Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in ironmatt's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, September 12th, 2009
7:00 am	Saturday Date: 09/12/2009 Time: 07:00 Duration: ~1:15 Location: Anderson HS track Sport: Running Workout: 30min w/u, 6x400 @dream 5k pace RPE: 14-16 Weather: Marvelous, around 70 and raining People: Alone Comments: I love this weather. I know I might be alone in this, but even in any other year I would be happy doing any of my workouts in the rain. This was a steady rain, and no signs of lightning. Perfect for a track workout. The workout was 6x400 at my "dream 5k pace." As Amy points out, I've probably had a dream at some point of doing a 40 minute 5k. She's helpful! Instead, I decided to aim high: a sub-18 5k would be nice, even if a bit unrealistic, so I shot for that with the goal of 1:25s. 1: 1:20 2: 1:28 3: 1:25 4: 1:21 5: 1:22 6: 1:21 When approaching that level of effort, it's hard to know when fast is too fast. For mere mortals like me, at least. :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
6:40 am	Sunday Date: 08/30/2009 Time: 06:15 Duration:2 hours Location: Bull Creek Greenbelt Sport: Trail Running Workout: 1.75hr base run Distance: No clue RPE: 12-13 Nutrition: 2 Gu, 28oz water, 4 saltstick caps Weather: Mild, low 70s, pre-dusk People: Alone, running into Roger's HCTR crew up the bluff Comments: My first real trail run in nearly 8 months. I had a lot of worries, about not remembering how to run, or where I was going. In the end, the only thing that went wrong was that my shoes (which had a total of 3 runs on them -- including the Sunmart 50MI) caused me some horrid blisters. That was cope-able. The part that really brought down my run was: R.I.P Ken's Loop. Some utter douchebag has decided that he owns the bluff, and has buried the trails with brush and put up a barbwire fence around *his* lot. This lot being a completely useless piece of sloped land, with nothing but a steep bluff and a trail that crosses it. Made me so damned angry. Yes, it's his right, and also his right to be a dickhead. Anyway, I did a modified Ken's starting at Spicewood, and made a circle out to Valburn to get around asshat's house, jumping back on the first trailhead at the court. Across the bluff, and down into Bull Creek, back across Inga, and up through the sanctuary up Jester, then back to the car for a time of 1:48. I had to immediately switch into bike gear and head out for... --- Time: 08:10 Duration: 2:42:00 Location: 360 / Dam loop / Cuernavaca (wonderful, btw) Sport: Cycling Workout: 2.5hr Base ride Distance: 57mi Wattage: 278av Cadence: 85 av, practiced from low 60s on climbs and high 110s for descents RPE: Moderate, 12-14 Nutrition: 3 Gu, 6 salt stick caps, 48oz water,28oz gatorade endurance Weather: Very good, mid 70s and still. People: Alone Comments: A pretty decent ride. I've been aching to do something a bit hard lately, and this is getting me well on my way to that goal. Doing great on the strength training, I just need a job that doesn't dominate my entire life, leaving me feeling drained every day. I've got to believe that better days are ahead. (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
6:20 am	Saturday Date: 08/29/2009 Time: 06:20 Duration: ~1:15:00 Location: Anderson HS track Sport: Running Workout: 3x(1x800 @3:00, 2x400 @1:30) w/400 recover each Distance: ~8mi total Speed: 6:02/mi Cadence: 165 RPE: 14-16 Nutrition: 2x Gu, 20oz water Weather: Cool, mid-70s People: Alone Comments: Skipping ahead a few workouts in interest of staying current -- the latter half of last week was a wash anyhow. Another early track workout. It was almost chilly when I first left the house. It's disturbing to realize that mid-70s now qualifies as chilly. Did an easy 1.5mi warmup over to Anderson, and got myself established with two sets of drills+strides. I say established since there was a bootcamp-type group there, and several people weren't familiar with track etiquette. No problems to speak of, just some inappropriate lane use, and the wrong direction a couple times. My intervals went much better than I anticipated. The week featured several late nights (and mornings) at work, so my expectations were somewhat low. My first was a touch slow, and my second-to-last 400 was definitely a push, but they were all within times I can be happy with. 1: 3:02 2: 1:28 3: 1:29 4: 3:00 5: 1:29 6: 1:29 7: 3:00 8: 1:32 9: 1:24 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
6:30 pm	Tuesday Date: 08/25/2009 Time: 18:30 Duration: ~1.5 hour Location: Barton Springs / Zilker Sport: Running Workout: 10min w/u, 6x 2 segment relay, 10min c/d Distance: Erm, 3mi + 6k? Weather: Hot, then heavy-duty downpour. 104 start, 86 end. People: TxFe Comments: Work's been really rough lately, so I've been hitting the coffee a bit harder than I should. This isn't helping with my already poor hydration state. I was a bit more tired from my morning tempo run than I thought I'd be, but in the end it turned out to be a decent run -- largely due to the 10 minutes of intense downpour and wind. God, I love running in the rain. This workout was setup similarly to the times we've run Rainbow at Pease park: triangular course, have first person run two sides hard in forward, the other jog easy back to the prior corner. When first person arrives, they swap roles; second person now runs two segments hard, first recovers to prior segment. A good workout, and Jim crushed me on splits. He's really become a speed demon. (Comment on this)
8:00 am	Tuesday Date: 08/25/2009 Time: 08:00ish Duration: 20:20 Location: The 'hood Sport: Running Workout: 20 minute easy run Distance: 2.7mi Weather: Mild, low 80s People: Alone Comments: Just an easy morning run to shake my legs out. Kept it relatively easy to keep fuel for tonight's quality workout. It's definitely starting to be cooler in the mornings, even if only by a couple degrees. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
7:05 am	Monday Date: 07/24/2009 Time: 07:05 Duration: 60 minutes Location: Pure Austin pool Sport: Swimming Workout: 4x200@3:45, 4x150@2:45, 4x100@1:45, 4x50@:45 Comments: Back on the posting bandwagon. This swim was a test of sorts; I'm not a good paced swimmer at all, and generally don't pay attention of lap times. Jamie wants me to change that, and this was a test to see if the times he gave me were realistic. Things went well until I got to the second half of the 4x100s, where I ended up with 5 seconds of recovery or less between sets. When I got to the 50s I would either finish right on :45, or worse. I'm guessing we'll need to add in 5-10 seconds. (Comment on this)
Friday, July 17th, 2009
7:15 am	Friday b>Date:</b> 07/17/2009 Time: 07:15 Duration: 60 minutes Location: Living room Sport: Cycling Workout: 60 Min easy spin Distance: N/A RPE: 12-13 Nutrition: 28oz water, 28 oza GatoradeEndurance Weather: A/C People: Alone Comments: A good spin. I got to watch some of the better Tour stages on the tivo. Sadly, I'd forgotten just how quickly the novelty wears off. I was ready to hit the roads, but it would have taken even more time, on a day where I'm already pressed. Also, I noticed that I had extremely chafed the inside of my upper arm a the swim last night. It's really going to be with me for a while, and very annoying.. The bad part: Due to many factors, I bailed on the following weight work, and just concentrated on core prior to bed. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
6:30 pm	Thursday Date: 07/16/2009 Time: 18:30 Duration: 1.5hr Location: Emma Lake Park / Lake Austin Sport: Swimming Workout: Wave start practice, group start sprints Distance: ~2000m Weather: Hot, 104°, cool water People: TxFe Comments: A tough workout mentally. I've been trying to ease myself back into swimming with others, and this was full immersion. My swimming is slow as hell still, and I got passed by literally everyone out there, but my left shoulder's starting to get much more range of motion such that I'm getting some overhead extension. It's still wide to the side on stroke, though, and I caught several people trying to pass me. I felt awful, but this was practice for mass swims. To prove the point, in the middle of the sprints I caught a heel in the nose. Nothing broken, all good. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
4:30 pm	Wednesday Date: 07/15/2009 Time: 16:30 Duration: 40:00 Location: Pure Austin (dreadmill) Sport: Running Workout: 40 minute base run as w/u for weights Nutrition: 40oz water Weather: A/C, mid 70s People: Alone Comments: Having brought only my road shoes, and due to the fact that it was 104 outside, I decided to do my w/u on a dreadmill rather than the Quarry trail. Overall it was ok, but wasn't feeling overly energetic. I did get to watch some of the Tour recap, tho. --- Time: 17:40 Duration: ~hour Location: Pure Austin Sport: Strength training Nutrition: 40oz water, 1 Gu Comments: Pull ups! Well, with -100lbs modification. A start, though. It was decent workout, if a bit rushed. This week at work has, frankly, sucked, and every afternoon's featured last-minute late meetings. Type reps/count weight Pull-up 2x10 -100 Bar dip 2x10 -52 Squat 2x20 200 Leg press 2x20 250 Decline press 2x20 25L/45R Delt press 2x20 25L/45R Leg Extension 2x20 75/ea Hamstring Curl 2x20 75/ea Lat pulldown 2x10 70 Weighted calf 2x16 85/ea Quad lift 2x20 100/ea Hip Abductor 2x20 100 Hip Adductor 2x20 100 Back raise 2x20 N/A Weighted Abs 2x20 110 Hip flexor 2x10 N/A (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
6:30 pm	Tuesday Date: 07/14/2009 Time: 07:15 Duration: 33:15 Location: Pure Austin - Quarry Lake Sport: Swimming Workout: 30 minute easy swim Distance: 1400m Weather: Warm air and warm water, both in the 80s. People: Alone Comments: Just an easy swim to help PT my shoulder. I really should have started earlier, as I was reminded just how much I hate sighting into the sun on the horizon. I felt really tired and was glad when it was over. --- Time: 18:30 Duration: 1:20:00 Location: Barton Springs Sport: Running Workout: 15min w/u, 3x (3x downhill FAST), 10min c/d RPE: 14-16 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 50 gallons water Weather: Hot as fsck, 104° People: TxFe Comments: Andrea was feeling sympathy for our fourth week in a row of 100+ running, so did some last minute modifications to make it shorter and sweeter. I have a feeling we were going to do the hills we skipped last week, and no complaints here. It was still a rough workout. I think I'm starting to feel my workload. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
6:45 am	Saturday Date: 07/11/2009 Time: 06:45 Duration: 2:25:00 Location: Home, 360, 2244, a bit of 620. Sport: Cycling Workout: 2 hour base ride Distance: 48mi Cadence: 90av RPE: 12-13 Nutrition: 28oz water, 40oz Gatorade Endurance, 1 Gu Weather: Hot, sunny, low 80s to low 90s People: Alone Comments: Overall a decent ride. My first 50 minutes were pretty rough, slow to warm up, and generally weak feeling. After that, I could really feel my quads/hams returning and it got more fun. It's giving me faith that I'll someday return to where I was last fall, and I just need to be patient. The biggest problem I'm having on the roads is getting passed and letting them go. Time: ~09:30 Duration: 24:52 Location: The 'hood Sport: Running Workout: Post-spin leg shake Distance: 2.7mi Weather: Hot, low 90s. Comments: Just a quick transition and cadence practice. (Comment on this)
Friday, July 10th, 2009
3:30 pm	Friday Date: 07/10/2009 Time: 15:30 Duration: ~1 hour Location: Pure Austin Sport: Strength training People: Alone Comments: Good but a bit rushed due to time commitments. A slight increase in counts today, but otherwise still trying to ease in. One major plus was being able to do bar dips. Well, at -100lbs, but it's a start. The other big plus was seeing Michelle G. and her bun working the weights! Next week, maybe pull-ups. Type reps/count weight Bar dip 2x10 -100 Squat 2x20 200 Leg press 2x20 250 Decline press 2x20 25L/45R Delt press 2x10 25L/45R Leg Extension 2x20 75/ea Hamstring Curl 2x20 75/ea Weighted calf 2x20 85/ea Quad lift 2x20 100/ea Hip Abductor 2x20 95 Hip Adductor 2x20 95 Tricep pull 2x20 40 Back raise 2x20 N/A Weighted Abs 2x20 110 (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
5:45 pm	Wednesday Date: 07/08/2009 Time: 17:45 Duration: 1:00:00 Location: Living room Sport: Cycling Workout: High cadence duration spin. Cadence: 95-100 RPE: 13 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 48oz water, 24oz Gatorade Endurance Weather: Warm, 88° People: Alone Comments: Spent the hour watching the TdF Stage 4 video, which was awesome and energetic. When I hit the hour mark, I quickly transitioned into some running shoes and headed out for an easy but high-cadence short run. Time: 18:45 Duration: 22:24 Location: Hood loop Sport: Running Workout: high-turnover short run. Distance: 2.88mi Speed: 7:46/mi Cadence: 170+ RPE: 15 Nutrition: 20oz water. Weather: Hot, sunny, 104° Comments: My legs were actually feeling great from the start; the extra cadence on the bike makes such a huge difference. Despite having drank a 20oz bottle of water on the run, I was parched arriving at the final hill in the run, and finished feeling like I had a mouth full of dust. This heat shit's hard. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
6:30 pm	Tuesday Date: 07/07/2009 Time: 18:30 Duration: ~1.5hr Location: Barton Springs Sport: Running Workout: 20min w/u, 10x1 minute all-outs, 10 min c/d RPE: 15-18 Nutrition: 30oz water Weather: Hot, sunny, 100° People: TxFe Comments: The dreaded 10x1s. This was the first workout I ever did with TxFe, when I almost puked by the sixth one. This time, instead of running through Zilker on Stratford, which was closed while they re-sod Zilker, we ran it on the grassy area between Zilker and the Mopac bridge. The goal was to go all-out on each repeat, keeping just enough in the tank to hold or slightly decend with each repeat. And no sandbagging. The first five went well enough, adding about 5yd in distance with each. On the sixth I could start to feel some burn in my hamstrings, as well as fatigue in my lower core. Through the eighth I kept steady on ground covered but was really beginning to crank up effort. When the ninth started I was nowhere near recovered and my heartrate was still in the 150 area. Halfway through I simply lost my kick and came up about 10yd short. Tenth, I was wheezing and ended about 20yds shy. Oi. Regardless, a good workout -- sometimes humble perspective is just what's needed. Plus, I do love the speed. (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
9:25 am	Sunday Date: 07/05/2009 Time: 09:25 Duration: 38:56 Location: NW Austin Sport: Running Workout: 5 mile tempo Distance: 4.74mi Speed: ~8:12/mi Cadence: 165 RPE: 12-13 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 8oz water from fountain Weather: Hot but not as humid, low 90s People: Alone Comments: I woke up pretty sore from the prior two days' workouts, so considered bagging and taking it as a recovery day. After sitting on my butt for an hour, though, I realized that this is precisely the practice I needed so got out there and started. I had originally planned on 8 miles, but decided to compromise by dropping distance in favor of a bit of tempo work. In the end it felt great, but I could really feel that beer I'd had the previous night. I know it was pretty hot out, as it has consistently been lately, but it didn't feel nearly as bad. Maybe the humidity is finally dropping a bit. Or, maybe I'm finally getting acclimated. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
6:15 am	Saturday Date: 07/04/2009 Time: 06:15 Duration: 1:58:50 Location: Home -> Bee Caves -> Balcones Route: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=303757 Elevation profile: 4607ft climb, 9060ft total change Sport: Cycling Workout: 2 hour moderate hill ride Cadence: 85-100 RPE: 12-15 Nutrition: 20oz water, 20oz Gatorade Endurance Weather: Warm, mid-80s to low 90s, approaching sunny People: Alone Comments: Karen was having a cookout at her house following her athletes' run, and the cost of admission was a 10lbs bag of ice. My plan for the morning was to do a 2ish hour ride followed by a 30ish minute run. So, I struck out just after 6 with the plan to pick up a 10lbs bag at the local kwiky mart, ride to 360 and head south to Bee Caves, turn around and head back north, and then take Old Spicewood / Yaupon / Tallyran up into Balcones. I carried the ice in my tri backpack, along with my running gear and it was mostly comfortable, if a bit high-profile. Considering The extra weight I'm carrying currently, an extra 15lbs wasn't a deal breaker, and was actually kind of fun. Arriving at Karens, I dismounted, pulled what was left of the bag of ice from the backpack (about 7lbs) and dumped it in her upper pool (make-shift ice bath), then transistioned into my run gear... Sport: Running Workout: 3.5mi run Duration: 28:50 Cadence: 165 RPE: 13-14 Nutrition: 20oz water, 1 Gu At first I was concerned at how fatigued my legs would be from yesterday's weights, and they were sore. BUT, due to the cadence work on the bike, I started out feeling pretty good, which quickly became fantastic as I was able to keep the cadence up and have a decent kick. Still not fast, but it's progress. Afterwards, it was a long pleasant dip in the pool, breakfast tacos and chatting with folks I hadn't seen in ages. Good times. Current Music: Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (Comment on this)
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
3:30 pm	Friday Date: 07/03/2009 Time: 15:30 Duration: ~1 hour Location: Pure Austin Sport: Strength training People: Alone Comments: My first time back in the weight room in a long time, and it took quite a while to get this done, since they had completely rearranged the weight floor, adding some machines and removing some. I dialed back weights to 60-70% for most stations so that I don't wake up Sunday unable to move. Several stations I had to skip entirely due to my shoulder, like pull-ups, but others like the deltoid press worked ok as long as I reduced the weight considerably for that arm. Now that I know the new layout, next time should go much quicker. Type reps/count weight Squat 2x16 200 Leg press 2x20 250 Decline press 2x16 25L/45R Delt press 2x12 25L/45R Leg Extension 2x20 75/ea Hamstring Curl 2x20 75/ea Weighted calf 2x16 85/ea Quad lift 2x16 100/ea Hip Abductor 2x20 95 Hip Adductor 2x20 95 Back raise 2x20 N/A Weighted Abs 2x20 110 Oblique crunch 2x20 60/ea Hip flexor 2x16 N/A (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
3:30 pm	Thursday Date: 07/02/2009 Time: 15:30 Duration: 1:10:38 Location: Pure Austin / Quarry Lake Sport: Swimming Distance: 2800m Nutrition: 1 Gu, 22oz water Weather: Hot, sunny, 103° People: Alone Comments: My first open water swim of the year. I decided to go out and shoot for an hour, and if I felt good I'd try for four laps. At the end of my third lap I knew I'd be good for one more, so knocked it out. Slow but steady. I haven't been religious about my core the last few evenings, and I could tell towards the end of my fourth loop when my hips began to hinge a bit. Otherwise, it felt pretty good. Well, other than having a swim cap full of sweat. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
6:30 pm	Tuesday Date: 06/30/2009 Time: 18:30 Duration: ~1:15:00 Location: Barton Springs Sport: Running Workout: 20min warmup, 20min tempo Distance: 2.5mi, 5000m RPE: 11, 13-16 Nutrition: 1/2 Gu, 30oz water Weather: 90, very humid People: TxFe Comments: My first speed workout since being back, and while it was only tempo work, it was tough. We broke up into two groups, the fastest did the top Zilker loop, and the others did the pool loop. Being so recently returned, I was with the pool loopers. We were told to do 20 minutes of tempo, with intensity increasing slightly each loop. If we finished our respective loop with at <= 18 minutes we were to do one more. 1: 4:23 2: 4:26 3: 4:30 4: 4:20 5: 4:20 I didn't do very well with the increases, but managed to decend on the last two without dying (barely.) At the end of the workout Jamie asked if we had learned anything. I had learned that when it was 100+ for two weeks and then rains, it's ungodly humid. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
5:30 pm	Thursday Date: 04/16 Time: 17:30ish Duration: 38:20 Location: Hood Sport: Running Workout: 5mi easy run Distance: 4.57mi Speed: ~8:27 Nutrition: Coffee, not much water, a couple oranges through afternoon. Weather: Warm and overcast with cool breezes and drizzle. Somewhat humid. People: Alone Comments: A good run. My shoulder's been giving me some very bad challenges recently, and I've got to start running again in order to build support muscles in there through non-impact, aerobic exercise, and to help break out of the heavy scarring deep within the shoulder. Energy felt fair at beginning and felt like I might be pushing a bit. By end of first mile I was feeling a little dog, but knew I could creep up my pace a bit without modifying my form in a way that would cause pain/discomfort, so played with that within safe boundaries. My state of cardio is far, far down and is going to take some coordination to bring it back up to snuff. That said, while I was pushing some boundaries out there, I felt both that I was keeping my form in check, pace in mind, and was getting a good, sustainable workout. I'm excited to do some more aerobic work in the morning. (Comment on this)