Monday Training Update

Although I am not actually training for anything, I guess that I can provide some updates of what I have been up to. 

I tried to do a 7-day running streak. Unfortunately, I only ran 5 days in a row, rather than the full seven days. 😦 I did not run the two last days because I had to work late a couple of times this week and I could not wake up early. It’s the thought that counts, right?

I will say that I actually enjoyed these easy runs (~3 miles). It was quite nice just to run (or in my case, jog) just for the sake of getting out there. Plus, the weather has been lovely over the past few days. Also, it was helpful that I did not use a GPS tracker on these runs. Well, I used Strava,  but I did not really pay attention to any pacing information. As a side note: a few weeks ago, I cracked the screen of my Apple Watch, and it does not work very well. I’m on the fence between purchasing another one or not. Maybe I’ll get another one when I start actually training for stuff and running races. I think my first race of the season is this Sunday (or is it on Saturday?).

Going forward for the near future, I think that I’m going to alternate between weeks of 3 runs/week and doing 7-day streaks. We’ll see how this will play out. 

Over the past week, I have been hitting the gym and I even attended my first Zumba class in God knows how long. Why do I manage to stand behind the most struggling dancer in the entire class? It never fails.

        

It was nice to see my old “acquaintances” and my old hater fans in Zumba. 😉

Oh, wait. Since today is/was the Boston Marathon, I saw this article ( *** ) from the Washington Post about cheating in marathons in my Facebook feed. I still do not understand why people feel the need to cheat to gain entrance in this marathon. I guess that running the Boston Marathon is an honor, but how is it an honor if you cheated to get in? And, is it really THAT big of a deal?

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NYC Marathon Training Update II

Total Distance Ran/Planned: 14.6 mi/14.0 mi

Reflections from the week

-This is not really a reflection, but more of a eureka moment. As most know, I use my

Image from PCmag.com

Apple Watch as a sports watch. It was really annoying me that I could not use the watch to do interval/segment runs. As I recently learned, it’s really simple to use this feature. While the workout app is open, you just double tap on the watch and it will generate a new segment. Folks probably knew this, but I did not.

-Something is going on with my iPhone or a combination of my iPhone and Apple watch. The phone seems to be burning through it’s battery. I think it has something to do with the double logging of workouts.

During my 6mi run, the phone used about 51% of battery juice.

Monday:

3 mile run (easy)

This three mile easy run was done on a treadmill, because my shorts did not have pockets. Although this was an easy run, I did 400m intervals at marathon pace at the end of each mile.

Zumba

Actually, I cannot complain too much about this Zumba class, because my annoyance level was pretty low.

Wednesday:

Yasso 800m intervals.

This time around, I really want to incorporate more interval training for NYC 2018 marathon. I think this is really important, because I have not done much running during my off months. Well . . . I have not done much of anything during my off months. I really need to get up to speed  . . . no pun.

For this workout I did 6X 800 m intervals withthe goal of completing each interval in 4 minutes. Each interval was followed by a 400 m cool down. This is when knowing how to segment my runs with the Apple Watch would have come in handy. Anyway, I think that I pretty much either did better than or met the goal for five out of the six intervals. Since I did this run in Central Park, I had the opportunity (whether I wanted to or not) to incorporate some small hills in for this workout.

Zumba (impromptu):

After my run, I returned to the Crunch fitness to stretch. While I stretching, a woman from my Monday Zumba class was hanging out in the studio. She asked me if I had planned to attend this Zumba class. I really had no intention of doing this, because I really wanted to go home after stretching. But, I guess that my body still was pumping endorphins, so I was like F*ck let’s do another Zumba class this week. Hell, I’m going to Cancun in less than a week, so any extra workout may make me look less like a beached whale. Actually, that workout probably was negated by the activities from the  following day.

I have to say that I may skip my normal Monday Zumba class, and become a regular for Wednesday’s class. A couple of reasons for this:

• The class is smaller. So, there is none of that saving spots for five of your friends bullshit.
• Since the class is smaller, one can Zumba “bigger”, because there are not 85 million MF’s in your face.
• The instructor’s playlist was pretty on point. He actually had some “old” Latin songs from the 90’s that I enjoyed. I get kind of annoyed when a Zumba instructor only plays reggaeton for the entire class. I mean there are other types of latin music . . . just saying.
• The instructor playlist was continuous, meaning that there were not too many gaps in between songs.

Thursday:

Rest . . . it was supposed to be 3 miles easy.

I read my training calendar wrong and thought that I had a rest day. I met a couple of friends downtown at Rise Bar ( *** ) and had SEVERAL glasses of wine.. Hey it’s pride month in NYC. Actually, I had several glasses of wine, a couple of froses, a couple of frozen cosmos (they tasted gross), and a couple of gin & sodas (my start) at Rise Bar.  I must have been insane, because I was drinking white wine, which I never do . . . unless there is no red wine available, with the exception of malbec.

Why so many drinks?!!! Rise bar has 2-4-1 happy hour from 4 PM to 9 PM. And plus, . . .

Sunday:

5 mile run (long)/ did 6 miles

I don’t know but I was really feeling it, so I added an extra mile to this “long” run. Might as well do this while I’m at the lower distances. According to my training plans, I’m supposed to be doing these long runs 30-60 seconds slower than my marathon pace, 9:09 min/mi. I actually had to fight myself to run slower that what I was doing. Hell, I ran the second half faster than the first. Then, again the first three miles was very hilly.

During the last mile, I even threw in a few fartleks. I guess this will not be too much of an issue once I hit the double digits for my long runs.

This song is perfect for a cool down to any exercise.

After completing my run, I treated myself to breakfast, because I get to eat breakfast only once or twice week, since I’ve been intermittent fasting.

Ok I was annoyed with my breakfast for a couple of reasons.

• The dish was too damn expensive 13 bucks. I was going to get an omelette, but a simple ham omelette was like 20 bucks!!!!
• Also, when I order eggs over easy, I want to be the one who breaks the yolk. Stop flipping the eggs so damn hard.

I guess that is it for me.

Goal(s) for the week. 

• Have enough dedication to run while vacationing in Cancun.

 

Training Update I

Woo Hoo! Marathon training for November 2018 has begun. I do not know how many woo hoo’s that I will be saying once I really get think to middle of my training plan. Overall, this week (since I’m at the lower miles) has gone pretty well, and I cannot complain too much.

Total Distance Ran/Planned: 15.5 mi/14mi

The extra 1.5 miles are due to general warm ups and cool downs.

Reflections from the week

• It’s tough starting something from scratch.
• Although I enjoyed living (and running) in Brooklyn, I’ve really missed Manhattan during my 3 year hiatus.
• Even though this was the first week of training, I think that it was a good idea putting my runs on my work and personal google calendars. Since my job is more or less dictated by Google calendar, I’m constantly reminded of the runs that I need to completed for the day and the week.

Monday:

3 mile run (easy)

Zumba

I need some Apple Watch help. I do not understand why the watch doesn’t/won’t/can’t record my heart rate during my zumba classes.

Wednesday:

3.2 mile Run (easy)

I really missed running along the West Side Highway. I cannot wait until, I get into my longer distances, so I can revisit the spectacular views along this path.

Thursday:

3.0 mile run (too “fast”)

I do not know where the extra energy came from, but I ran this way to fast . . . according to my training plan.

Saturday

Goal(s) for this week.

• Take a new class at the gym. I really have not be utilizing my Crunch gym membership over the past couple of weeks.
• Develop one aspect of eating cleaner. Actually, I should make this a goal the week after next, since I will be on vacation next week. What’s the point of starting something if you will be on vacation?

Quick (and dirty) weekly update

When is there time to update this thing?

Monday

Zumba

I’m kind of over this Monday Zumba class (I know that I say this every month or so). It has been a few months of the same routines and annoying folks.

Strength training

It felt nice finally to pump some iron, now that my arm has fully recovered.

Tuesday

Run

A 3 mile run around the park. I was a hot mess, probably because I was dead tired.

Friday

Run

A three mile run around the park.

Cize

I have been feeling chubby lately and I’m nowhere near beach ready for Cancun. Plus, I think that my body has reached a plateau with the intermittent fasting – I do not feel as if I have dropped anymore pounds since my last weigh in. Since I was in a state of chubbyness, I decided to do a Cize workout for a little extra cardio for the day. The routine was Britney Spears’ “Circus”. Although I’m not really a fan of that particular song, it’s one of those tunes that gets stuck in my head for DAYS.

Some advice from Shaun T, regarding the pivot-drop move.

Mr Shaun T why didn’t you give me this warning, before I threw out my back five years ago doing your INSANITY workout?

Saturday

Elliptical and strength training

Sunday

Race (4M) – Didn’t make it to the damn start line

New Rule for Dr. KOS: No sloring the night before a race. I hung out with some friends in Jackson Heights and had way too much champagNE and aguardiente.

Note: champagNE + aguardiente is not a good combination. The hell was I thinking? Mixing those two things like college drinking 101.

The next morning I could not pull myself out of bed for the race A damn shame because Central Park is like 15/20min by train.

Basically, I spent the day watching TV, feeling lonely, and ordering crappy takeout food. Since my mom passed away, Mother’s Day is a little tough for me. I’m a little annoyed that a handful of people reached out to me. But then again, I guess that I really done reciprocate those kind of actions. Eh, such is life, I guess.

What dumb thing have you done that caused you to miss a race?

Slowly but surely

Last week was a little better, in terms or working out. However, what little I did was negated by eating (and drinking) horribly.

Monday: Brisk walk and Zumba

A little off topic, I am one of those folks who hates talking on the phone; I’m more a text and go kinda guy. Since I “finished” work kind of early, I decide to walk to the gym, which was about 2 miles from campus.

During that walk, I had a chance to talk with and old childhood friend and it was nice to actually speak to someone; rather than talk about our lives via texts and emjois.

In Zumba class, we had a substitute instructor, BUUUUUT  class was pretty fun because the ‘save 1,000 spots’ Zumba clique was not in attendance.

Wednesday: DATE NIGHT!!

Since the weather was really nice the BF and I went to our local taqueria, Sexy Taco/Dirty Cash (***) for tacos and a refreshing cold, adult beverage.

Later on in the evening, I had to snap a little on someone.

We don’t get much time together outside of the apartment, so I don’t really need a drunk motherfucker all up in our faces. Sh*t!

Friday: 3 mile run

See, pretty unproductive this week. Since I have a few races coming up (as a matter of fact, I have a race on Sunday), I figured that maybe I should get back in to the grove. Yeah, that run was a hot ass mess. The day was wonderful but I think that it was too hot for my body. I guess that my body is still in “cold ass f*ck” mode. Although the run was a joke, in terms of my pacing, I think running along the Hudson River in Harlem will be a great training experience, since there are quite a bit of hills.

Going forward, I think that I can go for my runs around 4/5 PM, go back to work to finish up, then go home. I’m going to try that for Tuesdays and Fridays (maybe not Fridays, if I’m going for a happy hour)

Saturday. Nada

I had all the intensions of going to the gym after teaching my biology class, but I met up with a friend and had some adult beverages at Sweet Science (***), which is a Williamsburg”ish” bar that I have mentioned a few times on this blog.

Although I did not hit the gym, I did manage to shake my booty all damn night at “da club.”

Sunday: You gotta be kidding me

Major hangover. A couple of things about this intermittent fasting is:

• I get drunk fast, because there is no food in my belly
• The hangover are super intense the next day

Basically, I laid around the apt in my undies, ordered delivery…twice, and binged watched How to Get Away with Murder.

I promise to be better next week…Maybe

 

Just Being Basic

I have been kind of absent from this medium for almost a week. I do not know what happened, but it seems that 50 million things are coming at me all once. I did not even go to “da bar”  (with exception to Friday) or to any Zumba classes at all week. That should tell you how busy I was this week.

Mondays blog entries are supposed to be a weekly summary of my workouts; but alas, I did not do jack sh*t for the majority of the week. I wonder if anyone else has this feeling that I am about to describe.

You miss one or two workouts at the beginning of the week, then you just say screw it for the rest of the week. That pretty much was me Monday to Saturday.

At least, I did an “easy” run to get back into the groove on Sunday. I really need to hammer down and start some type of fitness regimen. I had something set up  before; but clearly, I am not following it. It is hard to stay focused when you do not have anything to train for.

Although this is not a training event, I am starting a training calendar to get somewhat beach-ready for our Cancun vacation in 47 days. Maybe between intermittent fasting and actually working out, I can lose about 8 or so pounds. Although I would like to lose more, I figure 8 pounds is an attainable goal for 47 days. Actually, while I’m writing about this, I probably should sign up for a NYRR race or two.

Here is my preliminary workout schedule:

• Monday – Zumba
• Tuesday – Run and X-train
• Wednesday – Nothing – Date night (unless, I do something in the morning)
• Thursday – Nothing – Date night (unless, I do something in the morning)
• Friday – Run
• Saturday – Nothing (more than likely because of hangover recovery) or X-train
• Sunday – Longer/easy run

Although I was lazy, I managed to squeeze out one 3 mile run and I was a little surprised (in a good way) with my pace. I thought the Strava app was off but my Apple watch was giving more or less the same splits.

Random: I find that running apps on the iPhone gives faster times than GPS wristwatches. Maybe it has something to do with the constant swinging of the phone while running with it in my shorts’ pocket.

Basically, I did a few loops around Marcus Garvey Park. Actually, I think this park will be a “RUNderful” training ground, because there are many flights of stairs that can climb. During my run, I felt sooooo sluggish, but Apple watch said I ran 8’37” min/mile pace. Perhaps, I felt sluggish because I have not completed any runs in a long time.

Upcoming Registered Races:

• Japan Run (4M), Sunday, May 13th
• Italy Run by Ferrero (5M), Sunday, Jun. 3rd
• Front Runners New York LGBT Pride Run (5M), Saturday, Jun. 23rd. Crap, I just realized that I will be flying back to NYC from Cancun. Well . . that’s 23 bucks down the toilet. Ugh, I hate wasting money on non booze and food activities.
• NYRR Retro 4-Miler, Saturday, July 14th

 

Product Review: Cize

Earlier, I mentioned that I have subscribed to Beachbody on Demand.

As of Sunday, I completed the Cize workout.

However, I think that I did the program incorrectly. Typically, when you purchase DVDs from Beachbody, you get a crap ton of program materials such as eating and workout calendars. Since I subscribed to the streaming service, I did not see those materials . . . little did I know that those materials are available through the app.

During the 4-5 week plan, you learn choreography to “Hands in the air” (Timberland), “Treasure” (Bruno Mars; a song that I hate); “Lose my breath” (Destiny’s Child); “Problem” (Ariana Grande); “Pass that dutch” (Missy Elliot); and “Chandelier” (Sia). My favorite routines were Chandelier, Problem, and Pass that dutch. The workouts are about 45-50 minutes long, Shaun T does a good job to taking you through the moves step by step . . . for the most part. After the 45-50 minutes of instruction, you have 3 minutes to Cize the routine. Cizing (is that similar to Tyra Banks smizing) is when you do the routine three times back to back. Although the program is geared toward beginners and intermediates, I thought it was kind of funny/embarrassing that you spend 45+ minutes learning choreography for a ~30 second routine. I definitely have more respect for professional dancers . . . how do they remember so many routines? I will say that Chandelier was the most difficult of the routines (even though it’s a slower song), in terms of intricate steps. Even though the steps are more intricate, the length routine was ~60 seconds (twice as long as the other routines). It was a little annoying learning twice the amount of material in the same amount of time. However, I guess at that point you are supposed to be better, because a few of the dance moves were used in previous routines.

Cardio-wise, I burned more or less the same amount of calories that I do in my Zumba class without having to deal with shoe nuts and basic b*tches.

Pros: 

• Decent workout that does not require any extra equipment outside of your legs.
• You do not need that much space. I live in a small apartment in NYC and I did not have any space issues.
• Good for folks who may be too embarrassed sign up for a Zumba or a hip hop workout class. Plus, you can do the routines in your underwear – a big PRO for me.
• I really liked that instructional music was different from the actually routine music. While learning the moves, a general soundtrack is played in the background. Once the instruction is complete, you “CIZE” it up for 3 minutes with the actual song. If not for that system, I think that I would have become annoyed/bored with the song by the CIZE up portion. I can listen to “Problems” so many times before I would have a problem with the song or need to toss the TV out of the window.

Cons:

• If you are used to dancing, the routines can be a little repetitive.
• All of the dancers are super thin and in shape, which may cause some self-body issues. Well . . . there is one guy who is kind of chubby (actually, I think he is “chubby” because all of other males are really fit. He is the guy in the above picture that is partially blocked by Shaun T’s left arm), but all of the women in the are supper skinny. I wish workout videos would have one or two folks from each gender that have a more average body type.
• Shaun T kind of talks too damn much. For example every move has some dumb name associated with it, e.g. handcuff, vacuum cleaner, put on your socks, I don’t play that, etc. I guess it’s a way for him to interact with the viewing audience.
• Upon subscribing to the the subscription service there were some technical issues trying to stream the programs through my Apple TV. However, a call to technical support cleared up the problem. You have to “live” stream the from the app to the Apple TV; you cannot download the workout to your mobile device, then live stream it. Well maybe you can . . . but it did not work for my setup.
• Oh, some folks may be annoyed that the music is not performed by the original artists, but I did not mind.

All in all I think this was nice little workout program. Unless you are doing other supplemental workouts and following a very strict diet, I do not think that one will drop significant weight (as is the case with most programs).

Yeah, I do not think that Tah W lost all of that weight (and gained muscle) just from doing Cize. Also, I would only do this program only with the Beachbody on Demand subscription. I’m going the 3-month subscription, which is $39.99; however, buying the Cize program DVD set will run you $29.85 to $59.85.