Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Good Day and Good Night

I had a REALLY decent day, yesterday.
I started the day early with a hella-workout on abs, back, and biceps, guided by my personal trainer, Igor. I only worked a half-day, (but still didn't get off until 2pm). I went home and caught up on some chores that have been neglected because of my recent injuries. I also had some "quality" play time with my big dog.

At 7 pm, I started running at SM Park with a couple of early night-run attendees, Good Ben and newbie, Josh. We got a little far away from the 8pm starting area and had to push the run hard to get back in time to run with the main group run. This particular Tuesday Night group was a fast group, so I decided to set a faster than normal pace for the 4-mile loop. I was wearing my Garmin 305, and later found that we had finished the last mile of that loop with a 7:16/mile pace, all on rocky, hilly, and curvy trails. The 3 of us early runners had also had two sub-7-minute miles, albeit those miles were on pavement. Total mileage: 8.76 miles.

The best part about the day's experience was that I felt strong, and my back and hamstring were barely bothering me. I haven't felt this strong in the past 6 weeks. I could have done another 4-mile loop, but I'm getting better at reading my body. It's better to finish strong and recover to run well the next day, than to extend myself and not be well rested. (It takes me a couple of hours to wind down for sleep, and I had finished running at about 9 pm as it was).

I can't say enough about my personal trainer, Igor Gantman. He helped me to have an "active recovery" from my 100-miler injuries. If I had just sat at home on the couch waiting to get better, it would have taken me 8 to 10 weeks to get better, I'm sure.

7 comments:

Olga said...

Man, Igor is big!
Glad you're having good days.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

Yes, he is a big Ukranian teddy bear!

D said...

Great run Badben....and fast...and at that tough park to boot! What kind of dog do you have?

Isn't it nice to get off early and get so many things done including an awesome run!

Ben, aka BadBen said...

My dog is a very cool mutt. He's a mixture of Golden Retriever, Chow, Collie, and German Shepherd.

Getting things done in a relaxed way is great!

Lora said...

Sounds like a wonderful well-rounded day. If I had a coach named Igor I'd be kicking arse!! Lucky you!!

Great to hear your body is coming thru for you. When's the next race????

Ben, aka BadBen said...

I have a bunch of shorter trail races that I'm doing every couple of weeks through the Fall and Winter. I'll also do the KC Marathon as a training run on Oct 7th, and maybe the Heartland 50-miler on the 14th of October as a fitness-builder.
Basically, I want to keep my options open, and get real fit this Winter.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

CSuper,
Actually, the bar weighs an additional 45 lbs, for a combined weight of 495. He went on to lift 505 right after that photo was taken.