9/05 - 9/06/2006 Softball, Strength & Speed

9/05/2006 Softball

I haven't played baseball in 20 years. I've only played softball a couple of times since then on co-ed teams. In general I don't have a lot of interest in softball or playing on these types of co-ed teams. When we got the request for players in the interdepartmental tournament at our company picnic I decided to take them up on it. I figured it would be a good opportunity to meet some employees from other areas of the company, and maybe meet a few of the managers and directors. I found out two things at our practice last night. The first thing was, that hitting a softball is fun, and I'm not so bad at it. I thought that I'd get up there and whiff it a few times. It was okay, I was prepared to look like a fool. Turns out, I can smack a big, fat, slow moving softball pretty well. Second thing I learned was that I need to do some more core work. Later last night after practice my lower back was pretty sore. It's really not surprising considering I haven't swung a bat in so many years, but it was a bit of a sign that I need to do some more work to strengthen those muscles up so I don't hurt my back.

I would definitely consider it a good workout. When I wasn't hitting I played centerfield, so I got to run down quite a few hits. Chalk up 2 hours of softball practice as my Tuesday workout!

9/06/2006 Strength Training & Intervals

I had some extra incentive to get up this morning and get into the gym. Today is my father-in-law's birthday, so he wants to go to a buffet for dinner. I'll try to restrain myself, but you never know what's going to happen when faced with all those delicious dinner choices and dessert choices. I'll drink a big glass of water before dinner to try and fill me up a bit. Must. Not. Gorge.

The strength training went really well this morning. Moving up to two sets on the wall sit with bicep curl/shoulder crunches has been really tough. It's not so much the bicep as the shoulders. I was able to complete the first 60 seconds without to much trouble, but that second set is a real challenge. I lasted about 40 seconds today before having to bring the weights down for a moment. I was able to get them back up for the last 10 seconds. I just keep telling myself that it will pay off in the kayak on race day. I'm gonna try to bring up the weight on the lat raises to 20 lbs. I wish they had 17 or 18 lb. weights to make the move up a little easier. Going up 5 lbs. on those has turned out to be a real challenge.

Elliptical = 10 minutes on Fat Burning
JC Bands Lunges with rows, Grey Bands - 12 each side.
Wall sit w/25 lb. wts.
2 sets bicep curls = 60 seconds each
2 sets shoulder press = 60 seconds each
Walking lunges = width of court/back doing lat raises with 15lb. wts
Hip adductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Hip abductor=2 sets/12 reps 95 lbs.
Clamshell crunch w/overhead 8lb ball 2x25

I also wanted to work in some speed work today. I have not been good about doing this part of my running regiment at all. With that training schedule for the Thanksgiving Day Race and what I've been reading in Runner's World I decided I should start working that back in. I need a little more structure to my running program now that I've got my base level of fitness down. Of course in my haphazzard first attempt at using the program I screw it up. For some reason I thought I was supposed to do 800's, but the program calls for 400's. I probably read the 800's in the Runner's World. Anywho I ran on the Healthplex's indoor gym which is 1/6 of a mile and ran 3x800 intervals with a 1 lap jog in between sets.