Snowing again today.
AM – mill. 2 mile warm up, very very easy and then 10 x 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off. Dropped the mill from the obligatory 1.5 to 0 percent grade for these to help force some turnover. I counted the turnover a couple of times during the reps and it was coming in at 185-188 ish. I started the 2 minute efforts at 10.9 mph (10-15 second build up on the mill) – or 5:30 pace (I think?) and brought it up a tenth every rep to 11.8 (5:10 pace?). 2 mile very easy warm down. Some weight work post. There is a pretty big difference in what I can push for quad extensions and what I can pull for hamstring curls. Decent workout on whole … I was definitely doing some work at paces above what I am used to, but I could find myself working into a comfort there.
An entire marathon in a gas mask. Crikey. And it is faster than my Pikes Marathon. Crap.
I took a health risk assessment questionnaire today. Loads of good questions … how many minutes a week do you exercise where you are lightly sweating, but can speak comfortably? How many minutes a week do you exercise where you are sweating profusely and are unable to talk comfortably? How many drinks a week do you consume? Do you ever experience significant fatigue or shortness of breath? Have you ever eaten the door off the fridge?
Tomorrow I have a biometric screening to complete the assessment. All this is to get me a reduction on my health care premiums.
I was thinking on yesterday’s run of some of the “classic” moments we have seen in endurance sports over the past summer, fall season – both good and bad. Roes coming back to win WS100 after a slugfest with Tony and Kilian, Tony melting down at Leadville and Callahan getting his second Pb win, Macca holding off Raelert at Kona in the closing miles, Geb pulling out at NY and then “retiring,” Randall’s 2:09 debut in the Ascent after ripping everyone’s legs off in the start, Carpenter’s 17th win on the big hill … and those are just a very few of the “big names.” Lots of other things in the head that I think about when I consider epic performances over the last year, particularly outside those big names.
A good podcast on keeping the head in the game
Amazing story with the gas mask soldier.
ReplyDelete"How many minutes a week do you exercise where you are sweating profusely and are unable to talk comfortably? How many drinks a week do you consume?"
Ha! You could probably shock the hell out of the people collecting the results from the survey with just those two answers.
I think you might be in good enough shape to qualify for a discount :) Do they accept SportTracks data in lieu of a questionnaire and exam?
ReplyDeleteMy toughest challenge is staying under the physician-recommended 10 drink per week limit in Microbrew Heaven.
Races: There were some exciting ones. This was the first year I paid much attention to trail races, ultras and for that matter running blogs. Also the first year I followed an all-day event on Twitter/Facebook (MT100). That was fun.
Yeah, here is the thing with those risk assessments and these biometric screening that sort of piss me off: all you need to do is fill them out.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, to qualify for an adjustment to your premium you just need to fill them out. It actually does not matter if you are actually living a healthy life style or not.
So I could say I don't exercise for shit, drink excessively, work a lot, am totally stressed out, smoke, and huff off the back of my car and still qualify.
(technically, there is actually a discount for taking a smoker's free pledge - but that is the only one).
What if there was a pledge to do a marathon? Or to exercise 30 minutes a day six days a week?
Whatever. I should have taken the survey that way actually. That way I could probably qualify for all sorts of coaching assistance, and then be applauded for improvement.
(or I might just be grumpy because I cannot eat this morning because of this biometric screening I have later).