The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Today’s workout was out of my reach once again since I don’t have an Olympic weight set. It was to do five sets of five reps of the front squat, for max load. The best I have are a pair of thirty pound dumbbells. So, I put together a variation that included ten rounds of the front squat with my heaviest dumbbells and losing one rep per set. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 = 55 reps of 60 pounds. That didn’t take very long.

My results: 6:24, 4:21 zone (hard); HR: 151 avg, 167 max; 78 cal

In order to get a workout, instead of an embarrassing warm up, I devised a supplemental workout to add to tonight’s workout. Until I acquire an Olympic weight set and the instruction to perform lifts correctly, this is a good supplement.

Wimpy Front Back Go

“Front Back Go” was an exercise we got in Army Basic Training. We hated it. We usually got Front Back Go when we as a unit or someone among us screwed up and pissed the drill sergeant off. When the sergeant called “Front”, we’d assume pushup position and do pushups. “Back” meant to roll over and do situps. “Go” meant to run in place. The drill sergeant would invariably rapid fire it as “front front front back back back GO!”

My “Wimpy” version is the following:

10 rounds for time:

1. 5 pushups (Front)
2. 10 situps (Back)
3. 15 squats (Go)

All told, the Wimpy Front Back Go as prescribed above is 50 pushups, 100 situps, and 150 squats. Attacking this at a significant pace kept my heart rate high. I may double this for the “Soft” version and quadruple it for “Hard.” Time will tell.

My results: 17:11, 12:12 zone (hard); HR: 152 avg, 168 max; 216 cal

Oooh, did you feel that? It shook my entire house. I had just finished making my ravioli, carrying it to my coffee table, and starting a movie when the rumble started. It looks like the USGS has the earthquake information. 5.6 on the Richter Scale.

That’ll get the blood pumping.

No damage at my house. Just a nice rumble and shakes. Carry on.

Today’s workout was pretty simple, but the time got away from me quickly. It required ramping sets of pullups. I’m still doing assisted pullups, since I’m not yet strong enough to do more than one pullup and I’m not coordinated enough to kip. Our instructions were simple—start a clock and do one pullup the first minute, two the second minute, and so on, increasing sets by one per minute until you’re unable to finish a set in a minute.

I managed to get seven complete sets and six of the eighth set. I’m sure if I’d had 10 more seconds on the clock, I could have done an eighth set and part of a ninth. I have a lot of upper body strength training to do. Knowing that 34 assisted pullups isn’t jack, I added a set of 34 pushups and 34 squats at the end. I ended up with 21 extra pushups having forgotten to turn on the heart rate monitor. When that happens, you can either say “screw it” or “I need the extra work anyway” and start over.

My results: 13:12, 6:55 zone (hard); HR: 155 avg, 173 max; 170 cal
Pullups: 34; Pushups: 45; Squats: 34

Results include pullups, pushups, and squats, but not the extra set of not-monitored pushups mentioned above.

Two years ago today, I suffered a serious injury at the hands of a negligent driver while I was riding a metric century on my bicycle. Nearly a year later, I was on the ground again.

One year ago today, I rode the most recent mile I’ve ridden. After four crashes in four subsequent years, I sort of lost interest in cycling. I used to think, quite erroneously, that the only way for me to be in decent physical condition was to ride 200 or more miles a week.

I believe that I am currently in better physical condition than I ever was as a cyclist. When I was averaging 40 miles a day on a six day schedule, I still could not run a continuous mile, I carried too much body fat, and I couldn’t do 10 pushups in a row.

I still have both of my bicycles—the Trek 520 and the Trek 2100—parked in my bicycle room. What I’m wrestling with now is what to do with the bicycles. Will I ride again? Maybe I will.

But, I don’t expect to spend the kind of hours dedicated to my bicycling as I did before. There are more important things I have to do and there are modalities of my physical training that I am exploring. I may still attempt the California Triple Crown someday. Recent events have taught me that I can do anything.

I have no idea what my cycling future holds, but I do know that, while I have the legal right to ride my bicycle in a vehicular manner in the roadways, motorists are not looking for us. I do not want to die at the hands of someone who isn’t even paying attention, for whom my presence is unknown and then an insurance worry. I just don’t love riding bicycles that much.

I’m going to keep on pushing for elite physical fitness, though. Maybe you’ll see me out there clicked into pedals climbing toward Skyline, but let’s just get through 2007 without landing face-first on asphalt.

Today’s workout was quite a doozy. It involved two exercises that I either don’t have the skill to do (handstand pushups) or the equipment (ring dips). So, I had to completely swap out two of the movements for something I can do. Without further ado, here’s what I did this evening.

For time:

1. 50 parallette doorstep dips
2. 400 m run
3. 50 pushups
4. 400 m run
5. 50 burpees
6. 400 m run

If I was a bit stronger, I’d have gotten through this thing in half the time I did. The pushups took a long time. My plan on subdividing the 50 rep sets was to split them into seven descending sets (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5). As I began to get tired on the pushups, the sets became threes. It’s really hard not to rest in the middle of sets of burpees, because you both start and stop in a standing position, making it easy to wander to the water bottle or put elbows to knees and pant. The 50 burpees ate nearly half the time for this workout.

Somehow, I kept all the running stints (about 415 m each) under 2 minutes. This is good. This was a great workout that reminded me that I have a couple of light years to go before I’m anywhere in the Awesome Star System.

Bring it on.

My results: 32:03, 10:38 zone (hard); HR: 152 avg, 199 max; 405 cal

Today’s workout was relatively simple—ten one-rep for max sets of cleans. Unfortunately, I still don’t have an Olympic weight set. So, I decided to do a tapered round of ten sets of dumbbell cleans with the 30 pound dumbbells (so, 55 cleans — 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 rep sets).

My form was pretty bad (I could see my reflection in the sliding glass door) but better than I expected. I really tried to focus on doing each exercise completely. I may start shopping around for weights and a bar (I found Olympic bars at a nearby store for $59.99). Earlier today, I noticed that a new CrossFit gym has opened in Sunnyvale. Perhaps I should go down there and get some instruction on how to do the exercises properly.

My results: 15:06, 8:08 zone (hard); HR: 154 avg, 180 max; 195 cal

Today’s workout is one I’ve done before. We’re spending half an hour with Michael this evening. This time, we’re doing the whole shebang.

Michael
Three rounds for time:

1. 800 meter run
2. 50 back extensions (standing, weighted with 30# dumbbell)
3. 50 situps

I was pretty slow. My running legs were faster this time around, but I’m 15 pounds lighter. Factoring on the fact that I did more than twice as many reps as last time, I think I’m far stronger than I was before. Next time the good lieutenant’s workout comes around, I’m gonna try to get it in under half an hour.

Also, don’t do situps on concrete. Pinching the crease of your ass against concrete is unpleasant. Especially when you’ve got 50 more situps to go today.

My results: 35:15, 11:52 zone (hard); HR: 158 avg, 187 max; 485 cal

This morning, I got on the scale as I do every day and noticed the number: 165.5. As of this morning, I am lighter by 30½ pounds than I was just three months ago. I have another little bit to go and a long way to go until I’m in the kind of shape I’m after. Still, it sure feels good to no longer be overweight. It feels especially good to be able do things that I didn’t think I’d be able to do, like my 10 km runs last week.

My body weight goal is 156 pounds. Just ten more pounds to go. Onward!

Today’s workout was pretty simple, but quite difficult. Dubbed “Tabata Something Else”, this tabata workout involved four exercises—pullups, pushups, situps, and squats. A tabata is where you do a particular exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for ten. Since I don’t have a timekeeper partner, I downloaded a song for the purpose, loaded it onto my iPod Shuffle, grabbed a notebook, and headed down to the park.

After I finished my first eight rounds of assisted pullups and started in on the pushups, I accidentally yanked my headphones. Instead of halting the heart rate monitor until I could get the iPod cable figured out, I accidentally hit the stop button. Oops. Looks like we’re starting over. So, this tabata is 8 rounds of pullups, 8 rounds of pushups, 8 rounds of situps, and 8 rounds of squats. I just get a bonus of 73 pullups and 5 pushups.

The last 3 rounds of any set are gruelling. Luckily, since the time here is short, there’s not much time to move. But, it’s still difficult to get into a position to write numbers on a notebook from the situp position. I’ll have to use my cell phone next time instead.

My results: 21:57, 14:25 zone, HR: 153 avg, 169 max; 282 cal

1. AP 1: 11 10 09 09 09 08 09 08 = 73
2. AP 2: 12 10 09 08 09 09 08 08 = 73
3. PU 1: 07 08 06 06 05 05 04 04 = 45
4. SU 1: 09 09 08 08 06 06 07 06 = 59
5. SQ 1: 11 10 10 10 10 10 08 11 = 80
6. Total: 335 (including AP1 + 5 PU), 257 (without AP1 and extra pushups)

Today’s workout is called “Lynne.” Since I lacked a barbell, I got to come up with two extra exercises to compensate for the lightness of the weight portion of the workout. Here’s the assigned work for today:

Five rounds for max reps of:

1. Bodyweight bench presses
2. Pullups

So, after dinner, I took my thirty pound dumbbells over to the park with the low pullup bar and the benches together and went after the following subsitution:

Five rounds for max reps of:

1. 60# (2×30#) dumbbell bench presses
2. Pushups
3. Assisted Pullups
4. Bench dips

At first, I was going to attempt tapering sets of 21, 18, 15, 12, and 9 reps. 60 pounds of dumbbells directly over my face proved a little much, so I went for 50 reps total. Pushups were very difficult toward the end and I almost dropped dumbbells on my face twice (and on my balls once). The pullup bar was low enough that the assisted pullups were not so difficult, and the bench dips were extra tricep work. I was wobbly lots of the time. Maybe this weekend on a rest day, I’ll go for this one again with the 75 reps of the tapering sets. Lynne spanked me pretty hard and still has me rubbing my arms an hour later. Whew.

My results: 22:46, 6:28 zone (hard); HR: 137 avg, 164 max; 245 cal (45%)
50 of each exercise (dumbbell bench press, pushup, assisted pullup, dips) completed.

Yesterday’s PT Test changed my weight percentage to 65.67%, so after my hike and my drive home from the East Bay, I warmed up, loaded some dumbbells in the car, and headed to the park. Today’s workout included two weight events, so it was a good opportunity to test whether or not my multiplier is challenging or too difficult. Okay, let’s go. My substitutions in italics.

Three rounds (21, 15, and 9 reps) of:

1. Dumbbell Squat Cleans (30# Dumbbells)
2. Knees to elbows
3. Dumbbell Thrusters (30# Dumbbells)
4. Standard Pushups

My deviance from the prescribed workout stems from my lack of barbells and my inability to do L pullups or handstand pushups. Subsitutions make it possible to complete the workout anyway. The thirty pound dumbbells are heavier than I’m used to and it was occasionally difficult for me to maintain control over the dumbbell. On three occasions, I didn’t have myself in a position where I could successfully execute the rep (which would have landed me on my ass if I had been at full weight with a barbell). After lots of heavy breathing and lots of water drinking, I managed all three sets and loaded the dumbbells back into my car.

My results: 41:15, 22:54 zone (hard); HR: 146 avg, 165 max; 500 cal

Today, Ozreiuosn and I decided to go check out Jack London State Historical Park in Sonoma County. We got to the park headquarters a little later than we’d have liked, because of a little oops in the directions (and my realization that Google Maps on my mobile phone doesn’t like searches like: “38.25334,-122.39014″ (which would be exceedingly helpful for people who are sort of lost, but also happen to be carrying a GPS unit).

We finally arrived at the park in the early afternoon. I cannot recommend this gorgeous estate highly enough. Jack London was an incredibly interesting man with diverse passions, including sailing and farming. The location he chose for his farm couldn’t have been more picturesque. In addition to a museum which told the story of his life, the ruins of Wolf House, a stupefying 15,000 square food residence that burned to the ground a month before he and his wife were to move in, are still nearby. The Beauty Ranch, half a mile from the museum, is beautifully nestled among sprawling vineyards and still has London’s unsuccessful attempts at ranching. The cottage, where he spent the rest of his life, is remarkably preserved. What a magical place.

From the ranch complex, we headed up the hill to London’s Lake, a small lake created by damming a small stream. Such idyllic surroundings warrant further exploration in the future.

Our hike took us up and around the Fallen Bridge Trail, which climbed just above 1300 feet before it circled back around through a clearing. Having staggered into the late afternoon, we decided not to attempt to climb the high trail to the park’s summit. Instead, we headed back through the Ranch under the fading light of the setting sun.

Next time, we’re going to have to go all the way to the top.

Today’s workout was “CrossFit Total”, a standard benchmark that requires three barbell exercises for max. I don’t have a barbell, so I’m substituting the entire workout. Today, it’s time for a benchmark of my own — a reprise of PT Test Alpha, which I took two months ago.

On the 19th of August, I weighed 189 pounds. This morning, I stepped on a scale that displayed 167.5. I am over 20 pounds lighter today. Now, it’s time for that PT Test.

I started out with situps, noticing that CountDown Timer for my Blackberry Pearl doesn’t count seconds accurately. It rang from T Minus 120 when my heart rate monitor was clicking through 90 seconds. My distraction at the screwed timer burned a few seconds extra, but I ended up with more than 50 situps.

Pushups came next and without a countdown timer, I would check my wrist every 20 or 30 seconds. I paced myself too slowly at first and ended up with merely 35, one short of an APFT pass.

After that, I walked over to the track nearby, started the iPod, and stepped into my run, trying to keep my pace fast and light. On September 3, I managed a non-continuous two mile time of 17:31. Today’s continuous run brought me across the line faster than 17 minutes.

PT Test Bravo

• Sit Ups: 52 (APFT Score: 72) - required to pass: 42
• Push Ups: 35 (APFT Score: 59) - required to pass: 36 (1 more)
• Two mile run: 16:57 (APFT Score: 66) - required to pass: 17:42
• APFT Total: 197 (pushup fail)

Next goal: 240 points (56 pushups, 59 situps, 15:30 2 mile run)

With the new APFT score, I’m increasing my multiplier for weighted CrossFit workouts. I was working at 45% (PT Alpha: 136 / 3 = 45.33%). Now, I’ll be increasing my multiplier to the average of this test: 197 / 3 = 65.67%.

Onward!

Today’s workout was shocking. But, there it was in black and white: Run 10 K. Didn’t we just do that a few days ago? Well, gosh. Can he do it again?

It was forecast to rain once again this evening. After procrastinating after getting home, I suited up in my rain gear and drove over to the park. It was quite a bit warmer than I thought it’d be this evening. After leaving the jacket behind on the bleacher, I started my step around the track, trying to hold to 2:30 laps. After losing a few seconds being conservative on some of the laps, I kept the step even. At one point, some idiot woman came to the track to smoke cigarettes and chatter on her cellphone, while ignoring her little annoying rat bastard mutt. The third time the thing chased me, I bellowed at her to get her dog off the track before I punt it across the street. I wish people knew how to courteously use my track.

I stayed on pace until the last lap, when I picked up my pace to sprint finish. I didn’t have as much kick in my sprint this time. I finished the 10 km long, according to my GPS, by over a quarter mile. Nice and steady wins the day. Today, I was almost three minutes faster than I was on Tuesday.

My results: 1:02:41, 8:48 zone (hard); HR: 168 avg, 207 max; 980 cal
Distance: 6.25 mi (10.06 km); Distance (GPS): 6.53 mi (10.51 km)

Miles:

1. 10:19
2. 9:57
3. 10:04
4. 10:13
5. 10:03
6. 9:56
7. 2:09 (final lap)

Today’s workout was one of CrossFit’s benchmark workouts, named “Fran.” While I work on my upper body strength and while I lack access to barbells and bumper plates, I scaled the weight back slightly as I stated earlier. My “official” scale is 45%, due to the average score on PT Test Alpha, which is now two months old. That makes Fran’s thrusters over 42 pounds. I decided, after my huge surprise yesterday, to go for a little extra today. Today’s thrusters were rounded up to 50, instead of down to 40. Here’s what we’re doing today.

Three rounds (21, 15, and 9 reps) for time:

1. 50# dumbbell thrusters (2 x 25#)
2. Jumping pullups

The thrusters were actually the fastest part of this particular attempt, my first, at Fran. The pullups ate the most time. Once again, I was jumping and resisting on the way down, since I don’t have enough upper body strength to do very many strict deadhang pullups nor do I have the rhythm or technique to do kipping pullups. With a nice set of street lights shining on me, I pounded out this workout pretty slowly. I divided my thrusters up into thirds and the jumping pullups were two at a time. This benchmark will only improve in the future.

My results: 16:10, 9:22 zone (hard); HR: 161 avg, 178 max; 231 cal

Today’s workout was very intimidating. It was only six characters, not counting spaces: Run 10 K. Okay, damn. There is no way in hell you should be trying to run 10 km, Apollo. You’re out of shape, you can’t keep your heart rate under 170, and you don’t know how to warm up or stretch out or run correctly or avoid getting attacked by radioactive monkeys.

Just try to limit the amount of time you spend drinking water at the edge of the track. Maybe go for six laps in a kick.

I got home, bundled up in shorts, sweats, my awesome new beanie, my iPod, my red cycling shell, my GPS unit, my cell phone to record the lap splits, and drove over to the nearby track. I reset the Trip Computer on my GPS, set my heart rate monitor to “hard” zone, and started to step. My goal was just to get through a good chunk of the 10 kilometer distance. Then, I decided to pull back on the pace and see if I could gut out the whole distance. I never wandered from my plan to stop for a minute or two to catch my breath every two miles.

On lap 6, I snatched up my water bottle and carried it for a lap, managed to replace it on the wooden bleacher without losing my kick, and kept on. On lap 12, I decided I should stop after 13, rest for a minute, and start afresh. I kept going, though, and took up the bottle again on the 14th lap. With 2½ miles left, I ate a Clif shot in my pocket and forged onward, relishing the 11 seconds of Stopped Time on my GPS unit that happened between the time I reset the track and when I started running. I relaxed, eased into the groove, and kept pumping. At mile 5, I was astonished that my 11 seconds hadn’t grown. I only had 5 laps to go. On my last lap, I picked up the pace dramatically and almost completely sprinted the last half lap, pushing my heart rate above 200 bpm.

My time wasn’t really anything a real runner would brag about, but this is by far the largest distance I’ve ever run in my life. It’s about twice as far as any non-stop non-walking distance I’ve ever run. My GPS still only has the original 11 seconds of stopped time. I’m slow, still out of shape, but tonight I feel like Superman.

My results: 1:05:32, 1:52 zone (hard); HR: 171 avg, 207 max; 1061 cal
Distance: 6.25 mi (10.06 km). Distance (GPS): 6.45 mi (10.38 km)

Miles:

1. 9:54
2. 10:22
3. 10:31
4. 10:41
5. 11:00
6. 10:57
7. 2:07 (single lap)

Today’s workout was a nice respite from the recent killers, such as Murph, Mary, and J. T. especially. So, about 9:30, I threw my kettlebell into the trunk of my car and drove over to the pullup bar. I was going to walk over there and carry the kettlebell on foot, but it was getting late and I realized that carrying it home after the full workout was going to suck more that I could anticipate.

Here we go. Three rounds for time of:

1. 400 m run
2. 21 kettlebell swings (16 kg)
3. 12 jumping pullups

Fortunately, I got off to a good start and it was much warmer than I thought it was. My runs ended up about 425 meters a pop and I was able to each split in about 2 minutes. Kettlebell swings were the easiest thing until I started to get tired. The pullups had me working in sets of three until I knocked them all down. Maybe I should have done this one twice, just to trim a little bit more chub off the old midsection. I was much slower than I thought I’d be, primarily due to the pullups. We have to start somewhere.

My results: 19:44 (4:14 in hard zone); HR: 169 avg, 187 max; 310 cal (20%)

Today, Oz and I went for another hike. At first, we were going to head over to Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, but all the trails there are paved and full of mountain bikes. So, after cruising around Stevens Creek Reservoir, we ended up at Sanborn-Skyline County Park.

First of all, this park has an entrance fee of $6. Apparently, so many throngs of tourists and picnic people wander through that such a cover charge is warranted. True to form, we ran into a large group of tourists chattering in some other language near the rest rooms next to my car — outfitted completely in the cheapest Target garbage nickels could buy. After consulting with the map, we raced up the mountain to get away from all the people.

Sanborn Trail winds toward Skyline and threatens in a couple of places, but never quite delivers, a jaw-dropping view of the Silicon Valley. The redwood forest, all orange and brown with the fall colors, was the same as we saw recently at Purisima Creek Redwoods, Big Basin Redwoods, and Castle Rock (which lies about 3 miles away from the top of our trail). The climb was steep and fun and the descent on San Andreas Trail windy and gradual, with no vistas to speak of. I liked the hike much more than Oz did, but now that I’ve come to this park, I don’t have to come back. There’s just not enough interesting scenery here to warrant the large parking lot fee.

My results: 2:26:27 (56:24 basic zone); HR: 114 avg, 159 max; 1088 cal
Distance: 4.73 miles. Elevation start: 1325 ft. Elevation max: 2525 ft.

Today’s workout was named “Mary.” Mary does not like Apollo. Mary craves a lot of movement in only 20 minutes. Mary likes to spank Apollo. <whine />

Max reps in 20 minutes of:

1. 5 handstand pushups (sub: regular pushups)
2. 10 one-legged squats (assisted by bench)
3. 15 pullups (assisted)

Working out at the local elementary school par course before sunset means that I either endure gawkers, commenters, and chatters, or I have to wait until whomever it is messing around on the bar, the benches, or the steppy thing (similar to this apparatus) gets bored and moves on. From now on, I think I’ll use the equipment in Sunnyvale Middle School Park, which is farther away. It has several advantages over the one at the closer school.

1. The par course runs the perimeter of the fence.
2. The apparatus area is more sparsely frequented by people not trying to get work done.
3. The low bar is almost 7 feet up and I have to jump to get to the high bar.
4. Parallel bars!
5. The ladder apparatus at the side of the track is useful for various things.
6. There is a more significant cooldown march back to my house (about a mile).
7. There are parking spots adjacent to the fence if there’s a need for me to bring dumbbells or kettlebells to the party.

My goal for today’s “Mary” was 6 sets. I breezed through the first set in about 2 minutes. The rest of them went much slower. I managed to complete 8 sets. The most difficult part, other than the assisted pullups, was getting up from the bottom position of a one-legged squat. If I didn’t have anything to push off of, I doubt I’d even be able to do this exercise once.

My results: 8 sets in 20:00, 4:58 zone (hard); HR: 168 avg, 185 max; 310 cal

A couple of months ago, my friend, Seth, rode in the Pan Mass Challenge, a bicycle ride across Massachusetts whose proceeds raise money for The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

This year, Seth set an incredibly ambitious goal — to raise $6,000. Through a combination of donations and software auctions, he met his goal. He’s all done. But, apparently, we can still donate. I don’t want to break my streak of helping out this wonderful organization and giving some of my money to help fund cancer research.

I have been a little spaced out recently, so I haven’t gotten to this until now. So, today, I’m donating a dime for every mile on Seth’s log. He’s ridden 3,123.84 miles so far this year, so I’m giving $312.38. I’d like to urge you all to give whatever you can. You can still donate to the Jimmy Fund in Seth’s name.

Congratulations of five years of riding this thing, Seth. My hat’s off to you.