the cold was my face so I stopped by the Lincoln Running Company and bought a Sauce Frosty neck and face warmer.

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The Frosty

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As a Neck Warmer

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As a Face Warmer

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As a Pirate, err a Bandana

This thing made a world of difference. I wore it as a mask for about 5 minutes while I warmed up, but it does get hard to breath through it when you’re sucking wind, so I had to pull it down to just a neck warmer once I got going. It might not be as tight across your face, but I have a ginormous head so it fits pretty snug. Regardless, even having it as a neck warmer kept me toasty warm.

So I went out to Pioneers Park and had a great 2.59 mile run in 20° weather just before the snow came down. You might say, that’s it? Well, even when I was running 5 days a week and 30 pounds lighter, the furthest I ever ran nonstop was 3.1 miles. Baby steps.

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Let’s just ignore that slow down on the last hill 🙄

I also pulled out my Xero TerraFlex shoes for the 2nd time to give me some much needed traction along the snowy parts of the trail. They aren’t your average running shoe. They have a wide toe well, and not much in the way of padding to allow you to feel the trail better as you run. My ankles and calves are really sore after using them because I worked muscles I don’t normally use when running.

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Lots of traction. I plan to wear these or something similar on the mountain.

But the long and short of it is, it was a great workout after feeling so bad earlier in the morning. I’m looking forward to continuing to do cardio outside.

One final note. I’ve finally figured out a way to share videos with you on here and not have to host them on YouTube or pay for a service like Vimeo. It’s not perfect, but it’s at least a start. To test it and celebrate, I made a cheesy timewarp video of this run trying out more features than I should. :) Let me know in the comments if you have any troubles watching the video.

Mountain Training - Day 26 - Shoulder Pain

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My separated left shoulder

I’m in a lot of pain this morning. My left shoulder, the one that is separated, is a giant cramp. I go through this often, times of cramping with a spells of no pain in between. Today hurts and it radiates across my entire back.

I hiked 2.25 miles in the snow wearing a 20 lb weight vest and 5 lb snow boots yesterday which is what set off my shoulder and back, but I need to get used to carrying more weight than that if I want to go backpacking.

I’m not someone who looks for pity so any time I mention pain or difficulties, just know it’s because I’m using this as a personal diary of my journey as well as sharing it with you.

To catch you up since Day 4, not a lot has happened aside from me going to the gym five times a week. I do cardio, then do a variety of fitness stuff, kettlebell lifts, squats, leg raises, platform step ups, etc. I’m ready for this spell of bitterly cold weather to end so I can get outside and start training better.

Indoor cardio equipment is a poor substitute for actually running, sprinting, or climbing stairs outside. Once I can get out of the gym and into the real world, I know the number of posts will increase. I’m just in a gym rut right now waiting for spring.

On a final note today, I’ve recorded several videos, but I haven’t figured out a way to post them on my website. My site provider, Squarespace doesn’t let you upload videos to it. I don’t want to post them on my YouTube channel since they are not my normal type of videos. Hopefully I can come up with a solution soon so I can start sharing more with you.

This stuff is amazing. Better than IcyHot, Bengay or Biofreeze

I’m going to go pop some ibuprofen, lather my shoulder in tiger balm (not sponsored) and then hit the gym again this afternoon.

Mountain Training - Day 4 - Sweating

Since I set my goal to climb a mountain, I’ve been exercising 5 days a week. My first concern is to start losing weight. Over 2018, without exercise, I’ve put on 20 pounds after shedding 25 lbs the summer of 2017.

The working out part has been easy so far. My gym has a good selection of cardio equipment: ellipticals, a stationary bike, a rowing machine and my personal favorite, the stair spinner

The Stair Spinner

It’s easier on your knees and works your hips better than a traditional stair stepper

It’s hard to hold back in the Green “Aerobic Zone” when I just want to push

It hasn’t been hard to push myself for 50 minutes of exercise, elevating my heart rate to maximum levels at times.

All I have to do to push harder is to tell myself that I can’t let the mountain defeat me. I don’t know how hard it is going to be to carry my backpack over 18 miles, up and down a total of 12,000 feet of elevation in a day at altitudes between 10k-14k feet, so I just say “It’ll be harder than this” and I push on.

In the first few days with my excitement peaking, I tried jogging 2 miles wearing my my backpack loaded to 15 pounds which pushed my heart rate up to 198 bpm, which in retrospective was probably too intense, but in the determined drive to beat this mountain, I felt no fatigue until the end.

No, the thing I’ve been struggling with is adjusting my calorie intake. I’ve switched about 75% of my meals to smoothies, lean frozen dinners, and high protein options like omelets loaded with veggies, but either I’m still eating too much of those, or the other 25% is still too many calories because I haven’t lost any weight in the 13 days I’ve been at it.

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I know it takes time to achieve results, but it’d be nice to see something lost besides sweat.