The "WK" Playlist debut

WKH  - this week's playlist - 


Dan says  "live to your own soundtrack... Blaze your own trail!"

1. "Barroom Hero" - Dropkick Murphys
2. "Heresy" - NIN
3. "On The Mountain"- Throttlerod
4. "Thunderhorse"- Metalcalypse
5. "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"- Dropkick Murphys
6. "Same Direction"- Hoobastank
7. "A Will To Exist"- Burning The Day
8. "Head Like A Hole"- NIN
9. "Song 2"- Blur
10. "Die Walkure"- Wagner
11. "Requiem Aeternam"- Mozart
12. "Down With the Sickness"- Disturbed
13. "Just One"- Hoobastank
14. "Confusion"- New Order
15. "Faint"- Linkin Park

"I would suggest staying out of lane 1.  It is for your own safety."

The coming week (Jul 10-16)

This is what is on tap for the coming week.

Sunday- will be a rest-carb/load-stretch day.

Monday- ("O dark thirty") Early morning crawl, 6 miles.

Tuesday- Stretch and Ab workout.

Wednesday- Part A, Mt. Van Cott 6338 feet (1932 m; Part B, Mt. Wire 7137 feet (2175 m)

Thursday- Recovery and stretch

Friday- "Friday Night Sprints"  - an unknown number of accelerations, 300m sprints, and stairs (total 8 miles)

Saturday- Recovery 2 - Saturday night - Ice Hockey baby!


GAME ON!!!


The only question left is Can I hang with me?!?

Pain and determination (July 8)

Last night I returned to the track.

When I showed up, it was noticeably empty.  It was a little later than I had wanted, but life - things come up that need to be done.

I decided this week I am going to start pushing on the workouts at the track.  It will still hurt.  I need to use some care when pushing - as the danger of injury is always lurking.  I have moved to a point that reconstructing sprint or endurance workouts, at least partially, is an acceptable risk.

This is complete with proper warmups, more stretching, and now I can add calisthenics.  It seems a little on the crazy side to many - not the least - the other people at the track.  Usually a few joggers (who last from 30 - 45 minutes) or walkers who last about a half hour on average.

There was more sun, but with partial cloud cover not as much as two weeks ago.  I was able to pull off something resembling a proper warmup and this confirms the state of the body.  Too bad it doesn't look better.  But after confirming many pounds lighter and seeing my blood pressure trend all the way down to 'normal' range is encouraging.  It certainly took long enough on both counts.

I was definitely on my toes today.  I was able to finish off an 8 turn workout of sprints.  I probably pushed a bit too hard today.I can feel a couple of knots in the left calf, which has been especially susceptible to injury - but it is a good sign of the increase in muscle strength.  Of course for the others at the track to see an obviously fatter man to go screaming by at a full sprint is probably not the most thrilling thing in the world.  Of course I am not there for them, this is about me getting to where I need to be.  Push the lungs, make them expand beyond what they can do - is the only realistic way to get them whipped back into shape.

Trying to get used to people using the track, without knowing proper track etiquette - is a rather frustrating prospect.  The faster you are going, you are supposed to be closer or all the way to the "inside" lanes of the track.  Of course people bring their kids, most armed with bicycles or foot scooters.  And then there are the people who bring their 'little dog' syndrome pets who think the track is their personal home ground they need to protect from any person who even looks at the track.  (I reserve further comment on this.)  Several people bring their dogs - and most of them behave very well, as a dog person myself, I have no complaints.  If it doesn't bite me (nor act like it is going to bite me) hey it is a public place. Some are quite friendly.

Last night was a lot of stairs.  In two weeks, I will break out the "leg-stair" workouts.  I think at that point I will have lost enough weight that I can push the tendons in my legs further than they have been in a decade.  In the meantime I want to make sure I don't risk any major injuries of that type.  A sort of wait and see how this week goes. 

If the next two weeks go well, I may just peel the the top off a case in three weeks.  This would mean that I would reach into the closet, pull out the spikes, and do some serious "toe" sprinting.  The track is a beautiful mondo surface track now.  Gone is the nasty black fiberglass that wears away.  In that case, I will most likely scare a few people.  As it is, I can accelerate for about 180 meters, and full out sprint (although much slower than I ever was before) for 130 meters.  Not to get ahead of myself, but I may be pulling 300's in a month, and possibly 500's by the end of summer.  So far so good.  As the weight slims off the pulls get faster and the workouts can get more serious.  All bodes well for the start of over-distance by September.  That will help to line me up for a couple of 5k, 10k shots in the fall.  Hopefully with improved times.  Even finishing a 5k at this point would be a big step.

Time to get serious and start putting some 'workouts' together - finally.  A decade in the making.  Progress is good.  Planning is key.  Perfect practice makes perfect.  This journey is not and will not be perfect.  It just needs to be the right kind of journey for me.

The 4AM patrol (July 5)

Let us just say that I do not react well to loud, successive explosions.  Sure it is just the 4th of July and people like to celebrate with fireworks, it is understandable.  A career of dodging similar sounds...  it was a bad weekend.  I got about 4 hours of total sleep.  The thing is, in other places, explosions mean you are up preparing for the next bit, and at 150% alertness for 2-4 hours AFTER each additional explosion.

Bottle Rockets = incoming artillery
multi-explosive color wheels = incoming zip rockets
firecrackers = eerily familiar to AK-47 or SKS bursts
then there are the roses = sound like friendly flares, starclusters usually marking shift-fires or signal flares
cherry bombs = grenades or RPG impacts

Of course where I live, people are not real considerate on any count and this mischief goes on until 2 or 3 in the morning.

So for the Fourth this year, as the Sun crawled behind the mountains, I put myself out for the night early.  I ran a loud fan and tv for background noise to help dampen the 'outside activity' that had kept me from sleeping all weekend.  It worked.

I woke up around 4.  It was some pretty good sleep all things considered.  I was not pulled from sleep by noise, which was precisely my point after all.  I figured, I had taken a weekend off, no time is better for a run than right now.  I pulled out the gear, and went out the door.

It was only about a 4 mile run, but it felt good.  Cool summer air, it was dark, and no one was out - not yet.  A few cops passed me as I trotted down the sidewalks in my unconventional gear.  There is always something surreal about that.  I have an old "torch" flashlight, that will blind the jeepers out of about anyone or anything.  It is an effective thing to have.  It happens to not be dangerous by most standards and can double as something else in a pinch.  By the last mile, I had attracted the steady interest of the cops.  After the 4th pass, and they slow down as they pass me, you know you are being watched.  Frankly a little funny.  It must have been the almost all black get-up.  But I carry ID, in case they decide to be more curious.  I can't say that I blame them, the area is crawling with with, misguided teenagers.  I used to be one myself.

At the end, it felt good.  A solid workout.  The stamina of the core muscles continues to improve.  There will always be the latent soreness and what not.  It is what it is.  But that is to be expected, I know this whole venture is going to just hurt on many days.  The nature of things.

Mosquitoes and Sunburn (June 24)

I arrived at the track early.  The sun was just baking.  No worries, another hard day of workout.

After managing to get up on my toes a few times, it just felt good.  The body is starting to accept the workouts.  Certainly no more happy about them, but when muscles are being somewhat cooperative - this is not a small victory.  These days every victory is important.

It was a good solid workout, and I knew I was going to be sore.  But this has never been about the easy path.  There is no pampering on the track.  You push hard, until you can't push anymore.  Then you push a little bit more and turn the volume down a notch or two.  Once the reserve is back, you turn the volume back up.

A three hour workout, you can't go full speed for the entire duration.  As much as these are about the workouts, they are also about the building up the stamina.  The darker side is the realization that there needs to be more mental focus, more grit, more determination.  It is a practical restoration of many things lost or shattered.

This also means that I must fight through the hot spots, blisters, aches, and sore muscles.  They are all required.  Pain is not some cliche, it reminds you of the simple fact you are alive.  It also happens to be a barometer of measurement - measuring progress.

Of course even with good (dark Mediterranean) blood, it has been many years since my skin has been exposed to summer sun for hours.  The result a nice sunburn.  It turned to a very deep tan for about a week before peeling.  Par for the course.  Due to that I took the weekend of the Fourth off.  My body probably needed the rest anyway.