Sunday, November 4, 2007

Bored...but with highlights

I guess my recent blogging habits have reflected my exercise mood: I'm in a weird, unstable, and unfulfilling state of post-season training. I do have to keep reminding myself, daily, that I'm post-season, as opposed to pre-season. But I haven't done anything fulfilling in weeks, and I find my motivation for weight training is waning. Next week I'll get out and start doing some base hours (time being more important than distance) in the three disciplines, though.

On the weight training side, I've been focusing on balancing my muscle mass and strength/capability. I do this by performing single side exercises, or non-conjoined exercises (dumbbells as opposed to bar). Single-leg press is evil. Single leg ham curls are more evil, but I'm gonna have a sweet butt from it! I digress; the main importance for doing the single side/individual effort exercises, other than symetry, is to develop stabilization muscles and connective tissues, something that can be grossly neglected in repetitive motion exercise like cycling (especially with clipless pedals) or running in a known route with little need for adaptation. Trail running would not qualify, since you are constantly changing and adjusting stride with terrain.

Anyway, through the grey of the recent training, I've thoroughly enjoyed last weekend (some AWESOME wines enjoyed with great dinner at Northampton) and Halloween with Grace. Oh, excuse me: a purple Care Bear that we walked around my co-worker/friend Shane's neighborhood. This is the first year she "got" it, and knew she was getting candy. Motivation wasn't so difficult, unlike last year. The weather was much nicer, dipping into the mid 50's I think.

Today Grace and I went and had coffee (chocolate milk for her) and bagels at our local coffee shop. That was really nice, and the owner (Dana) is again going to join us at church tomorrow. She said she really had fun last week, and looks forward to it again. Oh, and by "us" I mean Grace and I; Mendy is playing Navy this weekend. Early mornings for her, and some interesting dynamics within the leadership structure. After that, we went downtown to Carolina Triathlon to see if they had any running shoes on sale in Mendy's size, but no luck. So I had a "dirty hippie" (coffee with a shot or two, thanks Ben!) and talked fitness stuff. Then, Grace and I went and rode race cars (go-karts) at Frankie's Fun Park. She had an absolute blast, and Mendy actually drove Grace on the third time on the track. Mendy's got the pics, but they clearly show both had tons of fun! Grace loves it, and was so amped to ride them, she was urging me to drive faster and faster on the way to Frankie's. Funny stuff!

Robin had her race today, but by the time things settled, we realized it was too late to call at 9:30. She ran for probably close to 12 hours, so I'm sure she was sleeping like a baby on NyQuil by then. I'm sure the race report will be interesting, entertaining, and quite eye-opening for those of us with enough sense (j/k) not to do ultra-marathons. Not sure if anyone else raced, but I hope it went well.

8 comments:

Marcy said...

I'm not sure how to read that (of course it's early and I haven't had my coffee either so excuse me LOL). Are you unhappy with the general state of your (for lack of a better word) exercising now that you're off?

You totally should have gotten Grace the coffee. I bet it would have been a fine time after that LOL

Neese said...

The Italian professor lady said that Spanish and Italian are indeed similar but she claims it makes it easier to learn the other, she said she has a Spanish friend and they can each speak their own language and hold a conversation for an hour that's how similar they are. I have no prior language experience so I'm in the baby steps stage, but having fun with it. Sorry I missed ya'll, I ended up postponing that trip to ULTA to yesterday. We are bound to run into each other run of these day if not a planned coffee meeting. ciao! :)

Jess said...

Ah, I like a dirty hippie. Wait, the drink? Oh, I like those too.

Mendy said...

Thanks for looking for shoes for me. :-)

Go carts was fun, especially seeing how much Grace enjoyed it.

You'll get back at the exercising soon. You had such a busy season and it was go-go-go for you. Time for you to relax a little.

Unknown said...

I am not sure about this whole post season thing. You know way more about weight lifting then I do that is for sure!

Tell me about the bike intervals. I do need to have some "fun" on my bike. I am not sure to handle these dark mornings yet, I guess I need a light to get back out there. My bike is very said and lonely. :>P

You guys sound like you have so much fun on the weekends! I love it!

Unknown said...

Ok, what the heck? I posted in DH account. That was from Lisa. :>P Now I have to go and see how many people I posted on like that. LOL

Gotta Run..... said...

Thanks for the call on Sunday. That was cool!!

Stick with your training plan. you will see the benefits very soon. good luck on riding outdoors... cold weather and darkness is here already.

Lori said...

I could imagine that post-season is probably even more difficult to get into than pre-season. At least with pre- you are a little closer to your next big thing :P

Sounds like Grace is having a blast with you guys on the weekends. You guys are always on the go!