Team McAlister

I traded a couple hours of sleep this morning for a workout. 20-minute 2.02-mile run, and some weights. It was much needed, and I feel a little bit better about my week now. Exercise is truly habit-forming, and once I’ve gotten into the habit it is not pleasant to break it.

I got some gift certificates in the mail from Lombardi’s, so I may be able to splurge on some real running shoes in the near future. I used to sell running shoes there so I have a little bit of a customer loyalty thing going on.

No sign of shin splints or any other sort of injury today, so that’s good news. Maybe keeping the mileage low is a good idea for now.

while you’re making other plans.  If memory serves, and sometimes it doesn’t, John Lennon said that.  No, I’m not gonna fact check it; I’ll just thank you for correcting me politely, if I’m wrong.  Who said it isn’t as important at this moment as the idea that a possible corollary is: life is what happens when you’re not training.  We all have stuff that has to come first.  No platitudes, please, about priorities and always having time to train, or find a way to take care of the important things.  One of the habits of the highly successful is putting first things first.  Even if we’d rather do something else.  Today was an opportunity to get in some intervals – 15 seconds of standing sprint with 45 seconds of sitting and hammering away, then 2 minutes of recovery.  This is a slight variation outlined by Selene Yeager.  I plan to stay on this type of thing 1 to 2 days per week for the 8 weeks or so.

Tags: Intervals

For the next few weeks, or months, my training is going to have to take a back seat to schoolwork. Already, midterms are sneaking up on me like a ninja in the night, trying to catch me asleep in my Bed of Unpreparedness and murder me with a Sword of Harsh Grading after battering me senseless with Nunchuks of Innumerable Assignments. The regular workload of 12-15 class hours and 8-10 hours of homework for each of three studio classes isn’t too bad in and of itself. But in addition, I have to write, draw, and produce a full-length comic book within 8 weeks, and I’m trying to build a portfolio site where I can show my work. The comic book is going to kill me—last semester in my Comics class the pace was 1-2 pages a week, and that was tough enough with only one other class that semester.

So, I’m not going to make it to that half-marathon in April, but I will do my best not to backslide from where I am now. The main thing is to keep my grades up, otherwise I won’t graduate before we do this thing. Thanks for putting up with my bitching, I’m off to study some art history.

Today was a good day for a little lunch hour ride.  Only 15 miles in 50 minutes, but into a 10 mph headwind in the first half…of course, it turned into quite the nice tailwind on the return trip!  The best result from today was keeping my HR up around 150 for 41 minutes.  Bike riding is harder than  it looks, too.  This winter has been spent learning how to pedal in a smooth, high-cadence with light down pressure and good pull on the backside of the stroke.  It seems as though every time I go out, this element improves.

I decided that my training was in need of some serious heart-pounding, lung- burning time on the bike.  Nothing like some intervals to get your blood pumping.  After a good warm up, I started some 1 minute all-out efforts with 2 minute recoveries in between.  The main lesson from today is that a whole bunch more of this kind of day is needed.  The original intention was to use some type of plan from Chris Carmichael, but poor planning resulted in just going out and pushing myself through a few laps.

Never having been a runner, I’m not all that familiar with the attendant injuries. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to learn to distinguish between all the different sorts of pain that come with this sport. Sure my legs are going to be sore, my calves feel like they’re on fire about 60% of the time now. My upper leg muscles weren’t used to anything more strenuous than walking up a hill or an occasional bike ride. So there’s a certain amount of just shutting up and getting over it that I have to do. But the past few runs have had me worrying. All the info I can find points to shin splints, but fortunately at this point it’s not bad enough to warrant real recovery time.

I’m pretty sure that it’s my shoes’ fault. I’m running on neutral trail shoes when I definitely need at least a stability shoe, more likely a motion control, in the road variety. Maybe this week I’ll hit a few specialty running stores and get gait analyses and shoe advice. Until I can afford new shoes though, I’ll just have to back off on the running and maybe substitute biking. If it would just stop freaking raining all the time I’d put some miles on the ol’ Cannondale, but until that happens I’ll be on the stationary at the gym (ugh). Now’s as good a time as any to start swimming, I suppose, but I want to swim even less than I want to run.

Tags: equipment, injuries, running, Weather

So, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but it’s also been a long time since I’ve made any serious progress in my training. This is not the post to change that.

This is a post asking for help from our kind readers so that I can have my dream job. I need everyone to go to islandreefjob.com and rate my video highly. Every view and every star will bring me that much closer to getting the best job in the world.

Thank you for all of your support, I look forward to training with the Makos in Australia soon!

P.S.- Though my training hasn’t really moved to a new level, I have gotten better at the training I’ve been doing. TRX never gets easier, but I’ve been increasing the resistance a little each class. I’ve also been getting more confident in Krav Maga and can endure a little longer with each class.

Tags: australia, dream job, help, Krav Maga, mako shark, TRX

Took a whole minute off my 5k today. 27:24. I did the first mile in 8:03, and the last 3/4 mile at 7:34 pace. I think. Everything was a little blurry at that point. I’ll do some longer distance this week, and then next Thursday try for 26 minutes. I’m pretty confident that I can hit 25 minutes within 3 weeks, but we’ll see how that goes.

I either need to take a little more time between waking up and working out, or I need to just hold off on the coffee until after I’ve run. “Coffee slosh” is brutal when you’re trying to set a personal best.

My weight loss seems to have stalled at 7 pounds (I’m at 203 now). I am, however, losing body fat, which really is just as good. I think the disparity is due to strength training. I can’t seem to find an exact figure anywhere, but I’ve heard that muscle weighs two to three times as much by volume as fat, depending on the specific muscle and the person. If anyone knows better, please speak up in the comments!

I figure I have a couple of options to lose the remaining 13 pounds. Just reducing calorie intake would do it eventually, ditto for increasing cardiovascular exercise. Cutting back on the weight training would do it too, at the cost of muscle mass but with the result of a more compact and efficient body composition. If I were going to focus on running or cycling, I think that would be the way to go. But I’m going to start swimming again at some point, which takes a considerable amount of upper body strength. So the only reasonable path to take seems to involve eating less and running more, which totally sucks. Oh well. At my height and build, 190 pounds is exactly where I need to be if I’m going to be a competitive athlete. Also, being 13 pounds lighter would mean 39 fewer pounds of force every time my foot hits the ground while running, and based on Dad’s knee history that is pretty important to me.

Are there any nutritionists in the audience? I’d love some pointers on how to cut back on calories while still getting all the necessary nutrients. What’s a good protein:carb:fat ratio for someone training for a marathon? How many grams of protein should a 200 pound guy trying to lose weight (but not muscle) have daily?

Tags: goals, running

Last week was sort of lost due to a trip to LA. The highlights were crummy bikes in the Marriott workout room, a tour of dts Digital Cinema’s engineering department, and the porn convention at the hotel….seriously, there was an internet porn show at the hotel. Trés bizarre! Anyway, it was a good op to let my knee recover some….the trip, not the porn show. Since my last entry I’ve had a couple of good rides. Last Sunday was about 32 miles, decent pace, good rolling terrain. Nothing too strenuous and the knee held up well. Today was the bad boy though. 48 miles. 3:21 and change, about 3,000 feet of elevation gain with a westerly wind that nearly made forward progress impossible. Going East, I was a star. Knee is fine even after 4 significant climbs that averaged in the 11 -12% range – and 2 of those were directly into the teeth of the wind! It’s great to be back in the saddle and getting some quality miles in. The dodgy knee continues to improve.

Tags: cycling, health, injuries

Laura’s visit threw me off, and then it rained for a solid week, so in the past two weeks I’ve been running twice. Last week I talked about the 5k and my goals. Well, this week I made exactly no progress. 28:30, three seconds slower. I did, however, do my first 8 minute mile today. I’ll take another shot at it tomorrow and see if I can improve.

Today’s workout music was Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals. (Warning, MySpace link!) It is impossible to get bored with that album. Put a Radiohead riff behind Jay-Z, and you can hold my attention for as long as I can stand to be on a treadmill.

I broke down and bought some new workout clothes. I only have two sets of clothes suitable for running, and I got tired of washing them by hand in the sink after every workout. Next month, perhaps, I’ll finally get real running shoes. This is really just a roundabout way of saying, don’t be surprised if you see ads on the site soon.

Tags: equipment, goals, running

I’m gonna start running again as soon as it stops raining. So like, probably in May or something.

Tags: san francisco, Weather

Just a quick post to share a link with you guys. This Is Why You’re Fat is a blog about delicious and/or amazing things that you should never, ever get your hands off that will seriously kill you eat.

I thought this was a good excuse to launch a “Nutrition” category, in which I hope for us to keep track of things we’re eating and why we eat them. Training is about a lot more than just getting your exercise, guys!

Tags: health

…I’m alive, despite what you might think from my lack of posts lately.

Laura (my beautiful, awesome girlfriend) was in town last week, which meant no training, which meant no updates on training. We did, however, walk so much that my feet hurt for two days after she left, so I’m going to pretend I trained a little bit. Touring the city on foot is not only a great way to take in the flavor of the neighborhoods, it’s a great way to wear yourself out.

Today was my first day back at the gym. I did a 5K run (3.1 miles) in 28:27. I held an 8:37 mile pace for the first two miles, a big first for me. Most of the last mile, after a little walking, was a 9:30 pace, about on par for me. My heart rate was 184 for about the first 18 minutes, and for the last six or so minutes… For a little while I thought my heart might explode, messily, and that would suck because they’d probably make me clean the blood off the treadmill. My next goals are to do three miles at 8:37 pace, and then to break 25 minutes for a 5K, then to add distance a half mile at a time. At the same time I’ll stick to my loosely interpreted version of Hal Higdon’s schedule, with a weekly long run and cross training day.

I’m seven pounds in to my 20-pound weight loss goal, so that’s going well. Laura bought me a stovetop espresso pot, so I’m drinking lots of very strong coffee. I mention this because supposedly coffee, being a stimulant, not only suppresses your appetite and lowers your blood sugar but also allows you to exercise harder, longer. I’d drink it anyway though, I looooove my coffee.

I loaded up some different music on my iPod for the run today. Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is a surprisingly good running album. I’m to the point now where I don’t have to listen to Dragonforce to distract myself from how hard running is, which I count as progress. Dragonforce is still awesome though. I’m toying with the idea of reviewing albums based on how they help with a workout, so maybe look for that in the coming weeks.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how training is going. After a week off I was still able to accomplish a personal best, and each goal I set I accomplish fairly painlessly. Maybe I should be setting the bar a little higher, but I like feeling like it’s easy to be awesome.

Tags: health, music, running, san francisco

…my name might be Gimpy.

A day after completing this ridiculous 20-mile run, I’m still a bit stiff and sore.  I’ve got some tightness in my left hip flexor, and my left ankle isn’t feeling too grand either.  Interestingly, both knees are fine, as is the right ankle, which earlier had been giving me trouble.

So, 20 miles.  We’re having this heat wave up here:  55 degrees on Saturday, 56 today, 63 tomorrow!  But yesterday there was a bit of a break in the warmth–it was about 35 degrees with a stiff south wind.  I set out at approximately 2:00 p.m., headed east to the lake, turned north for about three miles, then went back south.  I did this because there’s only one water fountain along the lakefront path that stays on through the winter, and I wanted to hit it about midway through the run to refill my water bottles.  Going south, I reached said fountain at about the eighth mile, and continued south to the Museum Campus, where I turned around and went home.  This divided up the run into four somewhat equal phases.  Map of the run here.

Phase One:  Home to Foster Avenue
Mild stiffness in the left ankle to begin the run.  A slight fear that I’m not wearing enough clothing.  I wear UnderArmor tights, running shorts, a long-sleeved microfiber shirt, running gloves, and my new technical fleece hat.  (This new hat is much, much warmer than the one I lost in Arkansas.)  Also my long-run socks and the new pair of shoes.  Running into the wind without an UnderArmor top, this ensemble is a little chilly.  Some mud on the path at the lakefront, but heading north, the path is mostly clear.  The south wind, at my back, makes this part of the run very easy.  Belmont Harbor is still frozen over, which makes it a little like an air conditioner.  Phases two through four after the jump. Continue Reading »

Tags: Chicago, clothing, equipment, gu, hydration, long run, running, Weather

something valuable – power, wisdom, Ding Dongs? Well, whatever else may accrue to me, I’ve learned that running as a recreational activity is not in my future. Here’s the deal: I know I can make a half-marathon distance at a 14 minute or slightly better pace. I also know that a shorter, faster run jacks up one knee pretty badly, at least right now. So, the plan now is to continue training on a very moderate program. “Real running” will only occur as an element of an actual competition. I need to have a much deeper running base and a lot less weight to stay serious about this. Today was a nice, short little ride that helped recover some athletic motion in the bad knee. About 18 miles. EZ pace. Nothing spectacular, but it was better than sitting on the sofa.

Tags: cycling, health, injuries, running

but it’s for the best. Afterall, when one’s race pace amounts to a 13:06 mile, humility is an easy virtue to cultivate. Today’s scheduled run was 4 miles at pace. A nice warm-up was followed by 2 miles of actual running, 1 mile of walking, and a final running mile. Several observations include a definite absence of sore calf muscles, a longer stride, a more confident foot-strike, and better overall looseness. However, the knees are organizing a revolt. A coup d’ patella is brewing on the horizon. (Probably at the behest of free radicals lurking the neighborhood.) I intend to win the hearts and minds of my rebellious body parts with generous applications of ice and Aleve, stretching, and recovery time (thank you bicycle!).

Tags: health, injuries, running

Well, I did it. It took me 1 hour and 47 minutes for a blazing 5.05 mph average. I walked a pretty significant chunk of it, because it turns out that running on pavement hurts. I also stopped twice to stretch, for the same reason. This would seem to indicate that I have no idea how fast I’m running or how to pace myself, because if you factor in the walking and the stops I beat the pants off my usual treadmill average. I think I made it through with no injuries, save the beginning of a blister on my big toe. I will definitely have to get new shoes if this is going to be a regular thing. Suggestions are more than welcome!

The route I took is beautiful. I should have taken my camera, maybe I’ll do that next week when I repeat this insanity.

Tags: running, shoes

Hey, remember when I said I was going to run 9 miles today? I lied. The opportunity arose to go for a bike ride with some friends, so I postponed the run until tomorrow. It’s probably a good thing, I feel like my knees needed the reprieve.

We went to a neat little cafe called the Velo Rouge for lunch. As you might imagine, it’s very bike-centric. Funky bike racks and a pump outside, SFBC stickers all over, and lots of old pictures of Tours de France. My favorite was of a rider lighting a cigarette for the rider next to him, that’s what I mean by “old pictures.” The coffee and the food were both outstanding, I might have to stop eating out altogether so I can make Sunday brunch there a regular thing. They have a t-shirt with a picture of a bike on it that says “53 miles per burrito.” I really need that shirt. I wear a large, by the way 

Tomorrow I will be trying for 9 miles, for real.

Tags: bicycle, bike, biking, cafe, food, health, san francisco, velo rouge

Last weekend was abysmal.  There were weather issues, there were health issues, there were injury issues, there was all kinds of work-related busy-ness issues.  The long and short of it — short, really — is that I missed both my weekend runs, one of which was an 18-miler.  Now, given that I’ve got two 20-milers scheduled for the rest of this cycle, I’m not too worried about it.

This week was a “step-back” week, meaning the long run is shorter, as are some of the mid-week runs.  It’s meant to help the body catch up and recover in preparation for another push upward in mileage.  Considering that I missed 26 of the miles I was supposed to run last week, I was already kind of stepped back.  But nevertheless, I followed the plan–5 miles each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all on the Tropical Rainforest Treadmills in the University of Chicago Amazon Gymnasium.  Well, not really, but they do keep it hot in there.  And when you’ve gotten used to running in like 12 degree weather, 75 is really, really hot.

Yesterday I did an 8-mile pace run, actually beating my projected marathon pace (1:08:32, for an average pace of 8:36, 24 full seconds faster than I hope to run in the race).  It was “warm” outside — 34 degrees — and I used the balmy weather as a chance to practice my pace out of doors and to start to break in my new pair of running shoes, the ones I’ll be racing in in March.

Today I did 13 miles.  I was trying to keep it slow, because, you know, that’s what they tell you to do for the long runs.  I ended up averaging 9:19/mile, which is probably 20 seconds faster than I should have taken it.  But it felt like I was slogging along and would never get anywhere.  I’m tired and all, but I really felt like I could have pushed it harder.  Which is probably how I’m supposed to feel at the end of a relatively easy week.  Today’s run totaled 2:01:02.  Splits after the jump.

My first 20-miler of this cycle is in seven days.  Let’s hope my ankles make it.

Continue Reading »

Tags: Chicago, equipment, health, long run, running, shoes

But I have a clean, sparkling aquarium with happy(????) although mostly brainless critters. That’s because I missed the estimate of how much water I took out and when I started replacing it, I didn’t have enough…..so off to the aquarium store for more water. That’s a 1 hour drive round trip, which completely blew my whole schedule. Oh, yes, I could’ve worked it out, but the karma today was encouraging me to take the day off. One knee is swollen and cranky….waiting for the Aleve to kick in. What a lazy pig. lol