The other night I really didn’t feel like running.  Or doing push-ups and sit-ups.  Especially doing the push-ups.  I strongly considered tanking it and just laying on the couch.  Especially because I had a 7pm conference call for work that was going to make for a very late night.  In all honesty though, even without the conference call this is a not uncommon circumstance.

Motivation was low.  What to do?  How to make myself do my scheduled workout?  Some of you will say: “Willpower!” and “Self-discipline!”  

To you people I say: “You’re a better man/woman/person than me” and “You’re completely delusional”.

The correct answer, of course, is “self-deception” and “trickery”.  When I want myself to do something that … my … self? … doesn’t want to do, here’s what I do:  

Step 1 of getting my butt out the door: convincing myself I don’t have a choice

Why don’t I have a choice?  Because I specifically phrase my own thoughts to make it sound like there’s no choice.  Instead of saying/thinking “am I really going to go and run tonight?”, I think “I can’t believe that I still have to go run tonight”.  See the difference?  In the first one I’m admitting a choice exists – DANGER WILL ROBINSON!  I am a lazy, unmotivated person, if there’s a choice I’m liable to make the wrong one.  Choices are dangerous and bad!  In the second, I’m not admitting that a choice even exists.  But I’m also commiserating with myself and NOT trying to convince myself to actually do anything yet.  A key to self-deception is to be gradual.  The other reason that I don’t have a choice is because I’ve set up a system of public accountability, knowing that I would have to get on this blog and make some lame excuse and sound like a whiny … excuse maker.  

Step 2 of getting my butt out the door: thinking about how I would feel during and especially after the run

Key point: avoid reality.  Skip any thoughts of how uncomfortable running can be or how much getting warmed up and started sucks (a lot by the way, that’s how much).  I don’t even think about how I would really feel during the run since I mostly feel like hammered dog crap during runs.  And especially don’t think about any hills.  Yee-gawds.  Instead I think about how I could or might feel for a split second running downhill while listening to an uptempo song when my breathing was in that rhythmic sweet spot.  Even better is thinking about how I feel AFTER I’m done.  Sweaty, loose, endorphins pumping, smug and self-righteous.  That’s the good stuff right there.  Again, I wasn’t trying to make myself do anything at this point, just doing some focused thinking.

Step 3 of getting my butt out the door: getting into costume

Even before my conference call I changed out of my work clothes and put on my running clothes.  Then when my call was over I was already prepared to workout.  No barriers.  That’s the key.  Don’t try to force yourself to overcome your objections, just gradually work those barriers down until there’s nothing to keep you from going.  Even at that point I wasn’t feeling motivated, and I didn’t even tell myself that I was or had to actually go out and do the run.  Just act like all you’re going to do is get dressed.  ”Don’t worry, self, I’m not even going to try to run anymore, once I get dressed we’ll call that success and call it a night.”  My “self” really is pretty stupid.

And then since I was already dressed for it and because I knew how much better I would feel later if I did the workout than if I didn’t, I did it.

Very traditional 8 x 400m interval run tonight after work with an additional 4 x 200m sprints at the end.  I changed at work and went to a local park near the office which offered a far superior interval running experience to running on the busy, uneven streets near my home.

The detailed splits will be at the bottom of the post but overall it felt pretty good.  I might could have pushed a little harder on the work intervals, but also maybe not.  I’m not great at judging my pace or perceived effort right now.  I need a few more weeks of hard efforts under my belt to be able to subjectively judge things like that.  

I warmed up a little more deliberately tonight.  I set the workout on my Garmin to have a 7 minute timed warm-up.  I started out at an “Airborne shuffle” pace and ramped up very gradually to a moderate job.  Half way through, when my joints were feeling loosened up, I started doing some strides.  Strides are gradual accelerations up to 70-80% of your max speed concentrating on maintaining good form and decelerating back to a jog.  A single “stride” should only last 20-30 seconds and should be high focus, not high effort.  

Overall, I think the improved warm up definitely made a positive impact on my workout.  In fact, I think in the future I will probably increase the warm up period to 10 minutes and give myself more time and strides to loosen up my legs and get ready for the main set training.

The only negative is that I’m experiencing some sharp pains on the inside of my left ankle.  It’s not debilitating and I think it’s just a touch of soreness/tendonitis from the rapid increase in volume of running.  To make sure I don’t exacerbate it what I’m going to do for the rest of October (starting tomorrow) is replace the two weekly easy runs with alternate, low impact cardio (swimming and biking).  I’ll keep doing the key run workouts as long as it doesn’t get any worse and after two weeks I’ll see how my ankle is holding up and reevaluate.

Tonight’s splits:

Negative first:

• I had to skip BOTH my push-up and my strength training workouts tonight because my shoulder isn’t 100%
• I had a second bad run night in a row (this time at an easy pace on a treadmill!)
• I’m frustrated that I’m experiencing setbacks so early in the process because I have a really challenging goal and every workout is important if I’m going to achieve it
• I’m frustrated because I’ve decided I have to impose a plateau on my non-CPFT related training, specifically my strength training which I really enjoy and was going pretty well
• Stuff like this (a couple bad days, low motivation, poor workout performance, skipping a scheduled workout or workouts) can be the beginning of the slippery slope …

Positive next:

• My shoulder is feeling a lot better, not 100%, but maybe 85% and I’m pretty sure that I’ll be in good enough condition to do my “after” push-up test after the programmed rest days
• It’s still early in the run program, and expecting linear progress is a fool’s errand; There are going to be good days and bad – improvements in fitness will always come from consistent effort, but they will not always come consistently
• I think I figured out that a big part of my poor run performance the last two days has been due to inadequately warming up and I’ve got an idea of what I need to do to improve it that I’ll test out tomorrow
• My strength training is at a good place to plateau; I’m above 75% of my target goals on all my powerlifting lifts and going to maintenance mode will free up time and energy to allow me to focus on improving weaker areas and achieving my PRIORITY FITNESS GOAL OF MAXING THE CPFT
• I’m still excited and motivated about my goal and the process to get there, I really wanted to do the workouts I skipped for recovery purposes and wasn’t “relieved” to be getting out of them at all

Random last:

• I think the injury to my shoulder was caused or exacerbated during my last strength workout: I did my push-ups first (200 in 7 sets) and then lifted, which means I was trying to cram myself into a good squat position with incredibly pumped/tight/sore shoulders and chest muscles; it was incredibly uncomfortable at the time and required a lot of stretching and modification from my normal position
• 4 x 25 sit-ups tonight, doing sit-ups in FiveFingers with your feet under a metal bar is not comfortable
• Tonight’s run (I forgot to start my Garmin and then proceeded to leave my Garmin clipped to the treadmill, hopefully it will be there in the morning):                        
• I’m about to scroll back through the last two weeks of this blog to figure out what day of my 10-day PU/SU program I’m on
• I have 3-5 days to figure out my next/new PU/SU improvement workout plan

That this blog and the whole concept of public accountability and motivation through fear of the shame of public failure is paying off completely right now as I am about to leave for the most unmotivated 1600m interval run of all time.

Thank you.

That was a terrible run. Tonight was my first long interval workout – 2 x 1600m with 400m recovery intervals. I had been really looking forward to it but when I got home tonight the combination of work stress, darkness and laziness completely sapped my motivation.

Along with that my back was feeling tight, my legs tired, and I was (and still am) worried about some moderately serious joint pain in my right shoulder. Combine all this with the fact that I had no idea (or more likely a very distorted and ego-driven idea) of what pace to run for an interval that long and it was really a recipe for disaster.

Evidence of disaster:

That’s right: my two 1600m intervals combined were SLOWER than my diagnostic PT test. I felt miserable for most of the run and didn’t settle into a groove until I was into the second work interval.

And then after I stretched I forgot to knock out my sit-ups while I was in the fitness center and couldn’t motivate myself enough to go back down and do them right. Instead I just hooked my feet under the couch and 3/4-assed them.

Lessons learned:

1. When my body – especially my lower back or legs – feels tight I need to do a longer warm up, probably one that includes some strides.
2. I need to practice “getting my mind right” before I get out the door. When I was just exercising, getting out the door and sweating for 30-minutes was enough; it didn’t matter whether it was a “good” session or not. Now I’m training for a specific goal and I have to make every workout count.
3. I need to prioritize my CPFT training more heavily and redesign and reschedule my other workout sessions to ensure that neither they nor their after effects impact my CPFT training.

I’ll be thinking on these topics over the next few days and I’ll share what solutions and ideas I come up with. If anyone has suggestions feel free.

My shoulders – especially my right shoulder – really hope it’s day eight of the current PU/SU program.  I’m really looking forward to the three days off after day ten before I retest my push-ups.  And sit-ups of course, but let’s face it: this has been mostly about the push-ups.

The fact that I’m having such a hard time even figuring out what day of my program I’m on is ironic because if anything I suffer from a superfluity (I hope that word means what I think it means) of tracking and notation systems.  To one degree or another, and for one exercise type or another I’m currently using the following trackers and logs:

• Jefit (iPhone app)
• Evernote (desktop and iPhone app)
• Garmin 310XT
• Garmin Connect
• Fitocracy
• Paper journal

One could argue that the Garmin 310XT and Garmin Connect are one entity but since I track my runs (and swims and bikes) on the 310XT in conjunction with Connect but log (at least superficially) my strength training in Connect using just the manual entry on the calendar I really do use them as two separate entities.

The result of all this is that I have workout records and notes for every workout I do in one or more of these locations but ALL of the data isn’t in ANY of them.  I’m going to have to draw this on a whiteboard and come up with a better system.  Anyone have a one stop solution for all your exercise logging needs?  Feel free to let me know.

All that being said, tonight was actually a pretty good night for push-ups.  As usual I was absolutely dreading the doing of push-ups.  So I made myself do them first.  Eat that frog and all that jazz.  And I managed to do the 200 push-ups in only seven sets.  Five sets of thirty and two sets of twenty-five.  If that doesn’t add up to 200 don’t even tell me because I don’t want to know.  The same goes for if it’s not day eight yet.  Don’t tell me.  Oh, and I kept two minute intervals between the sets tonight too, just FYI.

That still counts as progress, right?

Running six miles?  Not a big deal.  Running six miles at 1100 with little-to-no-shade under a tropical sun with all the elevation in one long climb right before the turn around point along a heavily trafficked road replete with car exhaust?  That kind of sucks.  I’m really going to have to make the effort to get up early and run before the sun comes out and tries to kill me.

On another note, I am really looking forward to the end of my current PU/SU program.  The sit-ups aren’t that bad but the cumulative effect of the push-ups is really starting to set in.  My traps, shoulders and triceps are constantly fatigued.  I can still reel off 20 push-up sets throughout the day but they hurt from the get go.

I didn’t get my run schedule posted this weekend but I haven’t forgotten.  I’ll clean it up a little and write post to explain why I chose it and some of the small changes I made to it and try to get it online this week.

To the uninitiated that might appear to be a picture of a yoga pose called “downward dog”.  That would be wrong.  In reality that is a full bore push-up rest position.  I know.  I’m an expert at this position.  I failed in my effort to reduce the number of sets to achieve my 200 push-ups today but I amazed myself by reducing the rest period by 25% (from 2 minutes to 90 seconds) and was still able to knock out 20 rep sets.  So not too bad.  Although it did mean practicing my rest position a little more than usual.

Especially since I committed a cardinal sin of exercise motivation and worked out this afternoon and even knocked out my 4 x 25 sit-up sets, but DIDN’T DO THE PUSH-UPS.  ”I’m tired, I’ll come back and do them later.”  Big mistake.  Nine times out of ten that is a recipe for a skipped workout.  It almost was this time.  That’s why at nine o’clock at night I was the only schmuck in the fitness center killing myself doing push-ups.

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Now, the lacrosse ball.  That comes into play because my traps are killing me.  Some combination of barbell squats, push-ups and too much time spent at a computer (at work and at home) is killing my shoulders and neck.  They’re really tight all day, often to the point of continuous pain.  

As a result I spend a good amount of time each night leaning up against a wall with a lacrosse ball behind my back.  Moving around with the ball behind you really lets you control the pressure and you can really hit the tight spots in your traps, shoulder blades and along your spine.  Be careful not to hit it right on your spine though.  You can also use it on the floor to do your shoulders, back, hip flexors … use your imagination.  It’s like a foam roller but more localized and let’s you work specific tight spots.

If you don’t have one, get one.  Ahhhh … .