It's been awhile since I last blogged and I've got a few things rolling around my dome. This thing is probably going to be all over the place today, but hopefully you guys will get some good out of it. Got some diet stuff, got some run stuff, injury updates and tons more. Without further delay, let's get on with the show.
As part of my goody bag for Spartan Race, I got a sample of Gaspari Nutrition's Super Pump Max pre-workout supplement. I wanted to wait until I had gone up in weight a little bit and use it on a training day where I thought I would notice the biggest difference. I wanted to see if I would get any noticeable bump in strength or performance. I knew my current weight was starting to feel light on chest/back day and I knew that I would benefit from a nice strength bump after jacking up the weight.
First things first, the flavor said something like Grandaddy's Sour Apple. What it should have said was, Grandaddy's Sour Asshole. Goodness, this thing tasted awful. I downed the whole packet 30 minutes prior to my workout. Within 20 minutes, I felt an incredible caffeine rush. I felt like I could run through a brick wall. I was all like "WOW! I'm going to kick some ass!" Yeah, not so fast there tiger.
Maybe the crossfitters love to get hopped up on caffeine and do their fish flopping pull-ups, (I mean really, who came up with that shit? Eh, but I digress.) but that stuff is not for me. Don't get me wrong, I can kind of understand why the crossfitters want to get hopped up on caffeine like that. After I would get a rep in, I automatically felt like I needed almost no recovery time before going right back at it. That's perfect for crossfit.
As for actual performance, it was a bit of a mixed bag. As I said, I felt like I could get back to the exercises quicker, but I felt stronger on some exercises and weaker on others. Perhaps, it was because I wasn't completely going through my rest phases, I'm not sure. Another thing I noticed was I was constantly jittery and it never felt like I was slowing down. I got a nice pump from the arginine in it, but I've been off of creatine for a few weeks so I didn't really get any benefit from that. At 38.99 for a tub with 40 scoops and each serving being 1-2 scoops (you really need to use 2 scoops to get a full 5 grams of creatine) I would say this is definitely a pass.
For a quick injury update, I'm still working through my lower back injury. I'm feeling a little better every week. It's still difficult to bend over and do certain exercise, but I feel like I'm starting to heal. There was significantly less pain when I did my pullovers today, which has been agonizing since I first hurt myself. I will likely schedule a doctor's appointment if I'm not healed before the end of my next two races.
Which brings me to my training for the Baltimore Half-Marathon. Training has been going great, I am actually simultaneously training for Baltimore and Rogue Runner. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've incorporated trail running into my running routine to help better prepare me for Rogue Runner. I have to say, I'm hooked. I did 8 miles today with about half being offroad. I just went out there and got lost today. I'm really excited because I found a new access route to the trails which is much closer to where I live. Now I won't have to run two miles before I can start running offroad.
Today was one of those perfect runs that makes you remember what attracted you to the sport in the first place. The weather was perfect with just a slight breeze. I kept a quick pace, but I didn't go out and kill myself. The goal today was to maintain a good pace on the trails that would allow me to do obstacles and get right back to my normal pace. It was just a really good run.
For Baltimore, I do a distance run every Saturday morning. This past Saturday, I did 12 miles for the first time in over a year and only the 2nd time in my life. I really want to know how I'm going to feel once I hit that 13 mile mark on the 20th. I don't want to leave anything to chance. I've upped my total miles again this week and I intend to run 14 miles this Saturday. I'm a little nervous about this.
This Saturday's run wasn't exactly without its difficulties. For whatever reason, ten miles seems to be the limit of my comfort zone. I can usually do 10 miles without any type of hydration, keeping a solid pace and without any real discomfort. Knowing my limitations, I knew I was going to need some water for this run, so I brought my Camelbak with me.
I like the Camelbak, I think it's a fantastic piece of gear. It's functional and it's not particularly intrusive. However, it definitely slows me down. I start to feel the extra weight as I get farther into my runs. It's almost like the effect multiplies the farther I go. For example, I almost never sweat until I get into my 2nd mile. With the Camelbak, I'm sweating before I even finish the first mile. It's not something I'm going to have to worry about on race day, but it also doesn't allow me emulate the race experience completely.
I think this is why I started to really wear out after mile 10 on this past Saturday's run. I was keeping a solid pace until then, but I really slowed down after that. My legs got extremely tired and heavy. They felt like jello and like I was running in water. It was a lot like this. I haven't really experimented too much with goo or anything like that, but I think I'm going to need to do that this weekend if I expect to grind out an extra two miles. I bought some Gatorade energy chews and I'm looking forward to trying those out. I might be being hard on myself, but this is the only way I'm going to be able to accomplish my long term goal.
Well, it's been a pretty big update this week. I'm going to try and update a little bit more frequently. Maybe I'll knock something out this weekend and discuss how I'm modifying my taper this time around for Baltimore and Rogue Runner. Until then, as always, train hard, have fun and be safe.
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