Adarq.org

yo congrats on the many life changes! the improvement in job condition is not to be underrated, having a job you hate just sucks the life out of you. watched my dad go through that last year, then come out of it this year with a new gig that he really likes. night and day.

fwiw, one thing i like about running is how not time-consuming it is. there's no commute to the gym and only rarely to the track, no real warm-up unless i'm doing speed work (and those workouts are shorter, so it's a wash time-wise). just tie shoes, put on sunscreen and mask, and head out the door. obviously, my runs are longer now than they used to be, but you can gain a lot of fitness with like 4.5-5 hours per week. even now my total running time per week is only 5.5 hours, plus a cumulative hour or so for stretching.

yup! love just getting out the door and starting the run.. nice and light.. then pick it up later if that's the plan. but to just get moving and that be part of the session is great.

that said, i've lost 10 pounds, my strength is basically where it was when i first started lifting weights 11 years ago, and i'm certainly not as explosive as i was in 2016. running is obviously not a great recipe for improving vert, strength, or muscle.

it is fun as hell, though.

i was getting my (SLRVJ) vert up pretty decent in 2016-2017 or so while running alot. if you get in jumps & sprints, you can maintain/build a surprising amount of spring.

it's just hard to maintain it because running slow + long can become so enjoyable, you just want to do that and not "explode" in single efforts. the "mental shift" seems to be the biggest reason IMHO.

mixing sprints/strides + running is the best combo tho.. they complement each other beautifully. can mostly run slow, get in some good speed work occasionally, and build some great running fitness.

OK, my new training ground is a 1km track around the soccer pitches at Uni. It has a big digital tower clock as well. There's outdoor fitness equipment too, which is great, but it's all locked up at the moment. Think I will try and get 2-3 runs in a week and stick to mainly shorter stuff to start. Today I ran:

1km - 4:45 (RPE 8 ), 5mins rest, 4:22 (RPE 9), ~30 pushups, 30 leg raises and 3x3/leg SL squats.

That is obviously pretty slow haha...but I think with more training I could quickly get back to where I was last year running the Masters athletics (~2:45 800m a couple of time, probably about a 3:30min km). Then maybe build towards maintaining speed for longer distances. Some short-term goals might be:

400m - 65sec
1km - <4min
2km - <10min

(Long-term 5km <22min)

And maybe 50 pushups, 50 leg raises, 10 SL squats/leg, and some hamstring stuff too I guess. Training would probably doing tempo 1kms around the track (building up to 3-4 @~4min pace), and ~50m tempo sprints on the soccer pitch. Just lots of running with good form. My right foot always lands slightly externally rotated and that has definitely made my R calf get tight quickly compared to L.

The other part of my plan is that there are a few boxes on the outdoor fitness part that would be fun to jump around on. Just for fun, I want to see how high my SVJ can go with just short sprints and SL squats, in lieu of any serious gym work. I don't think it'll get very high, but will be interesting to track. I would still love to be pursuing vertical jump, but I feel that I can pick that up again in a couple of years when gyms and bball courts might be safe again.

nice!!

Ordered some new Nike Zoom Rival Waffle racers too for some forced motivation. They really are brilliant shoes and they're always <100AUD for some reason. (Thanks for putting me onto those @adarq! Do you still use them?)

damn nice!! hah.

i still wear waffle-like shoes when i run, but mostly XC flats or track spikes if i'm on nice grass.

ya man, the best kinds of shoes.

glad you like them!

and man.. can't believe i used to dunk in them, even on concrete.. wtf? nutty.





pc folks!

damn that looks crazy good.

Michael Norman, 9.86.. wtf

Michael Norman ran his first 100m race in four years and posted a 2020 world leading time of 9.86 (+1.6) with teammate Rai Benjamin also running an impressive 10.03!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjh1tH-E0sY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjh1tH-E0sY</a>

dno.. how are all these crazy times being posted lately. hah.

non-training-related update: kind of by accident, it seems like i'm starting to work as an independent consultant. a gig fell into my lap through one of my professors at school, who recommended me the head of this disability-rights organization for a bit of research they want done. proper research is a bit of a stretch for me but i've started working on it and it is FUN so far. gonna work on my interviewing and analytical skills and hopefully make something interesting and useful. that'll take me through mid-september. and i've got an interview sunday night with a small UN agency to develop their fundraising strategy (they're in tokyo so it's their monday morning). who knows whether i'll get it but it's nice to get a call-back. and that work is much more in my wheelhouse, at the very least i will know how to sound smart during the interview.

pretty surprised by both: the first i didn't go looking for at all and the second (UN) was totally cold. gives me some hope that i'll be able to make a living while i look for a job and figure out what the hell i'm gonna do with my life.

pretty cool. i've only had something "fall into my lap" once and it ended up being the best job i've ever had.

good luck with the UN interview on sunday!

it also addresses one of the big things that was driving my ex and me apart: her desire to be ultra-mobile for a while and my worry about making ends meet once school is over. we'd have other shit to work out if we decided to get back together but if i can really string a meaningful amount of consultancies together then why not hit the road for a little while?

ah damn. would be cool to be ultra-mobile capable, but also seems like a completely different lifestyle. would you want to do that? i mean, what happens if you want to stop doing that, and she wants to keep doing it etc? some people are just so nomadic, can't ever get comfortable staying in one spot.

sounds cool to be able to travel & work remote though. so many beautiful places to experience. would be nice to spend 3-4 months in various spots. for me (in the US) that'd be like, colorado, vermont, california, somewhere near yellowstone.

pc!

all crazy verts but that riley did is absolutely nuts.

the vert game is on a whole new level lately. just so many freak jumpers out there now.

2020-07-15

bw = 143
soreness = none
aches/injuries = right calf tight (fucking cramp janked up the soleus)

run:
- 1 hour light
- felt great
- right calf got tighter after

no running until that heals up.

crazy how a "cramp" can leave that long lasting damage. calves cramped up a few times on sunday, right mostly. so now it's still "tighter" and tightens up when i do a knees over toes squats (w/ feet flat).

sux.

who knows could loosen up in a few days, or might take a bit longer.

whatever. gardening tmw.

2020-07-13

bw = 142
soreness = calves, hips slightly, adductors slightly

def beat up from that session. so just rested.

- run 19.6 km in 1:42:16
accidental distance PR, first time over 12 miles. ran a mile longer than intended because my mom (who biked along with me) and i got separated just before the halfway/turnaround point and i looped around to look for her. waited for ten minutes at the fork where we must have gotten split up and then came back. we just missed each other and ended up arriving home within ten minutes of each other. so also a lot faster cumulatively than last week (5:13 average pace), thanks in no small part to my being worried/irritated that i'd lost my mom, lol.

- stretch

tired.

nice!

and damn lol. stuff like that can be nerve-racking. brings back nightmares of losing my mom in the mall as a kid growing up hah. 8|

pc!