Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Hanging out with all the boys

at the, all together now...

Y

M

C

A

Wooooooo!!!

Anyway, Leah and I had an off day from running yesterday so we decided to do some hard-core strength training. Currently, we are on the one-day-a-week plan which is really the two-day-a-week plan but we never make it to the gym on Fridays. This weird life thing keeps getting in the way.

So, this may shock some of you out there, but I'm not a huge guy. Some might go so far at to call me "skinny," although I prefer "lean." Sure, lean implies a certain muscular definition, but it is a much nicer word than skinny and I'm writing this so I get to use whatever words I want. Still, I do not aim to deceive. Let me break it down for you.

Just to give you an idea, here's a recent picture of me. Now don't get me wrong, I'd like to be stronger...I'd like to look like this. However, this requires the lifting of many heavy objects which is really annoying, because they are all so heavy. But I'm doing it. I'm making the trek down to the Y on a weekly basis, slapping a 5 spot on each side of the bar, and pumping away. As you can see, I'm already starting to see some results.

Okay, lest you think I'm a bit of an idiot, let me assure you that I do realize that going to the gym so infrequently isn't going to result in my getting any bigger. Besides, with all the running, I can barely eat enough calories to maintain my weight, let alone get bigger. So, I'm okay with not getting any bigger (that's three sentences in a row with the word "bigger" in them. Anyone have a thesaurus handy?), although I hope to increase my strength a bit with this added gym time which will help with the long runs. After the marathon, I may take advantage of the forced reduction in mileage and work out 3-4 days a week and try to actually increase my muscle mass. After all, if I want to one day qualify for Boston, I'm definitely going to need a bit more general stength. Then I can call myself lean and people won't get all frowny and confused and wonder who I'm talking about when I use this "lean" word.

Later this evening we have 8 miles with 4 at our lactate (lactic? lactose? I'd better look this up) threshold pace. The plan is to warm up for 2 miles, run our 15K pace for 4 miles, and then cool down for 2 miles. The Pfitz book gives two routes for running the lactate (yes, I checked, that's right) threshold pace. For slower runners, they suggest running those middle miles your 15k pace and for faster runners they recommend your half marathon pace for that interval. Now, I certainly think we're fast, but I sort of doubt Pfitz does, so I think we definitely fall in the 15k pace zone. Furthermore, we want to run the marathon at about the same pace as our half marathon, so it wouldn't make sense to run a tempo run at that same speed. We'd never get faster doing that.

So, the plan for those 4 miles is to maintain an 8 minute pace, which is what we did at the Fort Wayne 12k. This run sounds pretty damn challenging; I can't wait.

12 comments:

ShoreTurtle said...

The before/after photos do show your increased muscle mass. Keep up the good work. People should avoid making your angry though, you might turn green and rip off your shirt. ARgh!

Triseverance said...

hahaha you guys definetly have the goofy guy Straightman (woman) thing going on.

I fear those Lactating Threshold runs. I am thinking about the same pace. I need to slowly build to that however. Good luck!

Triseverance said...

And by the way why in Pfitz to "slower" runners aka me run the LT runs at a faster pace 15k then the "faster" runners. That to me makes no sense to me. Can someone explain that one?

LeahC said...

I think the deal is that you run whatever pace you can hold for about 1 hour. For the elites & fasty people this is abot their half marathon pace. However for us, it's probably closer to the pace you would run for a 15K or so.

I don't think it's fastness or slowness, I think it's which pace you can keep for an hour which is different for the fast and slow runners.

Joe said...

Jason, I've seen your pictures. You ARE lean, not skinny. BTW, I'm not g@y. And 4 miles at 8 minute pace? You guys can do that on one leg!

Jason said...

BTW, I'm not g@y

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

LeahC said...

And 4 miles at 8 minute pace? You guys can do that on one leg!

Thanks!!! I'm nervous though....but way excited.

Nic said...

I put on muscle easily... It's taking off the blub on top that I seem to have so much trouble with. Good luck lifting the heavy objects!

Iron Jayhawk said...

You've got quite the artistic Skillz, Jason.

You two amaze me with your discipline though. We want your secrets this weekend. When Mike and I get home we're all wanting to sit around and relax...motivate us!!

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

And 4 miles at 8 minute pace? You guys can do that on one leg!

Joe's comment left me wondering, have you and Leah ever considered entering a three-legged race?  I'll bet you'd do terrific.

LeahC said...

hahah....ah but it is the coordination of any kind that we are lacking :-)

Anonymous said...

Love the pics! I wish I had such artistic talent!