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| Oh Stairmaster 7000 PT Stepmill, I love you dearly. Note: The unicorns are imaginary. |
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Workout Type(s): Stair climb and strength training
(core workout).
Miles ran: I have no
idea, but I climbed stairs for two hours.
Next time I will keep track of how many floors I climbed.
Where: The Gym,
in Englewood, New Jersey. Yes, I am a member of a gym that is called The Gym. However, The Gym is so awesome that I even felt compelled to write a yelp review: (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-gym-englewood)
Temperature: Room
temperature.
What I
wore: Delaware Water Gap Fatt (yes, that’s two T’s) Ass 50K long sleeved
tech shirt, Addidas tights, random white socks, Bondi Band headband
Sneakers: Brooks Ghost 5.
How I Felt: Good and bad. Good when I was just climbing stairs one at a time. Bad when I was skipping stairs.
What I thought about while running: Being inspired by Ted talks and not allowing myself to support myself with the side bars. Also spent some time composing bad haiku.
Sneakers: Brooks Ghost 5.
How I Felt: Good and bad. Good when I was just climbing stairs one at a time. Bad when I was skipping stairs.
What I thought about while running: Being inspired by Ted talks and not allowing myself to support myself with the side bars. Also spent some time composing bad haiku.
Food consumed: A banana
and peanut butter smoothie.
Notes: If I could climb stairs all day, I would.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Workout Type(s): Tempo run and strength training (squats and lunges and things that made me really sore today).
Also met with my chiropractor and acupuncturist.
Miles ran: 7.5
Where: The Gym, in Englewood, New Jersey.
Temperature: Room temperature. Duh.
What I wore: Google long sleeved tech shirt (Thanks Rob!), random black shorts, random white socks, Bondi Band headband.
Sneakers: Brooks Ghost 5.
How I Felt: Generally, I felt pretty good, but then the bottom of my right foot started to hurt again towards the end of the workout.
What I thought about while running: Tried to do a more meditative run; I put Aha's "Take on Me" on repeat and concentrated on my breathing and being present.
Food consumed: A banana.
Notes: Although I’m not a huge fan of the dreadmill, I prefer using it for my tempo workouts because it forces me to work that much harder. As I am trying to make each and every workout count, this is a good thing.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
No workout yet.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Workout Type(s): Tempo run and strength training (squats and lunges and things that made me really sore today).
Also met with my chiropractor and acupuncturist.
Miles ran: 7.5
Where: The Gym, in Englewood, New Jersey.
Temperature: Room temperature. Duh.
What I wore: Google long sleeved tech shirt (Thanks Rob!), random black shorts, random white socks, Bondi Band headband.
Sneakers: Brooks Ghost 5.
How I Felt: Generally, I felt pretty good, but then the bottom of my right foot started to hurt again towards the end of the workout.
What I thought about while running: Tried to do a more meditative run; I put Aha's "Take on Me" on repeat and concentrated on my breathing and being present.
Food consumed: A banana.
Notes: Although I’m not a huge fan of the dreadmill, I prefer using it for my tempo workouts because it forces me to work that much harder. As I am trying to make each and every workout count, this is a good thing.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
No workout yet.
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| Stairmill without unicorns. |
I love the stairmill at my gym. In fact, I have composed several haiku on how much I love the stairmill:
(Forgive me, I composed these while I was on the stairmill.)
climbing forever
I cannot touch the hand rails
that would be cheating
stairmaster stepmill:
a killer workout while I
read Robert Jordan.
biggest machine in
the gym, will it give me legs
like a unicorn?
Don't worry, they get progressively worse ;).
In case you have never seen a stairmill, it is a stairmaster machine on steroids that actually has stairs and not lever-type things. While folks can get an excellent workout using a regular stairmaster, it doesn't do much for me because I never seem to take large enough steps to simulate the actual climbing I do when I am on the trails.
Reasons why I love using the stairmill:
(1) The stairmill gives me a darn good workout as long as I don't touch the handrails. Once I use the handrails, I am not really climbing with my entire weight and then, what's the point?
(2) I move smoothly enough on the stairmill that I can actually read books. As some of you know, the last book of the Wheel of Time series has come out and because I have been busy with work, training, and life in general, I decided to be super disciplined and didn't order it right away. Unfortunately, two days ago, I succumbed to temptation and placed an order with Amazon and according to the shipping tracker, it has been delivered to my house. However, I promised myself that I wouldn't read it unless I was on the stairmill. Looks like I will be on the stairmill a lot the next week or so.
(3) I never have to wait to use the stairmill. We have four stairmills at my gym, and it's incredibly rare to have more than two people on them at any time.
(Forgive me, I composed these while I was on the stairmill.)
climbing forever
I cannot touch the hand rails
that would be cheating
stairmaster stepmill:
a killer workout while I
read Robert Jordan.
biggest machine in
the gym, will it give me legs
like a unicorn?
Don't worry, they get progressively worse ;).
In case you have never seen a stairmill, it is a stairmaster machine on steroids that actually has stairs and not lever-type things. While folks can get an excellent workout using a regular stairmaster, it doesn't do much for me because I never seem to take large enough steps to simulate the actual climbing I do when I am on the trails.
Reasons why I love using the stairmill:
(1) The stairmill gives me a darn good workout as long as I don't touch the handrails. Once I use the handrails, I am not really climbing with my entire weight and then, what's the point?
(2) I move smoothly enough on the stairmill that I can actually read books. As some of you know, the last book of the Wheel of Time series has come out and because I have been busy with work, training, and life in general, I decided to be super disciplined and didn't order it right away. Unfortunately, two days ago, I succumbed to temptation and placed an order with Amazon and according to the shipping tracker, it has been delivered to my house. However, I promised myself that I wouldn't read it unless I was on the stairmill. Looks like I will be on the stairmill a lot the next week or so.
(3) I never have to wait to use the stairmill. We have four stairmills at my gym, and it's incredibly rare to have more than two people on them at any time.
In an ideal world, I would run the trails every day and I wouldn't need to use a stairmill, but I get out of work when it is already dark and too late for a smallish person to be running by herself on the trails. In a somewhat ideal world, I would have access to a very tall building and I would climb real stairs, but I live in the Jersey suburbs. The tallest building I have in my climbing arsenal is my house and I only have three floors to work with. Therefore, my best option is the stairmill. And I think it's a great alternative.
When I was thinking of training for Grindstone 100 (unfortunately my dancing-in-high heels-induced stress fracture happened and so I opted for an easier race), an ultrarunner friend Mark Leuner gave me some tips on how to prepare for the gnarlier 100s. Since Grindstone (and all of the really epic 100s) involve climbs that can take hours-long, he suggested that I supplement my normal training with stair climbing, skipping every other stair and going slowly so I am less likely to burn out. I think he suggested an hour, and that's what I started with, but now I climb for two to three hours and it's made me a lot more confident about dealing with races that involve a lot of vertical. By the way, Mark has a fantastic blog with great race write ups that you should totally check out. (http://tuff-it-out.blogspot.com/).
My current workout plan has me doing these stair climbs every other week, so hopefully as the months go by, I will be able to take on the stairs more quickly. That being said, I am not going to go overboard with the speed and injure myself. I have come to terms with knowing that I will never be a fast ultraunner, and that my real strength is being able to endure. So I am going to massage that endurance muscle as much as possible by doing lots of long climbs on stairs and on the trails.
Thoughts? Comments? Any suggestions on climbing workouts or how to capture a unicorn?
My current workout plan has me doing these stair climbs every other week, so hopefully as the months go by, I will be able to take on the stairs more quickly. That being said, I am not going to go overboard with the speed and injure myself. I have come to terms with knowing that I will never be a fast ultraunner, and that my real strength is being able to endure. So I am going to massage that endurance muscle as much as possible by doing lots of long climbs on stairs and on the trails.
Thoughts? Comments? Any suggestions on climbing workouts or how to capture a unicorn?
