Tag Archive: plyometrics

Bound to return

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Sat. November 20, 2010

After a bit of an extended break from the class, today I decided to return to plyometrics class. If you recall, that class contains a lot of explosive movements like jumping and bounding. It’s kind of hardcore. See, early on I made a conscious decision to let that class go. I think I was just doing far too much in terms of physical activity. Marathon training alone was enough to sap my energy stores. In order to prevent complete burn out I had to scale back on certain things and find more time to just get rest time in order to recover. I don’t regret it. If I didn’t get rest I wouldn’t have made it through my two marathons and one half marathon in 1.5 months. Well, now that my physical activity is sort of cut down I figured it was time to return. It’s kind of ironic though–even though I’m probably doing less physical activity, I seem to be busier than ever. How the heck am I managing?

This morning I woke up with the goal of attending class in mind; I felt determined. When I got there, people seemed happy to see me back. There were a lot of comments about how I looked like I lost a lot of weight. Yeah, I have, but I don’t think I look much slimmer from the last time I was there. Still, who am I to brush off such comments, right? The person running the class pushed us a little bit harder than she normally would have. I don’t have anything to compare against, but other people in the class were saying that they were definitely feeling it. There was a point where we were doing something of a 10 minute cardio circuit with a lot of bounding and jumping. I really was out of breath from about midway. I pushed through but I eventually had to take a few seconds out of the circuit to just recompose myself. We did a lot of burpees through the hour, which really wore me out. Seriously, I can’t believe what a difference a month or two away made. I figure that I would have been able to handle the circuit a little better a few months ago. I guess that’s why I’ve come back anyway. I really want to work on getting my fitness back up. Sounds a little odd considering that marathons require a certain level of fitness themselves, but this is different. All in all, I think working on this will make me more well-rounded. So, I’m back. We’ll see where this takes me.

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The body can handle it

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Sun. April 25, 2010

In terms of running, it’s normal for people to have on and off days. Hopefully, off days are kept to a minimum, right? That’s not to say that the days when I’m not feeling so great are useless. I mean, there’s usually a good lesson of some sort to be learned from a rough outing. Conversely, good runs are entirely useful for providing a great confidence boost. Oh, but all of that is obvious, isn’t it?

I remember a couple of weeks ago, I had a particularly rough run that eventually lead to a really nasty migraine. Ultimately, that’s what tends to happen to me when I don’t do the proper preparations before hand. On those runs I really question whether I have it in me to go farther and start encroaching on the larger distances. I mean, I suppose I have the ability, but the confidence is truly lacking. Well, last Sunday as well as this Sunday I was really aiming to not have a bad run. I did all of the necessary precautions and, yes, those runs were certainly much more comfortable–even to the point where doing extra kilometres wasn’t that big of a deal. Just like last week, close to the end of the scheduled 18 kilometres I decided to add two more to round thing out. Both times, I felt quite awesome. After both of these runs I was feeling so good that I still made it over to my plyometrics class just because I was able. Despite doing both, I’ve come out of the plyo class feeling quite relaxed. Ultimately, what this tells me is that my body and mind both seem to be getting used to all the work I’ve been handing over. Apparently my musculoskeletal system can handle the strain. That’s good news. I mean, aside from a day when my body is truly tired, if I ever feel like I’m just incapable because my body just can’t handle things I know that it’s more of a mental thing than anything else. That’s kind of a comforting thing: it means that the training is paying off. Guess all of that time put in has been useful after all.

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Learning how to kill time

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Sun. April 18, 2010

I really need to work on my time killing techniques. Seriously.

This morning I got through our scheduled 18K run. It was actually quite awesome. The night before I had the sense to load up on water. Yes, I had to pee in the middle of the night, but seeing as how I didn’t have the nasty throbbing headache after the run I say it was worth it. I was feeling so good that I even added two more kilometres to make a round 20. Nice. Yes, I was tired but not thoroughly fatigued. Does that distinction make sense? Anyway.

I had plans on heading to my plyometrics class but I had an hour and a half to kill. I started to wonder what I should do with my time. I decided to head to the big Chinese supermarket to browse around. I also knew it’d be a good opportunity to get some food to replenish my stores prior to the class. Sounds good, but when I got there I was pretty much assaulted by all of the smells of good food. I ended up getting a small dim sum combo that had a few pieces of siu mai and har gow. Upon walking past the sushi bar I ended up getting a combo with salmon sushi, tuna sushi, and California roll. A quick round through the bakery encouraged me to pick up some whole wheat croissants and some carrot bread. Seeing as how I seemed to be picking up a good amount of food, I had the sense to pay for my stuff and get out of there. OK, so it’s not like I planned on eating everything I bought right away, but the fact that I got a lot for what was meant to be a time killing act, and even left sooner than I wanted indicated to me that this wasn’t the best of choices. At least, if I were to go there again I’d need to plan things out and take my damn time through the aisles.

With an hour to kill I drove down the road to a small mall that I was sort of familiar with. Last time I was there was a few years ago. Back then it seemed to be on some sort of tipping point where it could choose to become something a bit cooler, or tumble into dead mediocrity. Well, upon my revisit many storefronts were closed and the demographic was definitely older. The only people I saw there were old people getting their exercise indoors. One of the anchors of the mall is an outlet store with discount fashions. I took a look around and proceeded to walk right out. I’m not trying to be a snob, but…really? I’m totally not the target for that place. In the end, I just got back to my car, rolled down the windows and proceeded to listen to music for about half an hour.

Yeah, so that didn’t go as well as I was planning. I think next time I should just head to Best Buy or HMV. Sure, I can continue to try to search around in hopes of finding some secret place only visited by people in the know, but what’s the point? This is a battlefield where it’s not worth fighting the battle, don’t you think? Bah.

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Possibly overdoing it

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Sun. January 24, 2010

Some days I wonder if I’m starting to overdo this whole fitness thing.

No, for God’s sake I’m not bragging. Ugh.

I sometimes fear that I’m doing way too much and that my body just isn’t strong enough to handle all of the strain that I’m placing on it. As the coach for the half marathon clinic I’ve really been trying to be on top of my game. I mean, it’s important for me to set an example for everyone else, right? This late into this training cycle, our distances are now up to 16-18K. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It burns a heck of a lot of calories. My heart rate monitor claimed that I burned 1800+ cals on this morning’s run. Also on Sundays are those plyometrics classes. I just don’t have opportunities to take that class at any other time during the week. So, I’ve really been training myself to be able to handle that strenuous class even after having done several hours of running.

Today, after I finished the route, instead of heading back home for a pit stop I decided to hang around north of the city and visit a Tim Hortons to down two cups of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I figured that I needed something to make me not feel tired and something to help me refuel. It’s a good thing that I did that prep work; I actually came out of plyometrics feeling strong. That class burned another 650+ cals. Combined with running, that’s simply a lot of exercise in one day.

I worry. Will my body just rebel one day and tell me that enough is enough? Probably not, but it’s still something I need to observe. For sure, I don’t mind the side-effect of burning a large amount of calories. It’s a factor that’s really helped me to shed some weight. If I continue at this rate though, will I become all sickly? I figure that it’s very possible that something has got to give. It’s a good thing then that I’m doing my best to keep my body healthy. I’ve recently started taking various vitamins and minerals in supplemental form. They should help to keep things in great working order, no? If I somehow fall along the way though, I’m quite sure that someone will tell me. All I can do is to try my best.

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Hardcore discomfort

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Mon. January 18, 2010

I think I really put a heck of a lot of effort into yesterday’s run and subsequent plyometrics class because I’ve been really sore since this morning. It’s not even with only one muscle group. I can feel it in my glutes, quads, hamstrings, inner thighs. As you can imagine, moving around was totally difficult today. Sitting down anywhere was an ordeal. I’ve had to slowly lower myself until I kind of just plop down. After work, I decided to try to walk it out, but I totally felt every single nuance in the sidewalk’s slope. Even the slightest uphill section became this large mound that I had to tread gently on. I couldn’t hold my usual stride, so all of my steps were slow and deliberate. I walked like this all while at least attempting to maintain some semblance of control and/or dignity. It’s all I could do.

On the one hand, I’m just plain tired and wish that I didn’t have to deal with this discomfort. On the other hand I know that my leg muscles will become even stronger after they recover. That will help me out immensely when running. So, I guess that means that I’m willing to just put up with it all. The only other times that I’ve dealt with such discomfort have been right after my large races, but even then the discomfort from those is usually localized. I just haven’t had so many leg muscle groups affected all at once before. It’s a strange feeling.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day. Hopefully I’ll be better off by tomorrow morning or else my run later in the evening is going to be torturous.

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Running, sliding, jumping, squatting

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Sun. December 27, 2009

Some days I seem to be more of an overachiever, perhaps against better judgment, when it comes to this whole healthy thing. This morning I had my usual Sunday long run. I picked out a nice 14K route for everyone that was sort of challenging. There were enough uphill and downhill parts to keep everyone guessing. What made the route all that more challenging was the fact that the temperature was hovering around freezing, to a few degrees above that. What that meant was that there were a lot of frozen patches on the sidewalk from melted snow refreezing, or from collected rain becoming slick. I had many close calls today. There was one slip where I must have travelled 1′ on ice on one foot. It’s a wonder that I didn’t have a bad accident. Someone posited that it might be because I’m too busy keeping an eye on everyone else. Someone else joked that it was only because I was obviously clumsy. Frankly, I think it’s a bit of both.

After the first kilometre or two we’d all spread out into small packs running at particular paces. This time around my pod had about four others running at my pace. You know, one great thing about now having a little bit of speed is that I’m actually able to run with other people. I remember back when I was starting out I always had a bit of a complex when it came to group running. I knew I was slow so I didn’t want people to deliberately slow themselves down just to keep me company. In my mind, everyone has goals to reach for; I didn’t want to be the reason for someone not reaching his or her goal, know what I mean? So, this morning because of everyone the time just flew by. Before I knew it we were on the home stretch. Perhaps if I were to run it on my own it would seem like forever. I was sort of afraid that I’d find the run difficult. On my way in, on the highway I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to bring my water bottle. So, I was going without hydration for the whole distance. I at least knew that I could look forward to getting water as soon as I got back to store, right? That would have been true except they’d run out of cups by the water cooler. What kind of cruel joke was that? Hah. I just ended up rushing back home to get my fill.

I would have been ready to take a nap as soon as I got back, except for the fact that I wanted to go to that plyometrics class. After my first experiences there, I decided to get a set of ten drop-in classes. So, I really need to make use of them whenever possible. Besides, they’re just fun. I knew that I’d get my butt kicked though. I mean, after all of the energy spent running fourteen, would I have anything left in the tank? I had no choice. The class had me breathing hard right from the beginning. All of the running and jumping was draining. One part of the class had us doing some work on a Bosu trainer. That thing is great for working on stability for sure. Ever try to do a plank on one of those? Yeesh. We were also jumping on and off the thing, as well as doing alternating squats on it. I gave it all I could most of the time, but there were many times I had to take a few seconds to gather myself together. By the end, I was pretty ragged and soaked with sweat, but man, it was all worth it.

So, it’s now evening, and really I’ve been lying on the couch for a good part of the day. I developed a decent headache about mid-afternoon. It was the type of headache that I only got when I haven’t been eating enough. Yeah, my caloric intake was out of whack with my expenditures. I had a decent pasta dinner, and now I’m just trying to recover. I guess I was a little bit hardcore today. Once in a while it’s a good thing, no?

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Initial aches and pains

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Tue. December 1, 2009

Well, this entry is just a little follow up to Sunday’s plyometrics class. Indeed, like everyone said, I felt sore today. The way everyone was talking about it, you’d think that I’d be incapacitated. I’m not in such rough shape though. The soreness is basically what I might feel after any new workout. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’ve felt worse soreness after my first half marathon.

Where am I feeling it? The bulk of the discomfort is in the inner thigh and the part of the quadriceps on the inside of the leg. A quick check online tells me that it’s the Vastus Medialis muscle. When I have to sit down, I have to take an extra moment or two and slow down my movement. When I get up, I can feel that my lower abs are also kind of achy. Despite all of this, I still made it out there for my run. At the start of the run I was very conscious of what was feeling sore, but as I got going I was able to ignore it all. Go figure.

So, days later I’m still happy to have done the workout. I’m seriously considering doing it on a regular basis. The instructor said that the first class is always tough, but even the second class tends to be 50% better. If that’s so, then I know I can take it. I just need to get over my initial aches and pains. No worries!

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Explosive power

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Sun. November 29, 2009

Well, this morning’s run wasn’t really that bad at all. I was kind of dreading it because I had a really rough sleep. I have the work pager this week, and it’s been relatively quiet all week. Then, all of a sudden at 1:45 a.m. last night it started beeping at me. I looked at it and it was complaining about something that it shouldn’t have been complaining about. I got up out of bed to head to my laptop to do some rudimentary poking around. So, I groggily wandered to the keyboard to start checking, but then the pager started sending up more alerts. It was a downright barrage of critical errors. I sent out an acknowledgement email that I was up looking at things. Seriously though, the alerts were pointing to something that shouldn’t even be working so I was confused. My living room was cold. I have my thermostat set to drop the temperature to 62°F at night. The lack of heat was messing with my sinuses. I was clogged and miserable. As I was blowing my nose, I got another barrage of alerts, but this time they were reporting that all previous issues fixed themselves. So…basically I got up in a panic for nothing. I didn’t get back to sleep for another half hour after that.

Anyway, like I said, the run was all right. It wasn’t awesome though. The whole way my legs were feeling particularly leaden. The feeling never really lifted throughout the whole 9 kilometres. I wonder if it’s because I decided to wear pants instead of shorts this morning. It was 0°C out there, but I think I would have managed. Even through all the problems, I still felt fine by the end. I kind of wanted a nap, but I knew that I didn’t have any time for that. See, later in the afternoon I was planning to do a plyometrics class. Instead I brewed some coffee knowing that I’d need all the help I could get to make it through.

Back on Wednesday, a fellow runner invited me to a free class at a dance and fitness studio that she goes to. For a while she’s been swearing by this plyometrics class that she’s been doing. Seriously, she’s been toning up for the past few months, so I figured that it would be worth checking out. Plyometrics are all about those big movements of explosive power, right? It’s full of leaps, bounds, squats, hopping, etc. It’s crazy! I knew that it would be heavy on leg and core movements, so I was really curious to see how I’d hold up. I figured that I wouldn’t make a big fool of myself. I mean, despite the fact that I have weight to lose, I have nice and meaty legs, and I have a decent core even if it doesn’t look like it. Plus, I had some experience doing plyometrics from grade school, and I still look back at it as a fun activity.

So, I made it there and met my running friend. Besides her the class had three others in it who all looked fit. I mean, while we were waiting two of the guys were doing fucking hand stands. I figured I’d be the odd one out, being the overweight one. As the class went, every time a new movement was introduced I just gave a wry smile. Then, I joined the line and just had at it. To my surprise, even if I was a little unsteady I was sort of able to keep up. I wasn’t careful to breathe enough though, and by the end of some sets I was a little light headed and winded. I also neglected to bring water, so my mouth was pretty dry through most of it. The rest of me though was soaked, my reputation as sweaty guy held up.

Hop hop hop hop hop.
Squat, jump! Squat, jump! Squat, jump!
Lunge, lunge, lunge, lunge.

At one point something of an obstacle course was set up. I just looked at it in disbelief. I made it through though, even if I was lacking grace. Squat, jump! Burpees! Rolling down an incline! Frog squats! Push ups on a Bosu! Crazy, man. I went through it three times. By the end I was exhausted but happy just to have completed.

By the end of the hour I felt like I had accomplished a great deal. My muscles were just a little sore, as they should be the first time they’d do a new activity. I was warned that everything would ache in a day or two, so that remains to be seen. Honestly, I was very impressed with the class, so I’m actually considering doing it on a regular basis. This could be the cross training activity that I’m looking for. If it helps me out on this health journey I’ve been on, then I’m for it. I need to relax now. We’ll see how I feel when the morning rolls around.

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