part of the fun of training a lot is you get to come up with theories for how to make wild improvements and attain your dreams. It's these theories that get you excited about more training because you realize that you've finally figured it all out and everything will come together perfectly.
my latest and greatest theory came about through observing climbing. I've seen a lot of benefit from doing two different sports and each gives a unique perspective on the other. Here's what I'll say about both sports. A lot of people will tell you there's a ton of different aspects to running and climbing. For climbing you need coordination and strength and grip strength and good movement and being able to read a climb and how to use your feet. And for running you need to train your endurance and your speed and your technique and your core and do injury prevention. And that's all true and well and good but if you watch climbing for a while you pretty quickly realize that if someone can hang on to really bad holds for a long time, they're going to have a relatively easy go of it. You watch running and you realize that if someone can sprint pretty fast, they're going to do pretty well.
Obviously I'm oversimplifying things but that's kind of the point. If you don't isolate the main limiting factor to your performance, then you aren't maximizing the potential gain of your training. I was watching this video about climbing and training your core and this PT correctly pointed out that while the core muscles are engaged during almost every part of the climbing, those aren't the muscles that are being used the most and reaching their point of failure. In other words, your fingers and arms are going to give out long before your core does, so making your core stronger isn't really going to change the point of failure. A climber who has a limited amount of time and energy to train should focus more on grip strength. Just because there are a lot of things in both sports that we could train, it doesn't mean that they all contribute equally to performance.
I realized this myself pretty quickly in my own climbing. I can do big moves off of really good holds. It's when I can't grip the holds anymore that I stop being able to do the moves.
So I wondered if the same is true for running. I've learned in the past few years that I can't get away with not spending a lot of time training my aerobic system. I've been logging my miles diligently and I've seen some benefits. But I wondered if there was a "grip strength" equivalent in running. The main muscle groups targeted by running are your quads, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, and calves. And I looked into it a little bit more and found a few sources that pointed to the calves as the most activated muscles during running. This immediately made sense to me. After hard efforts my calves are the most sore. My injuries have tended to be lower leg injuries due to tight calves. I'm not very good at jumping or explosive bounding movements. I'm pretty sure my calves are the point of failure when I'm running.
So I've decided that I'm going to start dedicating time to strengthening my calves--something I've never really focused on before. I've had periods where I focused on lower body strengthening overall but not really progressive weight training targeted the calves specifically. We'll see if it makes a difference.
I did a bunch of calf raises and variations of calf raises today and I'll find out if I'm sore tomorrow. I felt really good on my run so maybe I activated the calf muscles more than fatiguing them but I wanted to figure out where my baseline was and work into it slowly. I'll keep posting updates. I have access to weights at the gym but I think I'll focus on single leg bodyweight calf raises for a while as they seem to be pretty challenging.
I had one last day to send this climb in the steep room that I really wanted to get and I didn't end up getting it. It's taken down now and I'll just have to wait for a climb to appear that's similar to it. It'll happen eventually.
It was kind of weird because normally when I climb in the steep room things follow a very linear process. I'll take a couple days to learn all the moves. And then I'll take maybe two more sessions to link everything together. And then usually after like 5 sessions, I do the climb. This one followed that trajectory pretty closely and then last Thursday I was one move away from doing the climb and felt pretty good. So you'd think it would be like a guaranteed send after that. But I put in two more sessions on Saturday and Tuesday (tonight) and was never really even close. Usually when something like that happens it's because the holds have become more slippery and the moves get harder because there's less friction. Maybe that was the case a little bit with this climb but maybe it was also that I just focused on it too much. I'm not sure. It just felt like I plateaued.
But my takeaway from that plateau and not getting the climb is that I'd rather spend my time just enjoying climbing and not doing it under pressure. I think it's more fun and better for my improvement overall to just climb a lot and feel good.
Our teacher work day mini-camp took a trip to the discovery science museum of virginia today and we learned many beautiful and wonderful things. But the most important thing that we did is that I found a little video kiosk in the middle of a hallway where I got to pit the beloved pokemon known as Pikachu against an AMC Gremlin in a race.
For those who don't know, Pikachu is the face of Pokemon, a wildly popular billion dollar franchise that features pokemon, or pocket monsters, that young children and adults of all ages capture and force to fight each other for large sums of money. Pikachu is an electric mouse pokemon that stores electricity in its cheeks which it then releases in a powerful shock at the request of its trainer who is hoping to defeat the opposing pokemon to receive a hefty cash prize.
Pokemon was conceived by Satoshi Tajiri who was a childhood bug collector and wanted children to experience the joys of catching bugs and forcing them to fight each other.
The AMC Gremlin was an automobile produced by the now defunct American Motors Corporation from 1970 to 1983. The AMC Gremlin boasted a whopping 128 horsepower and the best fuel economy of any American made car in 1970.
The American Motors Corporation was founded by George Walters Mason who once tied himself to the crows nest of a ship in a thunderstorm and was struck by lightning 27 times, apparently suffering no injuries other than his left eye turning completely white and allegedly being able to see the name of any person and how many minutes they had left to live.
Well, somewhat ironically, according to the museum, Pikachu travels at the speed of lightning which is approximately 270,000 mph and the AMC Gremlin travels at a speed of 80 mph and so Pikachu was the winner.
The real reason we go to camp is to do cool flips. What is a cool flip? That's not something a cool person would ask. A cool person would ask, "how cool was that flip I just did?" To which the answer would be, "heckin' sweet, my dude." I've changed my name legally to cool flips. And when I do cool flips, as I'm running down the diving board someone always shouts, "hey look everyone! Cool Flips is about to do one of his cool flips!" And then I heave my body up into the air and twirl around violently and erratically before crashing into the water with a loud slapping sound and taking a concerning amount of time to resurface. I then retreat into hiding for two weeks before returning to repeat the process once more. Cool flips.
but listen
listen to this.
Ok, in the last 3 places I've lived in, this is dating back to like 2019 or so--I've had roommates who cook and absolutely fill the entire house with smoke. They made the air reek with meat and oil. Often late at night. Like 11pm or so. And I never lived in a place where that set off a fire alarm.
And now, now that I finally have a place of my own with no roommates. When I just want to make a lil side dish of tater tots, without hardly making any smoke and burning absolutely nothing, the most sensitive fire alarm in the world is set off. I mean my old roommates used to make the air thick with smoke and haze. I don't do that. I don't even come close. But now I'm the one setting off the alarm.
You know what though, totally worth it. Still so much better to live alone.
One part of being any sort of leader to a group is figuring out how to help people choose to be a good person. Or you could say getting people to act the way you want them to act. But I think moral leadership involves allowing people to realize on their own that they want to be a good person and that they have the tools to be a good person and can use them. And I think it's murky water to swim in. It's really hard to have an actual conversation about values, especially in a group. A lot of it is unspoken and there are all sorts of power dynamics and maybe the biggest challenge is that a lot of words to talk about morality are really slippery and hollow and it's basically meaningless to tell someone to be good or be honest or be kind. In the same way that if you were tasked with baking a cake and needed help and the only advice you got was make it taste good.
So anyway, if you can introduce a phrase or a concept that allows people to talk about something unspoken or values in a novel way then that can go a long way to forming a culture and group dynamic. I was watching this video about the idea of being in kindergarten and suddenly gaining self-awareness. This guy is pretending to be a kid in his kindergarten class and then all of a sudden there's this blinding white light and this ringing and he goes, " wait. where am I?" And he looks over at another kid and goes, "where are we??" And the kid says, "hahaha on the moon!" And the first kid goes, "oh you're no help. you're still on auto-pilot."
Drawing attention to the fact that everyone has the potential to slip into auto-pilot and not really be present could be a really helpful thing. To me, being on auto-pilot is about having a want or need and without thinking about anyone else, using a behavior to try to get that want or need. It's sort of a different meaning than in the video but I think it's related. Some examples on a kid level would be like if you need physical touch but instead of recognizing that in any sort of way you grab someone or hit someone. Or like if you need attention and you blurt something out while someone else is talking or say something ridiculous that you know will get a reaction. Or if someone made you feel angry or sad and so you turn around and do something that makes someone else feel bad. That's auto-pilot behavior. That's doing the easiest most straightforward thing to try to get your needs met.
To tie it back to the video, it's hard to be around someone when they're on auto-pilot. Like, there's not much someone can give when they're only concern is meeting a need and they don't even realize that's what they're doing. You know, you don't want to be this. It's kinda embarrassing to be caught acting this way and bringing down any group you're a part of. So maybe I'll float that idea this summer. auto-pilot behavior.
I used to only be interested in writing things down if I thought they were really weird and creative and what not. I didn't want to write down anything that was matter of fact or personal or mundane. And lately I've been so dry with my posts.
Today I ran. Today I coached. Today I climbed. And yes, I did do all those things today and I'm really happy about it. One day that won't be what I do and I'll be like, "dang, those were some good days."
A Goodnight Speech
And as you head off to sleep, remember that in all of you there exists something very special, a skeleton. An assemblage of bones that gives form and function to your body. And what is a bone but a kind of specialized rock that your cells learned how to create because it was awesome. Long ago cells learned the recipe for making rocks and the world has never looked the same since. And while you slumber you will appear to all the world a pile of rocks wrapped in a bag of skin and stuffed with sauce and meat. Not unlike a magical calzone. Which is italian for a pants leg. And magic calzone in italian calzone magico
Yesterday I tried a track workout that I thought it would be very doable. A week ago on Wednesday I ran 4 miles and averaged around 5:25 per mile for the 4 miles. So I thought it would be pretty straightforward to go to a track and run 5 miles worth of 800s at maybe 5:30 pace and work down to 5:20 pace with a short 200m jog in between. That should've been fine.
Well, I guess I didn't consider what some colder temps and running twice as many miles per day would do because very quickly I realized that workout would've been way too hard. I did a good job of not getting too discouraged and quickly shifted into a medium hard run on trails and hilly roads for 5 miles.
I think I expect myself to be able to run long runs every day and do hard workouts because in the past I've been able to do that. Or at least how I remember the past being I was able to do that. And it's easy to get into a space of like, "oh no, I couldn't do this workout at all. is something wrong. am I not fit?"
There's no way I can't be fit. A week ago I did a run I was really proud of and felt great. The only thing that changed is that I'm running more and also doing some lifting and climbing.
So, at least on colder days, on Wednesdays when I would normally do a workout, I think I'm going to allow myself to do longer runs that aren't necessarily on a fast surface but have me working hard. When I was home for the break I wasn't worrying about paces or workouts at all and I knew I was getting fit.
Rather than sticking to a rigid workout schedule and trying to hit specific paces I think I'm going to opt for more freeform workouts during the weekdays. And really, in a ten mile race, you're mostly just running hard for 10 miles. It's not particularly tactical and for most of it you should feel pretty good. So I'm going to simulate that feeling and trust that when I drop my mileage and rest up, those paces will fall on their own.
on Thursday I met up with Andrea who's back in town for a bit and we climbed and then I had a great run! It was warm and my body was feeling really good from having just climbed. Then I coached and relaxed in the evening. I've been working on making this mushroom from cedar wood. For the past few days I've been sanding it down and shaping it and it looks really good!
On Friday I had a pretty good run and then coached and then worked a little bit to get ready for the mock comp on Saturday morning. Also this guy that works at the gym has started to bring a portable disc golf basket and set it up in the parking lot and I've been practicing putting with him. Disc golf is so fun!
Yesterday I hiked Old Rag with Todd and some boys from camp. It was a good time and afterwards I took a bubble bath and napped and then ate dinner and slept more. I was pretty exhausted. Other than the strenuous hike it was a pretty restful day.
Today I'm about to go to the climbing gym for a bit and then do maybe like a 9 or 10 mile run and then I have to buy groceries and do laundry.
General thoughts on the week: It was nice to have a down week with running. My legs felt really good and I felt like I had a lot of energy. I'm really excited because I feel like I've gotten over this hump of fitness and paces are starting to feel a lot easier than they used to. Like that run on Thursday, which was just like a medium run, was run at the pace that I was doing workouts at in October/September. And my workout paces are starting to be at the pace I'd be really excited to race at. And mentally I think it's easier and more fun to put in work when you're seeing a good return. I'm really riding a wave of improvement and confidence and that's awesome. I climbed almost every day this week which is maybe not ideal and I don't think I'll be doing that when I go back to running 12 miles a day. But it was still good.
I kinda feel like where I was right after camp ended in the summer where I have a ton of energy and I'm doing a lot and following a plan and staying focused in terms of running and making things and recovering and the challenge will be to stay motivated and manage outside stuff. But yeah, we are like 11 weeks out from the Charlottesville 10 miler and I think I'm in a really good place.
I've also been doing a great job of keeping up with a little bit of lifting and stretching and I definitely want to keep up with that.
ran 17 miles in 2 hours. legs were sore but I got into it eventually and ran pretty hard towards the end. felt good the whole way. It's possible I didn't do a 2 hour run for the entirety of 2022 so we're already off to an improvement.
packed up and drove to Grandpa Dave's house and saw him and my dad. helped him with his apps and ipad and such. that was fun
then I got home and unpacked and watched a Microsoft Flight Simulator video of someone from camp trying to fly from Dulles to Costa Rica. they failed.
but in the meantime I did some painting and a have a base coat for one of the pieces I've been working on. I also used the excess paint on some other little doodles and notecards and things.
busy day.
I'm excited for this year. I think I'm going to make a lot of things and run a lot of miles.
