Oct 28 2008
Week 3 of the 35 Day Fall Fitness Challenge
Friday: I knocked out a hike which also counted as my interval training. I hadn’t gone on a strenuous hike in a few weeks and thought I was up to tackling a local peak, Mission Peak in Fremont, CA.
Mission Peak rises steeply for 2200 feet and there is no easy way to the top. The official park brochure recommends a five hour round trip for the 5.6 mile hike. I made it up in two hours. Once I reached the summit, I spent a little time resting, having a snack and swatting gnats before I started back down. If it weren’t for the gnats, I probably would have stayed longer.
The descent is almost as bad as the ascent because of the steepness. It’s really a killer on the legs and I felt some hot spots developing on my feet. After about another 1.5 hours, I was back at my car in the parking lot, but my legs were toast and I knew they’d be sore later.
When I got home, I iced my feet and didn’t see any blisters. Yeah! But my legs were already starting to tell me they were not happy about all the activity. Boooooo! I sat in the tub for a while before bed hoping the Epsom salts and baking soda would act as a magic potion.
Saturday: OMG!!! My calves were killing me. They didn’t bother me at ALL on the hike yesterday so this was a total surprise. Instead I expected my quads and hamstrings to be hurting. My quads were a little sore and stiff, but manageable and the hammies felt fine.
Luckily, I had a Shiatsu massage scheduled for Saturday morning. I thought that would help my legs recover, but by Saturday afternoon it was obvious that this would not be the miracle cure. That’s not because Shiatsu sucks; it’s because my legs were really THAT BAD!
I managed an upper body weight training circuit Saturday evening. Legs were out of the question. I didn’t even attempt them and that made the circuits a little less intense. No intensity points for the workout, but at least I got the session in. I was determined not to skip it and felt successful that I was able to devise a weight training circuit which minimized lower body involvement while still providing a decent workout.
Sunday: OMGx2!!! I practically crawl out of bed and the first 20 steps are torture until my calves loosen up a little. I have an interval training session scheduled for today and I seriously consider skipping it. There’s no way I can run hills. No…way….in….hell!
The more I shuffle around, though, the better my legs feel. It’s inactivity which makes them seize up and feel very much like concrete blocks, except concrete blocks do not feel pain. I decide I can at least go for a walk. Maybe that will work the kinks out.
Before I’m even out the front door, the walk has changed into “maybe I can run”. By the time I get to the levees where I’m going to do my interval training, I’m trying to figure out a way I can do some “light intervals” as if there is such a thing. Obviously, I did not learn the lesson from my hike, that lesson being to take it easy sometimes and not push to the end of my limits.
I arrive at the levees and start walking. After about 5 minutes, my legs are feeling pretty good so I run for two minutes. Then I walk for a minute. Hmmm, this isn’t so bad. I’m not sprinting like I normally do during intervals, but I’m running hard enough that it’s an effort. With the recovery time half that of the work part of the interval, this could work out ok.
Again, I run 2 minutes/walk 1. Still not bad. The legs feel good as long as I’m moving. Now I’m committed to doing my normal six intervals. Since I can’t perform them at my usual intensity, maybe I’ll even tack on a few extra ones. A small voice in my head screams, “Are you an idiot? You could barely walk when you got out of bed.”
After arguing with the voice during the next couple of intervals, I compromise with it. Seven intervals will bring me to a total of 20 minutes for the interval training session. I like round numbers. I like them very much. Seven intervals it is!
All of this brings me to the final results for Week 3. I did very well beating my goal of 24 points again.
| week 3 | 10-20 | 10-21 | 10-22 | 10-23 | 10-24 | 10-25 | 10-26 | subttl | |
| Circuits/intensity (3×3pts) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | |||||
| Intervals/intensity (3×2pts) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||
| Intermittent Fasts (2×3pts) | 3 | 3 | 6 | ||||||
| Diet Coke (7×1pt) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| Walk or hike (1×2pts) | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| total | 26 | 87% |
I will hike Mission Peak again, but I’ll slow down, take more breaks on the way up AND down, and cut the hike short if I need to. I didn’t do any of those things Friday because I was totally focused on the summit. Single-mindedness is not always a good thing.
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