Cross-Training and Two a Day Workouts

Like most people, for the last two months, I’ve mostly been staying at home.  Like most people, I’ve been eating more than usual, and I’ve been gaining weight.

Some of it may be “stress eating.”  Some of it may be “boredom eating.”  Mostly, though, it’s too much temptation.  I’m always home, and there’s too much good food in the house.

In early March, Deb and I made sure we had enough food at home that we wouldn’t run out of anything if we had to go for two weeks without leaving the house.  We were able to get enough of the foods we usually eat, although finding bread was difficult.

I think lots of people had difficulty buying bread.  It seemed like everyone I know was baking bread and posting recipes.  Soon, Deb and I were seeing friends posting all kinds of interesting recipes.  I had to try some of them.  One was a recipe for brown bread.  Another was for strawberry shortcake cookies.

We also made some of our old favorites.  Deb made rice pudding.  I made my mom’s banana bread recipe and two large deep dish pizzas.  On the weekend of the Boston Marathon, we had pot roast and Indian pudding, which are two foods I use to eat whenever I visited Boston.  Most of these recipes make enough that we had leftovers for the next few days.

Since the middle of March, restaurants in our area have been takeout only.  Many restaurants are struggling to stay in business.  We could easily fix all of our meals at home, but we’ve been getting takeout orders from a few of our favorite restaurants to help them survive.  Naturally, these meals always leave us with more leftovers.

Do you see the problem?  When you rarely leave the house, and you’re surrounded by good food, it’s hard to resist eating more than you really need.  Before I knew it, I had gained five pounds.

Last summer, I worked hard to lose 15 pounds, so I could bring my marathon times down.  You can’t do that through diet alone.  I ramped up my running until I was averaging 10 miles a day.  That’s not an option right now.  Since December, I’ve been recovering from a minor case of Achilles tendonitis at the insertion point in my left heel.  It’s improved enough that I can regularly run eight or nine miles without any discomfort, but I sometimes feels tight afterwards.  If I try to ramp my mileage too quickly, it’ll flare up again.

I used to do lots of cross-training.  There was a limit to how much I could run without getting injured, so I would supplement my running with aerobic cross-training.  I’d get up early, so I could do 30 minutes on the stationary bike before going to work.  That’s like an extra three miles of running, but without the same injury risk.  I could do that before work, and still go running after work.

I also used to do lots of weight training.  When I was in my 20s, I dedicated as much time to weight training as I did to running.  As my priorities changed, I cut back on the weight training, so I could have more running days.  It’s hard to do both on the same day.  By my late 30s, I was no longer trying to build strength.  Now I was just doing maintenance workouts.

All of my cross-training fell by the wayside three years ago.  When I was recovering from back surgery, I was only allowed to walk.  Eventually, I was able to add running back into the mix, but it was more than a year before I was doing more running than walking.  Until recently, I never got back into cycling or weight training.  I had a home gym, but the only equipment I used was my treadmill.

One of my friends recently created a private Facebook group, where he and his friends could post photos from their workouts.  It was a vehicle for encouraging each other as we were each trying to stay in shape while sheltering at home.  I posted photos from some of my runs, but as I saw others posting about all their workouts, it inspired me to begin cross-training again.

I started by dusting off my stationary bike (literally) and adding short cycling workouts in the morning.  I usually ran in the afternoon, so these were “extra” workouts.

My stationary bike has 15 resistance levels.  I used to use levels 2 and 3 for warming up and cooling down.  I’d do most of my workout using resistance level 4.  Occasionally, I’d go higher, but I’ve never been above level 7.  I can’t imagine what level 15 feels like.

Since I’m not currently used to cycling, I had to start out doing just 20 minutes.  At first, I was doing the whole workout at level 2, and it still felt like my legs were going to fall off.  Now, I’m started to use level 3, and I’m stretching the length of these workouts.  I still find cycling to be more tiring than running, but it’ll get easier with time.

One of the first running books I read was called the New Competitive Runner’s Handbook.  The authors of that book used the terms, “running equivalent” or “RE miles.”  The concept was that if you did an aerobic cross-training workout, you could consider it to be the training equivalent of running whatever distance you would’ve covered if you ran with the same effort for the same amount of time.  That’s all well and good, but it can sometimes be difficult to compare the effort of different activities.  I can run for more than an hour and have it feel effortless.  If I spend half that much time on a stationary bike, I’m already fatigued.  Does that mean my cycling workouts are more intense?  No, I’m just not used to cycling yet.  To convert my cycling miles to RE miles, I divide by three.  That’s a rule of thumb I’ve heard from triathletes.

A week after I started doing cycling workouts, I started doing weight training again.  Twice a week, I’m doing six exercises that work most of the large muscle groups.  I’m using far less weight than I used to, but it’s a start.  I’ve lost a lot of strength in the last three years.  It’ll take time to regain it.

I like to keep a spreadsheet that summarizes all my training for the week.  I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years.  I convert everything to “RE miles,” and add it up.  It’s hard to compare intense anaerobic workouts like weight training to running, but I do my best.  It’s imprecise, but I want to be able to summarize my total training volume.

For the past two weeks, I’ve done at least two workouts every day.  Usually, it’s cycling and running.  Sometimes, it’s cycling and weight training or running and weight training.  In addition, I sometimes go for short walks with Deb.

Here’s a graph that shows my weekly “RE mileage” since the beginning of the year.  Until recently, it was mostly just running mileage.  Occasionally, I did a little bit of walking, but it wasn’t a significant proportion of my total training.  In the last three weeks, the graph looks different.  I’m still doing the same amount of running, but I’ve added both cycling and weight training.  As a result, my weekly “RE mileage” has roughly doubled, compared to three weeks ago.

The legend may be too small to read, but blue is running, light blue is walking, green is cycling, and red is weight training.

These cross-training workouts serve more than one purpose.  In the short term, they’re helping giving me a new source of motivation, now that I no longer have any races on the horizon.  In the long term, they’ll hopefully help me control my weight.  In the last two weeks, my weight has leveled off.  I’m not losing weight yet, but I’m no longer gaining weight.  That’s a start.

The Advantages of a Home Gym

I started running while I was in college.  Before I graduated, I also took up weight training.  I bought a set of weights and a cheap weight bench that required assembly from an assortment of metal tubes, nuts, and bolts.  The bench didn’t seem real sturdy, but I wasn’t using a lot of weight, so it met my needs.  More important, it was something I could afford while going to school and working part-time.

While I was in college, I was living with my parents.  They were nice enough to let me use my mom’s “sewing room” as my weight room until I graduated.  I also bought an abdominal board that could be used for incline sit-ups.

The nice thing about that weight bench was that it could be disassembled and stored in a box for transport.  That made it easy to take it with me when I moved into an apartment.  I was living by myself, but I still got a two-bedroom apartment.  I used the second bedroom as my weight room.

Shortly after Deb and I got married, we bought a house.  I set up my weights in a room in the basement.  By now, I was able to handle more weight.  I no longer felt comfortable using a weight bench that seemed kind of rickety.  I found a fitness store that built their own equipment by welding 2x2 beams of iron together.  I replaced my department store bench with a nice sturdy bench that would last a lifetime.  The bench could be adjusted in different ways, so I could do incline or decline bench presses.  It also had an attachment for doing leg exercises, and another one for doing curls in a seated position.

By now, I owned a variety of bars and cast-iron weight disks of various sizes.  Over the next few years, I bought other pieces of equipment, so I could do more exercises.  First, I bought a pair of squat stands with wide heavy bases.  Next, I bought a high lat station, that also had cables and pullies that could be used for various rowing exercises.

Finally, I bought a fly attachment, and I replaced by curl board attachment with a better one that was padded on both sides.

I didn’t buy this equipment all at once.  These purchases were spread out over a period of about five years.  By the time I was done, I spent about $1,000 on weight lifting equipment.  I was set up to do just about any exercise that can be done using free weights.  I owned enough weight disks that I didn’t have to interrupt my workouts to move weights from one station to another.  I could set up everything before I started, and then move quickly from one exercise to the next.

I had friends who had gym memberships.  That had access to other types of equipment, but I was appalled by the cost of their gym memberships.  In the first five years alone, they spent more on their memberships than I did buying all my equipment.  Weight disks and benches don’t wear out.  Once I had them, I could use them for a lifetime with no additional cost.  It’s 30 years later, and I’m still using the same equipment.  There was an up-front investment, but since then I’ve saved thousands of dollars in membership fees.

At first, I just had weight-lifting equipment, but then I bought a stationary bike.  Now I could supplement my running with aerobic cross-training, and I didn’t have to leave my home.

The last major addition to my home gym was a treadmill.  Throughout my 20s and 30s, I was content to run outside.  Then I set my sights on running the Pike’s Peak Marathon.  That was the same year than I turned 40.

The Pike’s Peak Marathon is a trail run that starts in Manitou Springs and goes all the way up and down Pike’s Peak.  In the first half of the race, you ascend more than 7,800 feet.  That’s a mile and a half of ascent!  The average grade is 10.7 percent, but some parts of the trail are much steeper.

I don’t live near any mountains.  There’s no place I could go where I could practice running up a steep grade for mile after mile after mile.  That was my initial motivation to buy a treadmill.  I found a nice durable treadmill that could simulate grades up to 15 percent.  I did workouts where I alternated between running on a 5 percent grade and walking on a 15 percent grade.  At first, I could only keep this up for 30 minutes.  Then my quads would be screaming.

I kept up this training until I could routinely run uphill for an hour.  Then I started adding weekly long runs.  I gradually worked up to the point where I was simulating the entire ascent.  It took me three hours.

For the race itself, I had to contend with the thin air at elevations going up to 14,000 feet.  There’s no way I could prepare for that, but at least I was ready for the climbing.  The treadmill prepared me for that.  Despite living and training in Minnesota, I finished in the top third of the field.  Almost all the runners who finished ahead of me lived in Colorado, Wyoming, or Utah.

Now that I had a treadmill, I couldn’t resist using it for most of my winter training.  I live in a cold climate where the snow and ice stay on the ground all winter.  Running outside not only involves bundling up for cold temperatures, but also running on layers of packed snow and ice.  The best you can do on icy streets is to shuffle along slowly.  On the treadmill, I could train at race pace or faster.

Now, in addition to weight training, I could also run and bike, all without leaving my basement.

It’s worth noting that the treadmill and the stationary bike have moving parts, and they eventually wear out.  I’m now on my second stationary bike and my third treadmill.  These pieces of equipment are more expensive than the weights were, so it’s no longer clear that owning my own equipment is still significantly less expensive than having a gym membership.  It’s worth it, though, because of the convenience.

If you go to a gym to exercise, you have to take the time to drive there and change clothes before you start working out.  Then you have to shower and change clothes before driving home.  That takes a lot of extra time.  With a home gym, you just have to change into workout clothes and walk down to the basement.  Working out in my own basement has made it possible for me to do short workouts before work just be getting up a little earlier.

Often, the hardest part of a workout is getting started.  Who’s more likely to start a workout: the person who has to drive somewhere or the person who just has to walk down to his basement?

I still haven’t got to the biggest advantage of a home gym.  I never have to wait until a piece of equipment is available.  I can do my exercises in any order I choose.  The equipment is never in use by someone else.  (OK, Deb sometimes uses the treadmill, but we can pretty easily coordinate our workout schedules.)

I don’t know about you, but I need to listen to music while I work out.  I especially need music when I’m on the treadmill.  I don’t use a portable music player of any kind.  I don’t like the idea of sweating all over a pair of headphones.  I also wouldn’t want any cords that could get caught on something while I’m lifting weights.  Because I’m the only one in the room, I can fill the room with music.  I have a stereo in my living room, and I ran some speaker wire through the floorboards, so I can have a remote set of speakers in my exercise room.

I’ve always felt fortunate to have the convenience of a home gym, but now it’s more important than ever.  Because of COVID-19, lots of businesses are temporarily closed, including gyms.  People who have gym memberships no longer have access to the equipment they usually use.  Even while sheltering at home, I can still do all the same cross-training exercises I did before. Thankfully, I can still run outside, and the weather is starting to get nice.  It’s nice to know, however, that I could also run without leaving the house, if I was willing to do all my running on the treadmill.

My Legs Are Getting Stronger

Over the weekend, I noticed some improvement in my legs.  I can finally lift and carry (moderately) heavy objects without feeling like my left leg is going to buckle.  Stairs are getting easier too.

I had physical therapy today.  As usual, Ben and I discussed my progress over the last week and my plans for the next week.  Ben gave me a few new exercises and had me discontinue a few others, which were getting easy.

The new exercises are aimed mainly at rebuilding strength in my glutes.  One of them is this single leg deadlift.  My friend Sabrina calls this one “bird feeder.”  Initially, I’ll be doing this motion without any weight.

I’m also adding two forms of cross-training on the days I’m not running.  A few months ago, I had to discontinue my weight training because my leg extensions were inflaming my right adductor.  I’m finally ready to resume weight training, but I’ll have to start over with significantly less weight.  Leg extensions and leg curls will help me build the strength I need to run faster.  Right now, my legs just don’t give me any power.  The last time I tried to sprint, it was slower than the pace I used to run marathons.  Upper body exercises will help with another problem.  My arms and shoulders get tired during long runs.

Besides the weight training, I’ll also do cross-training on a rowing machine.  It’s a full-body aerobic workout, but there’s no impact, so it’s easier on my joints.

Nothing I do this week is going to help prepare me for Boston.  At this point, I’m looking at the things I need to do to for long-term improvement.  Eventually, I’d like to bring my marathon times back down.

My First Run of 2016

Today, I went for a run.  It was my first run of the year.  I only ran a few miles.  I ran slowly and cautiously; I wore a compression wrap; and I ran on the treadmill.  I could have run outside, but there are a few icy patches.  I didn’t want to risk slipping on ice when my right leg is still fragile.

I’m roughly three weeks into my long overdue recovery from a groin strain.  For the first week, I didn’t run at all.  Then I started doing short cautious runs like the one I did today.  Then I had a setback.

Last Thursday, I did weight training.  That’s the only form of cross-training I haven’t abandoned.  My upper body exercises went OK.  Then I did my leg extensions.  On the last couple of reps, I felt some discomfort in my right leg.  It didn’t feel that bad at the time, but I noticed it more during the night.  Often while I’m in bed, I’ll notice things I don’t notice during the day.  I’m most apt to have discomfort in my leg when I roll over in bed or absent-mindedly stretch out and flex the muscles when I wake up.

On Friday, I felt discomfort almost every time I moved my legs.  It wasn’t severe, but it was there.  Friday was New Year’s Day.  I was hoping to start the new year with a short run, but the only prudent thing to do was take a day off.  I also rested on Saturday and Sunday.  By Monday, my leg was feeling much better, but I took one more rest day to be on the safe side.

Since my last race, I’ve been noticing improvement in my leg, but it’s been gradual.  I don’t always notice a difference from day to day, but I can see improvement from week to week.  My workout last Thursday probably set me back between two and three weeks.  I can’t afford to have any more setbacks like that.  I couldn’t afford this one.

The reason is can’t afford a setback is because I’m signed up for two races in February.  The first one is the Los Angeles Marathon on February 14.  The second is the Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon on February 28.  I signed up for both of these races last spring, when I was healthy.

Neither of these races is part of any long-term goal.  I signed up for the Los Angeles Marathon, because it’s being held in conjunction with the Olympic Trials.  Of the large marathons, this is one of the few I’ve never done.  I’ve never spent any time in L.A., and this seemed like the best time.  As for Rock ‘n’ New Orleans, I signed up right after last year’s race, when they were offering a significant discount on the entry fee.  It’s a race I always enjoy.

I have no illusions of being in shape for these races.  I’d be content to do some combination of running and walking that gets me to the finish within the time limits.  My only concern is being healthy.  I don’t want to race if it causes me to aggravate an existing injury.  I’ve been doing that for far too long.  I’m serious about wanting to get healthy before doing any more racing.

I booked flights for both of these trips using frequent flier miles.  If I cancel my flights at least 72 hours in advance, my miles will be redeposited in my account.  I can also cancel my hotel and rental car reservations.  My only out-of-pocket expenses are the entry fees.

Hotels in LA are expensive.  To save money, I was planning to share a room with my friend Aaron.  That’s my biggest concern.  I don’t want him to be stuck if I have to cancel.  I could still fly out and watch the trials, but it’s hard to justify the expense if I’m not also running.  Hotels in Santa Monica aren’t cheap.

Over the past several months, I’ve had to accept a lot of limitations.  I’ve given up several activities that were keeping my leg from healing.  Although I was still racing until mid-December, I gave up on most other running.  I gave up on most forms of cross-training, including cycling.  I gave up on physical therapy, when I regressed to the point where I needed to do more healing first.  I gave up on a set of core exercises that I’ve been doing consistently for 35 years.  It looks like I also have to give up my weight training.

I could still do my upper body exercises, but I need to give up the leg extensions and possibly the leg curls.  The leg extensions were the only thing I was doing to maintain strength in my quads.  Now I have to wonder how much strength and muscle mass I’m going to lose before I’m able to resume strenuous workouts.

By waiting until today to do my first run of the year, I’ve all but given up on another goal.  I don’t run every day, but I have some long streaks for weekly and month mileage.  I’ve run at least 100 miles per month for 137 consecutive months.  I’ve run at least 10 miles per week for 554 consecutive weeks.  Both of those streaks go back more than 10 years, so I hate to give them up.  I had doubts about running 100 miles in December, but I finished the month with 100.4 miles.  That’s only because I ran two marathons earlier in the month.  Without any races this month, getting to 100 is doubtful.  The 10 miles per week streak probably isn’t in danger.

A friend posted this online recently.  My comment was, “The rest muscle is located between your ears.  It’s difficult to train this muscle.”  Mine seems to be particularly resistant to training.  If I want my leg to get better, I need to be smarter and less stubborn.  I'm getting there.

Do I train between races?

When other runners find out I run marathons almost every weekend, they sometimes ask me if I train between races.  The answer is yes.  The races are a big part of my training, but I also need to train during the week.

I don’t follow a conventional training schedule.  For the most part, I make up my training schedule as I go.  The races take the place of long training runs.  How I arrange the rest of my schedule depends on how many days I have between races.

When your races are spaced just a week apart, you can’t take too many days for post-race recovery.  You also can’t spend much time tapering for races.  I usually follow a compressed schedule, with only one recovery day after a race and one rest day before the next one.  The training I do during the week isn’t going to help me much with my next race.  I’m usually preparing myself for other races that are weeks or months away.  I’ll run eight marathons between now and mid-December, but most of my training is oriented toward a 48-hour race at the end of December.

I’d describe a typical training week, but I really don’t have one.  I’m constantly adapting my training around my race schedule.  Instead, I’ll describe the training I did last week.

Sunday was a rest day.  I ran a marathon the day before.  Usually, I recover with some form of light cross-training, such as a core workout or an easy spin on the stationary bike.  I was unusually tired that day.  I flew home from Indianapolis, arriving in the late afternoon.  There’s a one hour time difference between Indianapolis and Minneapolis.  It was also the day we transitioned from daylight time to standard time.  As a result, it felt like it was two hours later than what the clock was saying.  I was behind on sleep, and even 10 minutes of core exercises seemed like more than I could do.  When you’re that tired, it’s time to listen to your body.

On Monday, I had more energy.  As soon as I got up, I did my core workout.  This is a fairly easy workout that only takes 10 minutes.  I’ve been doing these workouts as long as I can remember.  Ideally, I do them every other day.  I have a circuit of three exercises, and I do the circuit three times.  I start with a set of 30 side-to-side twists, holding a small weight disk in front of me.  Next I do a set of 30 incline sit-ups, using an abdominal board.  Finally, I lie down on a weight bench and do 30 leg raises.

Later in the morning, I did weight training.  I did two sets each of curls, bench press, side lateral raises, leg extensions and leg curls.  Ideally, I like to do weight training twice a week.  Sometimes my race schedule limits me to only one weight training workout.  I did this one early in the week, so I could fit in more weight training on Thursday.

In the afternoon, I did a 12.1 mile run/walk workout.  This workout is designed to prepare me for my 48-hour race, where I’ll be continually switching between running and walking.  Walking and running emphasize different muscles in your legs, so it’s important to include both in training.  I vary the length of my walking breaks so my average pace stays around 11 minutes per mile.  That makes this an easy workout, despite the distance.  I’ve found it to be a nice recovery workout for my first run after a race.

On Tuesday, I only did one workout.  I didn’t do anything in the morning, because I wanted to have fresh legs for my afternoon run.  It was a 10 mile tempo run on the treadmill.  A few years ago, I was regularly doing 10 mile tempo runs as my preferred form of speed work.  I had to stop doing these workouts when I was recovering from a hamstring injury.  I’m just starting to get back into them, so I’m not doing them very fast yet.  I increased my speed gradually, topping out at 8.5 MPH (a 7:03 pace).  I held that pace for the last six miles.

On Wednesday, I started my day with another core workout.  In the afternoon, I went running.  I wanted to do an 11 mile course that included some hills, but I was planning to go at an easy pace.  There was rain in the forecast, so I change my route so I would never be too far from home.  As a result, it wasn’t very hilly.  Even though I kept the pace slow, I felt unusually tired.  I pulled the plug at 8.7 miles.  I could have dragged myself through a few more miles, but I played it safe.  I’ve been racing like crazy, and the last thing I want to do is over-train.

Thursday was similar to Monday.  In the morning, I did weight training.  This workout was a little different than the one I did on Monday.  I started with lat station pulldowns, incline bench press and reverse curls.  I finished with leg extension and leg curls.  I include leg extensions in every workout, because keeping my quads strong is important for preventing knee injuries.  I include leg curls in every workout, because I’m still rebuilding strength in my hamstrings.

In the afternoon, I did another 12.1 mile run/walk workout.  I felt especially energetic.  All of my running was at marathon race pace or faster.  All of my walking was 14 minute miles or faster.   Neither the running pace nor the walking pace was easy, yet the overall workout was.  Constantly switching muscle groups keeps me fresh, and my average pace was only 11 minutes per mile.  Just as this is a good recovery workout after a race, it’s also a good workout for my last run before a race.

Friday was essentially a rest day.  I did my 10-minute core workout, but that’s it.  I spent most of the day traveling to a race.

I finished the week by running the Soldier Marathon on Saturday.

Including the marathon, I ran a total of 68 miles.  I also did two weight training workouts and three short core workouts.  Conspicuous by its absence was aerobic cross-training.  A few years ago, I was only running three or four times a week.  On the days I wasn’t running, I spent up to 90 minutes on a stationary bike.  As I’ve added more running days, they’ve replaced the bike workouts.  Now when I ride the bike, it’s usually a 20-30 minute workout.  These make good recovery workouts.  I also sometimes do a short spin as a secondary workout when my main workout is a run.