Kurt Survives Testosterone Attack Without Injury

Horrible week on the workout front. I went with Jennifer and David to the cub scout activity on Tuesday, which was firing rockets. To make a long story short, I got over 70 "chigger" bites on my legs (apparently, I was tasty), so I was in Benedryl (antihistimine) hell all week. Almost a lost cause week.

I lifted Monday and Tuesday morning, buggie smorgasbord Tuesday afternoon, and I didn't lift weights again until Saturday. So when I hit the gym, excessive (almost lethal) levels of testosterone was coursing through my veins.

I arrived at the gym, did my bench presses (last set was at 225 lbs, so I pushed myself a bit but not too much). I then went to stretch my legs and, by accident, I walked past... the hip/leg press sled. Yes, I have sworn off that device until after the marathon because in the past I have tended to go nuts on the sled, and it builds my leg muscles to the point that it slows me down. And, since my legs are plenty strong, I'm trying to trim them down, not ramp them up. The problem is that it's my best lift (by far) and I can lift a lot of weight. My max was 1250 lbs, and in 2004 I did a "show off set" at over 900 lbs in front of my wife and two oldest kids. K2 thought it was great, Heather was supportive, but Jennifer was, shall I say, less than enthused.

I looked at the machine and I tried to walk away. But, in my testosteronally psychotic state, I could hear the sled whisper my name "Kurt, baby, I'm over here, and I still love you." Before I knew it, there I was, loading up the sled and starting a set at 400 lbs. I convinced myself that I should go with very light weights (which 400 lbs is to me) because I have not used the thing since I blew my right gastroc playing basketball a couple of years ago.

Well, 400 lbs was easy. So was my next set at 490 lbs. So was my next set at 580 lbs. I struggled a bit with my next set at 670 lbs. My next set requied a lot of work - 760 lbs. So, I figured I'd do just one more set; 4 solid reps at 850 lbs. I thought about throwing some more weight on and doing a single rep at 940 lbs, but I was very tired by that point and, with most of my testosterone burned off, I came to my senses, unloaded the machine, and moved on to other lifts. Of course, this sled uses free weights, so the thing was loaded (3 x 100 lbs weights and 10 x 45 lbs), plus the weight of the steel rack (100 lbs). It took me a few minutes to unload because I had placed one of the 100 lb weights on the top weight peg, but I was so spent that I had difficultly lifting it off.

Fortunately I was not injured. Unfortunately, I was not too smart, because about 20 minutes later I hit the squat rack. Fortunately, I did my squat sets at a very light weight (135 lbs). Unfortunately, I had to get out of bed today, and my legs were in rare form: muscles aching from the pounding, skin still itching from the bug bites. Fortunately, and most importantly, I was not injured. Woo Hoo.

So, I survived my testosterone attack without injury. My legs are still very sore, but life goes on! Benedryl is a great product! It relieved the itching just fine, but it knocked me out so I slept half the week. Oh well.

Rough Week

A bit of a rough week. The knee is doing better, but 4 of my family, including me, came down with bronchitis. I was the last to fall, but after watching my wife and two of my kiddos get whacked, I went to the quack within a few hours of starting to feel poorly. I still feel tired, but did not get nearly as sick as my other fam members.

My training schedule has taken major hits in July; vacation, knee, and now bronchitis. I have had only 8 exercise days, 7 lifting days, and a measly 3 running days for a paltry 19.6 miles. I'll do about 30 miles this week and 10 in the last two days of the month, which will give me a wimpy 60 miles for the month. Fortunately, I started with an excellent base (ran a marathon in May and have run 466 miles so far this year), and I will have all of August and September, and half of October, to become fully ready.

A medium weight workout on Wednesday, starting getting sick Wednesday, and was back in the weightroom on Saturday. I brutalized myself, and it felt great. My bench press is still a bit sucky (I worked up to a short set at 225 and didn't want to push it further), but everything else seems to be improving. I lost a lot of my bench strength preparing for the last marathon, and I want to build up as much as possible, and burn as much fat as possible, before the next race.

In some ways, I'm working against myself. Weight lifting builds muscle, which increases the metabolism and helps burn fat. But, running long distances often results in the body breaking down muscle for energy (when is the last time you saw a muscular long distance runner?). Hence, my sizeable drop in max weight in the bench as I prepped for the last marathon. I tried "maintenance lifting" as I prepped the last time, but it didn't work out at all. May be my body, perhaps I didn't do it right. Regardless, it sounded great in theory, but didn't work out so well in practice.

This time, I lift regularly from lower abs and lower back up, do light leg lifting (the legs are still very strong), and have run like crazy (except July). My hope is that my body will think that I need the additional muscule and burn fat instead. Unfortunately, my fat supply far exceeds my muscle supply, and I'm getting older. Anyway, I have no intention to be a body builder, but the excess 600 pounds of fat really need to go (ok, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, I would be quite happy if I lost another 30 lbs).

Busy week (I have a trial on Monday and a sentencing on Tuesday, for starters), but I should get plenty of miles and lifting for the week.

Recovery week continues, ran hill route 1 (5.5 mi)

Wednesday, July 18.

This week's running theme is still "go slow and let my right knee recover from last week's trip and splat on the cement."

Ran hill route 1, which is 5.5 miles. Hot day (over 100F), and because of the temp I didn't start my run until a bit after 2300 hrs (after 11:00 pm). Temp as I left the front door was 87F, with a humidity of 50%.

Took it very easy, especially on the long uphill. I did one 30 second sprint split, but didn't even really sprint. I'm still favoring the knee just a bit, but it seems to be improving nicely. Family prayer has been a bit rough because we kneel, and tonight I stuck a comforter under my knee. As long as my knee hurts to kneel, I'll know that it isn't quite up to snuff.

My time tonight was 1:07:23. The last time I ran the route, which was before I banged my knee, was 1:02:44. This route is important because the upcoming Kansas City Marathon (Oct 20) has plenty of hills, and my Hill Route 1 is the "hilliest" route available to me in Lincoln. Further, this route mimics, as closely as I can get, the first 5.5 miles of the KC Marathon. So, my time on this route will be my best indicator, and planning tool, for the first 5.5 of that marathon.

I'm hoping that my knee is back to normal by Monday. We have a 5k race coming up on August 11, and my goal is to finish in under 29 minutes. To do that, I'll have to pound out in practice several of my short routes (3.3 mi), but I'm a bit wary of hard sprints until my knee improves just a bit. we shall see what we shall see.

7/16/07, knee sore but improving

Well, my knee was banged up a bit worse than I thought when I splatted on the cement last Tuesday, so I didn’t resume running until Monday. The damage wasn’t too bad, just some bruising and moderate swelling and soreness, but I’m 45, not 25. Walking was a bit of a chore, so running seemed foolish.

Went 8.5 mi tonight, but because of my knee I planned to run about 5 miles and walk about 3.5 miles, and things went pretty well according to plan. The knee is a bit sore but held up well. I’ll run gently for the next week, then mod my overall schedule so that I don’t try to run 40 miles in a week in which I’m trying to recover.

I had no time goal at all for this run, and ran the stop watch only because I always run the stopwatch. My total time was 1:54:07, but in my chart I’m recording it as a DNR (did not record) because I avoided trying to make a specific time.

I did make good use of the down time, as I pounded the weights heavily. I lifted Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. Also pounded my flabby abs (actually, I pounded the flab around my midsection so that, someday, the beautiful, well defined and highly muscular abs which lie hidden therein might someday emerge from their embarrassment for all, or at least my wife, to see.) I also did a few light sets of free weight squats. Knee was sore, but held up ok, which is a great sign! No lifting Thursday as I donated blood, and I took Sunday off as is my wont.

Lifted, but scrubbed run

I scrubbed today's run because my right knee is bruised and pretty sore from last night's fall. Fortunately, I was able to roll out of the fall, or I would have splatted hard on the cement and the damage would be worse. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Heavy lift again today. I planned to work legs, but because of my knee I changed to biceps, chest, and abs. Did 440 crunches (30 reps x 2 for my basic 6, plus 20 X 2 each for my 2 oblique sets), flys, pec deck, numerous curls (dumb bell, bar bell, and cables), lats, etc. Arms are quite sore - feels great!

If my knee is ok, I'll lift early am and run in the late afternoon. If the knee is still sore, I'll sub out the leg/lower back lifting (again), and see how it goes. I'm not adverse to scrubbing the run again, as the marathon is only three months away and I'll need every bit of that time to prepare. 2-3 weeks of down time to heal from an injury would not be good now, especially since I'll lose 1-2 weeks from Heather's wedding and I officiate a martial arts tournament in early Oct.

Vacation Over

Last day of my vacation, but hit the weights and ran.

Jen dropped me off at the Y, and the plan was to lift and then run home.

Heavy lifted at the Y, starting with bench pressing and doing shoulders and triceps. Then ran home along the Rock Island and then Hwy 2 trails.

I haven't run in a week and a half, so I decided to make it an easy run. Part of the trail was closed (surprise!), which forced me through a residential neighborhood. I am unsure of the precise total distance, but my Nike Plus recorded the distance at 5.6 miles.

Things went well until around the 4 mile mark, where I fell hard after tripping on an uneven slab of cement that was sticking up. The time was around 10:10 pm and it was quite dark outside, and I was zoning out listening to my IPod and thinking about the upcoming week so I didn't see the problem. Skinned my right knee and right elbow, but fortunately I immediately went into a roll, so my injuries were minor. My knee is a bit swollen so I might not run tomorrow. We'll see how things look when I awake.

Vacation!

Vacation from June 28 - July 10.

We drove to Texas to visit K2 and his lovely wife. He is in the U.S. Army and is stationed at Ft. Hood, which is adjacent to the city of Killeen, Texas. Had a great time. Didn't lift weights, didn't run a single time, and ate like a pig! I did mow the lawn, but that was my only real exercise. I have convinced myself that my lack of exercise was in fact a positive; I let my body rest and heal!

Pictures:

- Top: K2, David, and me next to an M1A2 Main Battle Tank on Ft. Hood.

- Below: David, as "Prince of the Known Universe" and representative of "The Imperial House of Leffler," claims the state of Oklahoma in behalf of the Leffler Family. I am "His Royal Holiness, Emperor of the Known Universe, who is Humble."

- Below Right: David (his head is poking out of the driver's position) and me on an M1A2 MBT.