And we are running

Went for my first run in two weeks this morning. It was good as expected. Only went for four easy miles just to be safe and test my knee. Despite hurting off and on over the past two weeks it felt fine running. I don't think it's a running injury because it isn't any worse post run, if anything it's better which leads me to believe it's a mobility issue. I'll try to focus more on what I know I should be doing anyway: stretching, rolling, strengthening. A little goes a long, long way. 

Since I hadn't been running I figured it a good time to play with the "Recovery" settings on my Suunto Ambit 3 Peak watch. I'd always forgotten to do this in a rest phase. It needs to be calibrated and in the middle of heavy mileage and lack of sleep isn't a good time to do it. The watch tracks your sleep and heart rate all night giving you an estimate of how recovered you are and also your actual minimum resting heart rate. It's probably best to still adjust training by "feel" versus what the tech says but fun to see the numbers. I was extremely happy my resting heart rate was tracked at 31 beats per minute! 

Oh, and a side note my blood pressure has been below what is considered "normal." Historically it's insanely high. Only change I've made is no meat or dairy. I still eat a boat load of fruit, raw and cooked vegetables, and have added more beans, quinoa, rice, and starchy vegetables. One thing to keep in mind too is I don't eat processed junk food, candy, or "meat replacement products." I'm excited to get my blood checked this winter and see how the numbers compare to last year having cut out animal products since June. 

No official training plans yet, just going to ease back into it and then in November most likely formulate more of a focus. 

A brief update

view of Zurich from hotel room

A friend was in Europe on business so I met him in Zurich last weekend. What a beautiful place. Clean and the people were all super friendly and helpful. Got a taste of Oktoberfest and also spent a day in the Alps outside of Lucern. God I miss the mountains. Beautiful weather, people relaxing in the sun, smiles everywhere, music, alpenhorns. Just awesome positivity. Would love to have spent longer here and more time on our feet rather than using the trams and cog rail but really cool none the less. Oktoberfest was great. Everyone of all ages was singing, shaking liter mugs high in the air, and having fun. Best part was on the way out some drunk guy starts excitedly telling a story to my friend, huge smile on his face, but of course in Swiss German! I'm walking behind and am laughing as Aaron has absolutely no idea what he's said! Such happy people. In the UK people just get belligerent, yell profanities, and fight when they drink. Probably another reason why I don't fit in, I'm a happy drinker. All the photos are from this trip.

Oktoberfest

Decided to take two weeks off running despite feeling decent and having fun. My left knee had some odd pain but now nearly done with the two weeks off it has me concerned a bit. It still randomly hurts. I've been stretching and rolling with little effect so I may just start running and see what happens. It's possible it will just work itself out like many things tend to do.

view from Pilatus

My body weight training has gotten better which is fun. It's fascinating how strength and skill build. I infrequently practice clutch flags at the playground but they get stronger every time I try them. I think a full human flag would come easy if I focused on it. It shows that a little bit of everything consistently (my standard go to exercises: handstand push-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, bridges) adds up to significantly bigger movements. One part of me wants to focus more on this but I think what I do now is plenty.

vertical gain here is serious business, would love to train here

The Eiger

JKD hums along. I'm finally getting the habit to practice more at home to stick, I've struggled with that. I'm also incorporating more hand speed drills since I'm seemingly one big slow twitch muscle. Comparing hand speed training to sprint training for running I'd guess it's the same physiological response so I'm hoping it has a quick benefit as does the running. So far it seems to be working. This stuff is so much fun but difficult to practice alone. I've been doing it for a while now, I knew it would be challenging since I don't have the mentality of a fighter, but it's coming together which is fascinating. Movements flow into each other and things just happen without thought. Awesome.

I believe the world's steepest railway coming down the cog rail thing

we started in the far right and came down the far left