Strong, Fast and Nerdy

Winter Poundage

2011-03-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

Yep, I put on a couple of pounds over the winter. Not too proud of it, but I ate well and lifted a lot of weights. It's just that I didn't do much else. A whole lot of sitting went on, and I have gained some waistline softness because of it. But no worries, with the nicer weather I've been getting out for walks much more often and last week started doing some interval training to burn off some fat! Along with that I'm doing some intermittent fasting a few times a week. Basically, whenever I feel like it. Trying to keep it a little random. The one bad thing is that one of my favorite intense cardio exercises is the "Burpee" but a last week ago I tweaked my back after stupidly deciding to throw an extra 50 pounds on my deadlift and even though I gave it a week and all seemed well I went to bust out some Burpees the other day and during the third set my lower back went into spasms and locked up on me! It sucks. So today I had to come up with something I could do to get the heart pumping without putting a lot of strain on the lower back. So here's what I did:

8 High Jumps
8 Overhead Presses
8 Squats
Sprint to the end of the driveway (about 30 yards) turn and sprint back to the garage.

I repeated this for 20 minutes, taking breaks when I needed them and lifting only the bar (45 pounds) until the about 12 minutes in when I decided to add 20 pounds to it.

It totally did the trick, my back didn't ache or lock up and my heart was pumping really hard!

I also did this workout in a fasted state and ate immediately afterwards. Was good.

-Ultimate Russell

The Winter Doldrums are coming to a Close. Time to get back to Business!

2011-03-13T12:02:00.000-04:00

Holy crap, it has been above freezing for a few days now, any snow we get melts promptly and I swear before Aquaman that I have actually seen the sun the last couple days. You know what that means... Winter is officially OVER!! Oh man, I cannot believe it! I seriously thought it might never end.

So that's great. Now with that aside I need to address something...

Sorry for infrequent/no new posting. I was kind of in hibernate mode and didn't feel like I had a whole lot to talk about. Even though I did have some pretty cool stuff to talk about. Guess I was just dealing with the crap weather and not feeling motivated. But with the big thaw going on I feel the motivation engine firing back up, so I promise you can expect more updates more frequently.

So what HAS the Ultimate Russell been up to? Well, a couple things:

1. I did some playing around with some DEEP ketosis! I'm talking practically ZERO carb for probably about 45 days. All I ate was meat, eggs, and a little butter to cook in. Also drank some clear alcohol ro wine on the weekends. It was interesting, for the most part I felt really good and didn't have some of the power drops like some people complain about. But when I started mixing in a little more high intensity activity with my heavy lifting I did start to feel a little beat up. So I have begun instituting a once or twice a week carb re-feed and that has helped tremendously!

2. The Pavel Tsatsouline 5x5x5 lifting protocol. This is a pretty cool setup and I like it, you are able to get in, get out, set some PR's, and get big and strong. But what is the 5x5x5? I'll tell you...

-You lift 5 days a week. When you lift you do 5 exercises. For most of the exercises you do 2 sets of 5 reps. Those are the basics. A little more detail goes like this. Lift HEAVY! If you know your one-rep-max I would operate in the 85-95% range. Also don't do touch and go deadlifts! Take a big breath between each attempt and STOP IF IT HURTS!! When you achieve 5 reps for both sets it's time to bump up the weight a little bit. That's a LITTLE bit. I usually go with 5 pounds at a time.

My 5x5x5 looked like this:

Deadlift - 2x5
Bench Press - 2x5
Weighted Pull-Ups - 2x5
Kettlebell Swings - 1 set max reps
Weighted Sit-Ups - 1x5

So that's how I started and everything was going fine until I started getting some pain in my shoulders during the bench press. Turns out it was the old rotator cuff. So for the last 3 or 4 weeks I've been substituting weighted push-ups for the bench press and enjoying that much more. And while the bench press is indeed an awesome and powerful lift I do find it a little non-functional and the weighted push-ups just appeal to that side of my brain a little more.

So I've been doing this program for a solid 10 weeks and am definitely much stronger than when I started. My back is much bigger, broader, and dense. And while I initially did not expect to see huge results in body composition I've had better results doing this than anything I have tried previously. My chest has gotten much more broad and muscular. I like.

But, one piece of the puzzle was missing, and that was the fact that I basically was only doing this 25-30 minutes of lifting a day and otherwise just sitting around the house, eating lots and lots of meat. So that had to change. So for the last 2 weeks I've also been doing some Zombiefit.org routines and trying to get out for a nice walk whenever I can. I don't do the Z-fit as religiously as I do the lifting but I have really been enjoying getting the heart pounding with burpees, push-ups, box jumps, and sprinting. And yeas, that was SPRINTING in there! It seems my Sartorious issue's have been completely healed up! So I've been getting outside on nice days and pounding out some intervals. In the future I'll probably forgo most of the Z-fit programming and do my one thing but it's nice to have it there when I run out of cool ideas.

Now to address sitting:

It's simple... Sitting = Death. You sit a lot and don't move... you're gonna get sick and die. Our ancestors sat, but they did stuff while they sat. They didn't have TV, Video Games or Facebook to veg out on. So as I write this I am standing. I kicked my chair out and have done all computer related stuff standing up this week. And it surprisingly has not been hard, AT ALL!! It has been easy, and my normal sore lower back in the morning has gone away completely! Totally awesome! Now to be honest I do sit down sometimes, but I've been trying to spend as little time just sitting and doing nothing as possible. It's only been a week and I haven't been weighing/measuring to monitor results, and honestly I don't much care because I feel better physically and mentally. So that's that.

That's enough for now. Expect to see a couple reviews in the near future, as well as some stuff about homemade equipment and workout logs. Glad to be back atcha'!!

-Ultimate Russell

A sign of hope on the running front.

2011-01-15T12:55:00.000-05:00

So I don't quite remember why I thought it but the other day I was wondering if my mysterious lower abdominal pain while running had anything to do with what I was doing bio-mechanically. So I began doing some more research, looking at profiles with similar pain issues related to running and not just limited to the minimalist/barefoot crowd. And I made a one very interesting discovery. It seems that over striding can lead to a similarly described pain in some people. I read one post from a man who said that he was a heel striker, had the lower abs pain, switched over to a mid foot strike and was now pain free. The only question was if this would pertain to me. As I have mentioned before I am a forefoot striker and thought I was pretty much clear of any over striding woes due to that fact alone. But that may not be the case. Today I went out for a very short one mile jog and really forced myself to stay locked into a mid foot strike. And surprisingly enough the whole mile was ab pain free.... almost. First, at one point I tried to do more of a heel strike and purposely over stride, and that did cause a slight twinge in the abs. Also, once or twice my mind would wander and I reverted back to a forefoot strike and experienced the same twinge. So I locked it back down and continued the mid-foot strike. And both times, immediately upon switching back to my mid-foot the ab pain went away. So, it's not exactly conclusive that my issue all along was related to over striding but it certainly is an interesting thing to try. Next week I'll go for another one mile run and see what I think. But for now, I'm hopeful that this will correct my issue.

-Ultimate Russell

What I Learned About Food During Vacation.

2011-01-06T08:26:00.000-05:00

So last week I took a few days off work and went on vacation. Now, from what I understand vacations are usually taken fairly regularly. I myself have not been on a proper "Vacation" for maybe 10 years or more. The last time I went on vacation was probably shortly out of High School, so it might have been more like 12 years. And while not all my jobs have been super intense the fact is I'm one of those guys who are always "Hustlin' for that cheddar, son." So even times of relative ease I try to maximize things. So whatev.... I went on vacation.

Where did I go? Madison, WI to visit my wife's sister. It was a VERY good time, lot's of laughs and fun. Even though the weather wasn't great we did a lot of exploring. Good times were had by all.

The only negative was that I went WAY off the Paleo Diet while I was there. Now, could I have made it work while I was down there? Definitely. There was a grocery store just down the road called "The Willy Street Co-Op" that had the most awesome collection of Grass-Fed meats, Organic, Non-GMO foods, and Supplements without a ton of crap in them.

So yeah, I could have provided myself with food for the duration but that would have been pretty rude. So instead I decided just to enjoy myself and play loose with the Paleo.

And here's what I experienced:
I was bloated, had quite a bit of GI distress, slept horribly, and was generally nowhere near 100%. All that being said it was totally worth it for the fun and battery re-charging. Immediately upon arriving home I got to work cleaning up my food and instantly all the bloating and GI issues evaporated.

So what did I learn? My body loves meat, veggies, and fruit with occasional small amounts of dairy. My body hates Grains, most Processed Foods, and massive sugar bombs. But with how good I feel now my body also enjoys occasionally throwing all caution to the wind and just straight up enjoying myself.

Lessons, lessons, lessons.

-Ultimate Russell

No more running for who knows how long...

2011-01-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

Damnation! Well apparently whatever the damage that stopped my running this Summer was NOT the Sartorious Muscle. It's something else like a tear in my lower abdominals. Tried to run for about 10 minutes today and had to stop because the pain started up again. Guess there will be no racing this Summer.

So yeah, that really sucks as I was really looking forward to getting back at it. I may be able to do some sprints once a week this Summer or something but I don't know. Very disappointing. Normally I would just run through the pain but it ends up affecting all other aspects of my life. When it's bad even simply sitting up in bed is a struggle. So I'd rather continue to have a full range of movement and not be able to run instead of running, being in pain, not enjoying it, and also not being able to perform in other areas.

One of the strange things is that it's really a running specific pain. Out of all the different lifts I do none of them seem to bother it except occasionally when doing lunges I would feel like it was stretching but not painfully.

I don't know what to do. If I could afford it I'd go get some tests done but that's kinda out of the question right now. Probably just gonna do a lot of bike riding this Summer.

-sigh-

-Ultimate Russell

Vacation

2010-12-30T06:25:00.002-05:00

Gonna be out of town starting today til the new year!! I know I've been promising lot's of updates and they haven't appeared but that's changing with the new year. Hope you guys have a good one!

-Ultimate Russell

The Plan takes effect January 1st, 2011!!

2010-12-29T17:14:00.000-05:00

That's right, the long awaited return to regular running begins January 1st! I'm gonna start heading out in the Five Fingers as it's still cold and snowy here, to begin putting the running machine back together. I've done a couple little practice jogs and my form is still pretty good. Initial distances will probably not be much more than a mile or two for a couple weeks but soon I'll be doing three's and five's to start preparing for the Melt the Ice 5k in March. We'll see how it jives with the weight lifting (which is going great, btw) hopefully the two disciplines together should make for some awesome body comp changes. Also, I don't believe I'll be shooting for anything further than a 5k this year. Running is great and all but it does put a big stress on my body and I simply don't have the time for 3-4 hour training runs. Oh well, guess it just means I get to do more fast, short distances. I like those better anyway.

-Ultimate Russell

What are my Frackin' Goals?!

2010-12-14T07:40:00.000-05:00

It used to be soooo easy. Run, eat, run, repeat ad nauseum, sometimes literally. When I started this journey I really only had ONE single goal... Lose Weight. Well, that is pretty well done. But that is both a good and bad (well, not REALLY bad) thing. I mean I did P90X and Insanity, but I didn't LIKE either of them very much. They are repetitive and boring programs and the core, and when I take into account things I know now I would also say that their nutrition recommendations are WAY off the mark and a lot of it is kind of pointless for actually losing weight, burning fat, and building muscle. But I guess selling 1 DVD with a few exercises on it and print-out's of schedules wouldn't sell very well. And the Beachbody workouts are, in all honesty 1000% times superior than what you're gonna get at most "Globo-Gyms."

So yeah, running was the first fitness activity I really fell in love with. Cycling is all right, but for me there was just nothing better than running. Sure I would also do some push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and plyo but those were more like twice a week afterthoughts. But then one day I discovered Crossfit Endurance. Now when I first started doing CFE I didn't do the Strength and Conditioning workouts, I was just happy to continue my easy (waayyyyy too easy) bodyweight stuff and focus on running for 3 or 4 hours at a go. Then one day I decided to do the WOD and I was blown away. I thought I had achieved a fair amount of mastery when it came to strength training but I was so, so wrong. So I started putting more time into strength training. And of course, shortly after starting Crossfit I read about the Paleo Diet, the dangers of "Chronic Cardio," and saw the testimonials of people who were not only fast and strong but LOOKED amazing! And I have to admit, at that part of the journey I was much lighter but still pretty soft and doughy. So I started running shorter distances at much faster paces and doing much more strength work. I took my pair of 40 pound dumbbells pretty far but eventually wanted a bigger challenge. It was also about this time that my Sartorious acted up and I needed to take a break from running. So I started doing some real weight lifting, and for the first time since I started running I had found something that I loved just as much. Now my Sartorious is all better, I'm MUCH leaner, and much, much stronger.

So what's next? Well, I think it's time to start smashing the two disciplines, strength and speed together. Now at one time my running goals included things like Ultra Marathons and Trail Marathons but those are no longer on the docket. I do want to continue to race but probably no more than a 5k, or maybe a 10k if it's a good one. I'm hoping the weather relents a bit and I can start working on some running, but it's a little too harsh out there right now.

But going along with goals I guess the question would be "What am I going for as far as body composition?" And that's a fun one to answer. I do have a few real life idols but they would be people like Schwarzenegger (the 70's man!!), Stallone, or Mariusz Pudzianowski. And in all honesty I really don't know if I want to be that big necessarily but I would like to try to look as good, if that makes any sense. Although, Stallone isn't HUGE, just fuckin' cut up like no one's business!! In case you aren't familiar with these guys then...

Pudzianowski

Stallone

It's hard to get much better than this.

Those three guys just look awesome. I, by comparison, am currently the skinny wimp on the beach who's face get's sand kicked in it. Now while attaining the physique of the men pictured above is possible, the amount of dedication it takes may be the hard part. I'm currently trying to put aside 1-2 hours, six day's a week to use for strength training by doing the Schwarzenegger "beginner workout" in the GIGANTIC TOME called "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding." I would like to have a little more time for training, and I may be able to make that happen.

When thinking about my ideal body composition I never used to first think "Bodybuilders Physique," but when I actually sat down and thought about how I'd like to look here's the first thing that popped into my mind:

Thor

And then...

Captain America

And finally...

Hercules

So, my first thoughts were of comic book characters and one Greek Hero. But the thing that occurred to me was that all three definitely had "Bodybuilder Physiques." And while you can speculate on whether Hercules existed or not, the fact is that someone posed for these sculptures, and that man was RIPPED!

So in short, gonna run a little, if it's cold and shitty out gonna do some calisthenics, gonna lift a lot of weights, gonna continue to eat Paleo (though I have gotten a little bit looser on allowing some cheat days) and hopefully gonna grow a super hero physique without turning into a guy that is huge but can't run, fight, or rip a bear in half. We'll see what happens folks.

-Russell

Changes

2010-12-08T07:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, in all honesty I've been forlorn and depressed and just did not feel like blogging lately. I blame a lot on the weather and job related crap. Anyway, I'm trying to break out of it.

Why did I change the blog? Well, the old one just had way to much invested in it as a diet/training log and there's other stuff I want to get into talking about. Expect a wider variety of posts, and hopefully more timely updates.

That's all for now, but I do have what should be a fairly amusing post coalescing in the noodle. And I will do an "After Leangains" pic.

And I guess I can address Leangains and Intermittent Fasting here while I have a chance. It boils down like this:

Q: Did I get leaner and stronger while doing the fasting?
A: Yes

Q: Am I still currently fasting/feeding?
A: No, I did it for a solid month but have recently went back to a more regular schedule of eating.

Q: Will I go back to Intermittent Fasting?
A: Yes, I most likely will. Just lately I've been a little ill and eating warm, delicious animal foods makes me feel better.

-Ultimate Russell

Funny How Fast You Can Lose It.

2010-11-19T06:43:00.001-05:00

So it was just a couple months ago during the summer that I would routinely and easily bust out between 3 to 5 miles often barefoot. These runs were also not "jogs." They were speedy and intense and a lot of fun. Then I pulled, strained, did whatever I did to my Sartorious and had to take what I expected to be a short break. Well, that "short" break turned into more of a 2 month break where I did not much cardio at all, instead I focused on food and strength training. Which I love, by the way. But anyway, over the last week or two I've begun to feel the urge to get out there and run a little. So yesterday I bundled up a bit (it was 40 degrees and windy, plus cloudy and gross. horrible running weather) and put on my Sockwa Amphibians. After a short warm up I headed out for a 20 minute run. Now I thought it would be a relatively easy run and I started off just clicking off my normal pace.. for about 5 minutes. After that, as I was starting to huff and puff I started to roll it back until yes, I was "jogging." I was a little disappointed, but really, what did I expect? The fact is that if you don't use it, you lose it. And I have lost a lot of it. But really, no worries there. So yeah, I ran 2 miles in 20 minutes, although I did take a 2 minute walk break at the 10 minute mark. So it's not like the worst run ever, but I do miss my ability to easily bust out a 3 hour 20 mile run like it was nothing. So I'm starting to work on it again. Gonna go slow though, no reason to get nuts during the winter. Plan on running 2-3 times a week to start in Sockwa's or Vibrams, and when i build a good base back up one of those running days will be a speed day. The extra running may effect my squat performance a bit, but that's no big thing. Anyway, I'm back at it. Have to be ready for some 5k's this summer, hopefully I'll do a couple barefoot 5k's.

I don't like the Sockwa's as a Summer running shoe but they're pretty cool (er.. warm) for the colder weather. Don't think they'll handle the snow very well though. I'd imagine it's gonna be Injinji's and Treksports once the snow starts flying.

-Ultimate Russell

What Have I been up to?

2010-11-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

Good question. Well, you may have noticed (you also may not have noticed) that I haven't posted a workout in a little bit. There's not really much of a reason other than I would basically just be posting the same two workouts with my weight numbers going up. And that's not too exciting. So I thought today I'd just throw out some updates on how certain aspects have been going.

Intermittent Fasting: The Leangains.com fasting protocol has been going very well actually. It is a little weird/hard to change up 30 years of eating habits but I'm getting more comfortable with 16-18 hours of fasting every day. And really, there is no other feeling like fasting, lifting a bunch of heavy weights and then utterly smashing a plate full of delicious foods. It's awesome and it really makes you appreciate your food and the work you put in much more. I could go back to having early morning breakfasts if I had to, but I really think I'm going to stick with the Leangains IF protocol long term. As in not changing back anytime in the foreseeable future. It's easy, fun, and you get results out of it. Try it, you might like it.

Body Composition: Talk about results, I am putting on some serious amounts of muscle, and seeing a continuous drop in Body Fat as I do so. I think I could be having even more spectacular results if I could get into eating a little less on non-workout days. Sometimes I do really good but I have overeaten on a couple dinners, at least I think so. But yeah, so far everything I've been hoping would happen has been happening. I look great and staying on a ultra lo-carb ketogenic diet has been a breeze. I know I should have a little higher carb after my workouts but I feel really strange when I do so I continue to abstain from the grain.

Weight Lifting: I've been continuing to use the Starting Strength weight lifting plan and have been able to consistently add weight to the bar every week. With the only exception being an epic fail on the Overhead Press last week. For some reason I was just weak on it. Just a bad day for it, I'm sure I will redeem myself next time. Also, the routines while a little repetitive are working with my goals of putting on muscel, leaning out, and getting ripped. I have no complaints.

Free Time: Here's an interesting side-effect of IF, lot's of free time in the morning. I usually go to bed about 9PM and sleep for 8-9 hours so I'm up around 5 or 6AM. So I make some coffee, check my e-mail and then I've suddenly got a lot of space to fill until workouts or eating or both. Sometimes I have work related things to do in the morning but more often than not lately I've had nothing to do. At first this was annoying, because it's also been pretty damn cold here in the mornings so I don't exactly just want to roll outside and go for a walk like I did in the summer. So I had to find so things to help pass the time. So I've been doing...

1. House work: Sweeping floors, doing dishes, food preperation are usually thing's I'm not jazzed about. However, put on the ipod with an audiobook going and suddenly these menial tasks are not so bad. In fact, they're rather enjoyable. Right now I'm working my way through all the Harry Potter books. Currently on book 6 - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It's freaking great if you didn't know. I ignored Potter-mania years ago when they first got big, mostly just wrote them off as kids books but I was wrong! They are fantastic! J.K Rowling is a wonderful, magical writer.

2. Video Games: I used to play a lot of games but put them aside in order to get my health/fitness right. And since it's been several years since I seriously played any video games I actually find most do not hold my attention. But lately I've been playing an older RPG called "The Temple of Elemental Evil" based off an old D&D campaign that Gary Gygax ran forever ago. It's a really cool and immersive tactical, turn based RPG using the D&D 3.5 rules set.

3. Dungeons and Dragons: I've also just started running a D&D 4th Edition game as DM on Saturday Nights which allows me to really flex some creative brain muscles. Last week my wife Randie played with us and wa her first D&D experience. She's playing again this week where her and her adventuring companions will be delving into a haunted swamp to uncover an ancient artifact. Gonna be fun!

Otherwise, I read my Paleo blogs and check out thatguywiththeglasses.com every day.

I'll take another pic this weekend and post it with my previous "AFTER" pic to see if there have been any noticeable changes.

Keep on keeping on.

-Ultimate Russell

Lifting Weights - A Slight Change in Programming

2010-11-10T11:48:00.002-05:00

Hehe, well "Slight" is a little inaccurate. I've been a little confused with the program I was using because it seemed like it may have been causing a little more pain than I expected it to. And by that I do not mean that the lifts were too tough. I would just say that a lot of them were "different" than what I expected. So after some reading and a little bit of question asking I determined that some of the lifts, I (A) did not have enough familiarity with which led to bad form. And (B) I had not built a solid enough base before starting such a varied program. But no sweat! I decided to use the Mark Rippetoe "Starting Strength" program. A good outline of that can be found here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw52.htm. I know bodybuildingdotcom sometimes gets a bad rap in the strength training circles but this is a good explanation of the system with great pictures of the exercises.

Another Impetus in switching to the simplified starting strength approach is that Martin Berkhan from Leangains (of which I am following his fasting protocol) seems to believe that these are the most important lifts and that big strides should be made in the Deadlift, Squat, Benchpress, and Weighted Chin Up before a program with lot's of variety like I was doing before. So I finished my first routine today and it actullay went really well! I was able to use heavier weights and really got a good sweat going. So here's what I did:

-Back Squats - 3x5x146.5 pounds

-Military Press - 3x5x109 pounds

-Bent Over Barbell Rows - 3x5x142 pounds

-Chin Ups - 2x8

I was actually surprised that I was able to perform two full sets of eight chin ups at the end of the workout. That means next time I will add weight to them. Also every workout I will be adding 5% to my work load. Short term goal is to get all my lifts up to my body weight. That shouldn't take long. After that I'd like to work towards double my body weight.

Alright, enough talk.... it's time to EAT!!!

-Ultimate Russell

Rest Day

2010-11-09T12:04:00.000-05:00

Yes folks, even Ultimate Russell requires a little R&R here and there. So today instead of sprinting, biking, or going Tabata crazy I'm just gonna relax. Went on a walk this morning for about 20 minutes and just went on a nice noon time stroll for about a hour. Sometimes that's all it takes.

-Ultimate Russell

Todays Weight Lifting and Week 1 Leangains Averages

2010-11-08T15:58:00.000-05:00

Hey, so my first week of doing Leangains is done and it was really cool. I really enjoy the morning fast and it makes the after workout meal almost a religious experience. I guess somehow the after fast meal stimulates hormones that make you feel good. Like real good. Like meditating with the Dalai Lama good.

So the first week is through, like I said. So how did my numbers shake out? Well, not too big of a change yet, but the numbers are moving. See below:

Oct 25th thru 31st 2010 Averages:
Weight - 178.0
Body Fat %- 14.1%

Nov 1st thru 8th
1-177.2/14.7%
2-176.2/14.2
3-178.4/13.3
4-176.4/14.0
5-176.0/14.3
6-176.2/14.0
7-176.0/14.2
8-177.0/11.9

Average Weight: 176.7
Average BF%: 13.8%

So after a week I've lost 1.3 pounds and my body fat % has dropped 0.3%. Not huge numbers but it's only been eight days. The fact that I only workout hard 3 days a week and stuff myself after workouts while still
managing to push the numbers in the right direction is pretty cool. Can't wait to see next week!

Now to todays workout!

-Hang Power Clean-
1. 89x5
2. 109x5
3. 109x5
4. 120x4 - FAIL!!
Yeah, the first set was WAY too light so i started pumping up the weight. All was fine until the 4th rep in set 4. For some reason my right wrist just kind of gave out on the way down and I dropped the bar, putting a mighty dent into my garage space heater. It's fine though, just looks totally fucked now. Anyway, after I failed to control the bar on the way down my right wrist felt pretty fried. So instead of tempting the fates again I just moved on to the next exercise.

-Romanian Deadlift-
1. 120x10
2. 125.5x10
3. 125.5x10
4. 125.5x10
Ahhh.... this was kinda frustrating. You see, I KNEW I could lift more weight but my right wrist was so sore from the Hang Power Clean that I couldn't seem to grip hard enough so I had to do what I could do. These were still good work though, by the 8th rep I was happy the set was almost over.

-T-Bar Row- (modified as I did it with my Olympic Bar instead of a T-Bar)
1. 67x10
2. 89x10
3. 94.5x10
4. 100x10
These were cool, since I could grip with both hands right on top of each other I could go pretty heavy. Will start at 100 pounds next time.

-Chin Up-
1. 10
2. 10
3. 10
4. 10
These were just bodyweight chin ups. I'd like to say I did them all unassisted but that would be lying. The first set was 10 straight, after that I pulled a chair over, would crank out 5 or 6 and then have to get some assistance from the chair. My forearms were really sore after these.

-Windshield Wipers-
1. 10
2. 10
3. 10
4. 10
Like every other time I do exercises that go both left and right I count 2 reps as 1. I also did some of these with bent knee's and straight leg just to see where I was at. Turns out I could do most of them straight legged so I did.

Randie worked out earlier in the day so I was solo for this one which did make it go a little faster. Ended up fasting for about 18 hours before the workout, so naturally after it was done I smashed a good bit of food. Feeling good otherwise, lean and mean. I look forward to getting my bas built up so that I can start getting into some really serious Olympic Lifting.

Keep pumping that iron!

-Ultimate Russell

Sunday Fun Run

2010-11-07T15:16:00.000-05:00

Hey guys! Just another Sunday here in Ultimate Russell-Land. It was actually a pretty darn chilly Sunday this morning, but I had a dream, and that dream was to get a nice run in. You know, lately I've been a little off with the Sartorious injury and trying to get everything nursed back to health so this would be my first serious run in some time (the Findley run a few weeks ago was kind of a run/walk affair). So Randie and I strapped on our KSO's and headed out into the cold! Though it was about 35 degrees at the start we warmed up fast and ran about 2.5 miles alltogether. And it was really fun! I'm going to try and plan on a Tabata run on tuesday and a quick 2-3 mile run on Sundays. It's really good to have my running mojo back. Even though I did feel a little slow today.

-Ultimate Russell

Fasting gets easier and easier. Today's Weight Lifting.

2010-11-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

That's right. I've gotta admit that the first few days this week the fasting was not THAT easy. I'm used to a pretty early breakfast, so it was a little weird getting used to. But today was easy as pie. So I had some running around to do earlier but got home about 10:40AM and after drinking down some still nasty unflavored whey protein powder I headed out to the garage and got down to business! And here's something that makes sense but really took some work to prove...

"Doing 10 reps is harder than doing 5!"

WHOA!! Seriously? I figured doing MORE reps would be EASIER?!?!?! Yeah, doing heavier weight at 5 reps wasn't as hard as doing 10 reps at a lighter weight, although you could make the argument that I wasn't going heavy enough before. But I was. Just according to this plan my first 3 weeks of lifting have higher reps as I build up my strength.

So now that I've released that UNBELIEVABLE fact, we can get to my workout.

BEHOLD:

4 sets of all exercises. All weight in pounds.

-Clean High Pull-
1.89x5
2.100x5
3.100x5
4.105x5
Good lift to start off with as it really gets the blood pumping. And on a cold day like this, that's a good place to start!

-Forward Lunge-
1.67x10
2.74x10
3.74x10
4.74x10
This one was really, really hard! Did 10 reps on each leg, each set. So a total of 20 reps each set. In the past I didn't really do lunges because I hate them. Well, I'm paying for it now as these really rocked me hard. But in a good way... I guess.

-Bench Press-
1.160.5x10 - FAIL!! Only hit 7 reps. Too much weight for 10 reps... for now!
2.135x10
3.140x10
4.140x10
So yeah, started a little bit too heavy, so I rolled the weight back a bit and the other sets were doable, but still pretty hard. That's the name of the game though, struggle those last couple reps!

-One Arm Dumbbell Overhead Press-
1.40x10 - FAIL!! Only 7 reps with left arm.
2.30x10
3.30x10
4.30x10
Once again, since I was doing one arm at a time it's 10 reps each arm per set. And yep, went a bit too heavy on the first set because my left arm is not as strong as my right. In hindsight I should have set up 2 dumbbells but by this time in the workout I was feeling pretty blasted. And as the sets went on I would've had to lighten the load anyway. Amazing how much harder it can be to push 1 dumbbell instead of both arms on a barbell.

-Four Point Plank-
1.30sec
2.30sec
3.30sec
4.30sec
Nothing too special about this. Strike the pose and hold it for 30 seconds. If I was fresh this would have been quite easy. But by the end of the workout when my legs, back, shoulders, and arms were already worked over this was harder than you would think. I totally had some crazy arm shaking going on. After the last set it felt SO GOOD to be done. This was another killer workout out of the "Men's Health - Power Training" book. I'm happy with my decision to purchase it!

Bodyfat/Weight measurement averages coming this weekend. Maybe another picture too if there are any results already.

-Ultimate Russell

Of Leangains and Lifting... Second Lifting/Fasting Session

2010-11-03T18:30:00.000-04:00

So today was an interesting one. It starts with last night having a pretty late dinner at 7PM. I also for some reason was feeling pretty crappy. I think the crappiness just has to do with the fact that we've had a pretty dramatic shift in the weather from cool and clear to wet and cold. Anyway, I'm adjusting. But yeah, so I actually went to bed pretty early, like 8:30PM or so and slept very well through the night. Got up this morning around 5 and was feeling kinda hungry. But I drank some coffee and started to get all my docs for work together. While I kept bust there were no hunger issues. If I just sat around I would start to crave food. So I kept busy. So anyway, I headed off for work about 9AM and had to do a bunch of driving around and getting docs signed. It wasn't horrible but there were some moments of foot dragging slowness that I found ultra-annoying. When things would get slow I'd get REALLY antsy to get home, lift, and EAT! But finally I dropped off my docs and headed home. This was about 2PM, and I got home around 2:40PM. So I know I had stated that I wasn't going to do the BCAA's with Leangains but after a little more reading I decided I had to do a little something. Turns out that I had an unopened container of Whey Protein which Martin Berkhan says you can use as a secondary substitute for BCAA's. So when i got home I put a scoop of Whey in a glass with a little coconut milk and water. I probably should have skipped the coconut but the Whey is UNFLAVORED, and it was gonna be super nasty by itself in water. So I drank it, got changed and headed out to the garage where lifting commenced. I know I haven't talked much about my lifting routine and where I got it from, so I'll talk about it now. I bought a book by Men's Health called "Power Training" by Robert dos Remedios. Basically it gives you outlines for several different programs and then let's you decide which one you want to do and then pick and choose exercises from different categories to build your program for the day. Now I don't have prior experience with developing any kind of serious lifting routines but it seems like this book works pretty damn good! It's easy to understand and the big, clear pictures and explanations make the first time doing some of the exercises much easier. And as far as the sessions being intense.... no worries there, they are NOT easy! Especially if you actually pay attention to your rest breaks and don't slack off too much. So Randie and I ventured out to the garage, she chose Weezer as our workout music (not a BAD choice) and we were off! Here's what I did:

(If you're wondering what program we're doing from the book it's the 3-day a week Push/Pull Strength Program)

All exercises were 4 sets. All weight in pounds. 89x5 means I did the exercise at 89 pounds for 5 reps.

-Power Snatch-
1.89x5
2.89x5
3.89x5
4.89x5

This was my first time doing the Power Snatch. It is a very cool lift, I really like the Olympic stuff. 89 pounds seemed a little light but it was not easy, especially for 5 reps. I'll fool around with some 1 rep max weight when I have the move down a little better as I'm still kind of slow and need to be more explosive!

-Single Leg Good Morning-
1.45x10
2.50x10
3.50x10
4.50x10

WOW!! These are not easy! I've never done very much hamstring/glute work and this exercise just beat the hell out of the back and back leg muscles. But in a good way. For the first 5 reps of each set I was like, "I can probably go heavier..." That was until I finished the first leg and realized I still had 10 to go on the other leg. It was physically hard and my balance wasn't great, but that's why I'm doing this I guess. And yeah, if you didn't catch that, you do 10 on one leg and then do ten on the other right away. So each set you perform the exercise 20 times, just 10 on each leg.

-Bent Over Barbell Row-
1.75x10
2.75x10
3.80x10
4.80x10 - FAIL!!, only hit 9 reps on this set.

I actually did this with a different bar than the Olympic bar, the reason being that while I did this lift Randie did another one that REQUIRED the Olympic bar. So we each did our four sets and then switched. I don't know how much the bar weighed (I would estimate 15 pounds) so I actually lifted more than is listed there, but I didn't know the weight for sure so I only counted what I put on the bar.

-Barbell Torque-
1.55x10
2.50x10
3.50x10
4.52.5x10

Holy Crap! This exercise freaking DESTROYED US!! I don't know how they count at Men's Health but I count every two reps as 1, so you essentially perform the movement 20 times a set. It's possible that we were doing double the reps required but I also figure it's supposed to be hard, and DAMN but it was hard!!

-Horizontal Pull Ups-
(These were all bodyweight sets. I was burned out and knew there was no way I could do 4 sets of 10 standard pull ups. Knowing that Horizontal pull ups were easier I went for that option thinking I could do 4 sets of 10 easily... I was wrong.
1.10 reps
2.7 reps - FAIL!!
3.6 reps - FAIL!!
4.6 reps - FAIL!!

What can I say? I was beat up and burned out. I still gave every set my all and didn't just give up when it got hard. I went until I couldn't do anymore and then still tried to do another.

So that was the lifting. After that I went inside and proceeded to smash a ton of food. Altogether I ended up fasting for about 21 hours give or take 30-45 minutes. I've noticed people on this Leangains program say that once you start lifting the hunger just vanishes and you fell lean and strong and I definitely experienced the same thing. I was hungry before the lifting, but the minute I started moving those weights my mind cleared and I felt great!

I'm also tracking my weight/body fat percentage every day and will break the numbers down at the end of each week with raw data and averages. So far, the numbers are doing what they should be doing. At the end of the 30 days I'll also look at strength gains, sum it all up and decide if the Leangains program is working for me.

Planning on tomorrow being a rest day.

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-11-02T11:16:00.002-04:00

Whew.... I'm a little sore today from yesterday's lifting. Anyway, I'm taking today a little easy. Gonna do about 10 minutes on the bike trainer at a medium pace followed by a Bike Sprint Tabata. Nothing too crazy. Doing it in a fasted state, of course.

-Ultimate Russell

First Day of Fasting and Lifting - Plus Before and After Photo's

2010-11-01T15:53:00.000-04:00

Whew! It's only 12:26 PM and it's all ready been a pretty crazy day. I had to be on the road really early this morning so my basic Leangains plan kinda went out the window. But last night I ate dinner at 5PM, now it was Halloween and the wife and I drank a cup of hot spiced wine and ate a little chocolate. So I wasn't COMPLETELY fasted but it was Halloween and we wanted to do something a little fun and nice. And it was. So, went to bed around 10, got up at 5AM this morning grabbed a shower and got in the car. I didn't make it home until about 10AM, so I came in changed, and headed out to the garage for my new weight routine. At this point I had basically fasted somewhere between 17 and 18 hours. I was feeling hungry but it was completely manageable. Not like before where I would be calorie crashing and out of my mind after 3 hours. It's amazing what you can do by switching over to a ketogenic diet. So anyway, I got home and headed out to the garage. Today's workout had more reps than I have been doing so I had to play with the numbers a little bit but I feel like I have a better handle on what I'm doing now.

An interesting fact: I knew I had a big meal coming after this workout so on my way home I was getting kinda hungry. In fact my stomach was growling. But the minute I started lifting weights the hunger vanished.

So here's what I did:

Every exercise was 4 sets. Reps as indicated (for example 135x5 mean 135 pounds for 5 reps). All weight in pounds.

-Hang Jump Shrug-
1.135x5
2.135x5
3.135x5
4.135x5

-Front Squat-
1.89x10
2.100x10
3.100x10
4.100x10

-Dumbell Bench Press-
1.40x10
2.45x10
3.45x10
4.45x10

-Shoulder Press-
1.75x10
2.70x10
3.70x10
4.70x10

-Russian Twist-
1.10x10
2.22x10
3.22x10
4.22x10

Okay, so now that we've seen that I can get to the embarrassing before and after photo's. I've gotta warn you, I'm a kinda hairy guy, and the "Before" pic ain't pretty!

Lot's of crap food did this.

So here's me about 2 years ago, or so. We were just beginning to do P90X and we wanted to record any progress. As you can see, I had a lot of work to do.

Jump forward about a year....

Eating more real food and exercise helped a lot!
But I am still pretty flabby around the middle.

Well, it was a definite improvement. An interesting thing is that during this time I was battling with a very bad case of chest acne. It was almost like a rash of ingrown hairs, very painful and annoying. During this time I was also eating lot's of carbs. And even though I had built muscle and lost quite a bit of fat I was still very thick around the middle. Around this time we had stopped P90X and had begun doing Insanity. On top of that I was running a lot. Also you may notice that I'm a LOT less hairy in the above picture, that's because in an effort to banish the acne or ingrown hairs or whatever I tried shaving my chest WAY DOWN. I read on a forum that it might help with it. It didn't

Then we have....

Paleo Diet, Sleep and reduced exercise did this!

This picture was taken this morning. The difference in my waist line is shocking. I'm starting to see some ab definition, and things are better all around. Also, since changing my diet to eliminate grains, legumes, and most dairy my chest acne problems have vanished. It's also worth noting that my body shape was DRASTICALLY different 90 days ago before really going Paleo. I looked slimmer than the second picture but I was still quite flabby in the belly region, and seemed to have little muscle tone for all the ridiculous amounts of running, pushups, and pullups I did. I was totally what is considered "Skinny-Fat." Which means that I had gotten slim but was not "solid" by any stretch of the imagination. But 90 days of Paleo, getting good sleep, and abandoning garbage calories and I seriously look like a whole new person. And for the last 15-20 days I've been eating a very lo-carb ketogenic diet. I am a big fan of what it's doing for me. We'll see what Leangains does for me in 30 days.

-Ultimate Russell

Running Barefoot Again

2010-11-01T05:48:00.001-04:00

Man, it's been quite some time since I made a running post, and it's not for any reason other than I've been injured. It's not like I stopped running. Anyway, I think the Sartorious in all healed up and I plan on going out for probably 1.5 - 2 miles this week. Preferably at a fast pace. Also, depending on the weather I have probably entered a phase of Vibram running that will have to replace the straight up barefoot. I would like to say that I'm tough enough to handle the rigors of the cold but it is almost anti-enjoyable to run when your feet are icy and numb. It would be like playing the guitar while your hand is asleep. Which is to say it would be difficult and not productive. But we'll see. If the sun is out and the pavement isn't too cold, then barefoot could happen. Otherwise there's gonna be a lot of "Toe Shoes" going around.

-Ultimate Russell

My Leangains Experiment

2010-10-31T10:23:00.001-04:00

So I know there's two other much more popular and awesome Paleo bloggers (Richard from Free the Animal and Methuselah from Train Now, Live Later) doing a Leangains protocol and sharing their experience right now, but that's not stopping me. What is Leangains? Well first go to the website and be ready to be blown away by the incredible ripping-shrededness you are about to see. Ready? Click HERE!! As you can see Martin Berkhan is an incredibly ripped specimen. And as I wouldn't mind getting a little ripped myself I'm gonna give it a shot. Now there isn't all the info on the website, Martin is working on a book so you can't blame him for not wanting to give away everything for free. Also I will be modifying my food intake to be more ketogenic and probably not as high in carbs as Martin and some others do. In addition to this Martin advocates taking BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids) before the workout. At least initially I am going to skip the BCAA's. Here' what my basic day is going to look like:

Night Before (Sunday):
Eat Dinner between 5 to 7 o clock at night. Go to Bed

Next Morning (Monday):
Get up around 5 to 7 o clock AM, at this point I will have fasted for about 12 hours or so. Have some coffee, check e-mail for work, and after an hour head out to the garage for weight lifting. At this point the fast is 13 hours. Do my weight lifting for the day focusing on intensity. I have a lifting protocol I will explain in the next few days.

Within an hour of finishing my workout have breakfast. So from the night before I will be lifting in a fasted state and having between 14-15 hours of fasting before my first meal of the day. This first meal will be LARGE!!

Now of course depending on when I actually eat dinner the night before will determine when my final meal will be. And unfortunately the varying schedule of my job will not allow me to always do this perfectly but the goal is to have an 8 hour "Feeding Window" to cram all my food into.

This program is basically an Intermittent Fasting protocol and as I have been already fasting for 12 to 14 hours between last meal and breakfast most of the time I think I can swing this.

Will post a "Before" pic later and we'll see what's happening 30 days from tomorrow. I'm excited!

-Ultimate Russell

Not Really a Workout - Workout

2010-10-28T20:25:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I didn't do a regimented workout today but throughout the day I did a bunch of pull-ups and dips (somewhere between 75-100 each.) Then tonight I rode my bike for 15 minutes at a hard pace followed by a Bicycle Sprint Tabata. I just didn't feel like a full on rest day.

-Ultimate Russell

Lucid and Vivid Dreaming during Ketosis

2010-10-28T13:20:00.000-04:00

So I've been doing the Paleo thing for a little bit now and to say that it's changed my life would be a vast understatement. If you're anything like me you've battled with health, fitness, and weight for a little while. I used to dream about a "Magic Bullet" that would just make it all easier. And when I started doing Paleo, that was it. Not to the extent that I didn't have to do anything, but it reduced the amount of work I really had to put in A TON!! I've never been this lean, muscular, and strong in my life. But I'm getting away from what I was writing about.

Okay, Ketosis. Are you familiar with the term? It goes like this. Your body can run on carbs or on fat. It burns carbs fast, if you eat a lot of carbs and exercise you probably do the 5 meals a day thing like I used to to stave off crashes. It sucked. It's out of my life now. But if you cut back on your carbs, WAY back you can enter a state in which you burn FAT for energy instead of carbs. You feel better longer, and you burn fat and lose weight easier. It's awesome. But by cutting carbs back even further, like 20 grams a day or less you can enter the fabled state of KETOSIS!! In ketosis your body creates ketone bodies to power the brain and your system runs basically on fat. That's really summing it up simply. Robb Wolf, and Mark Sisson have much more scientific explanations at their disposal. I can tell you this, if you want to lean out then Ketosis or a ketogenic diet is what you want.

So anyway, about 45 days ago I decided to really start cutting back on carbs and go into Ketosis. It wasn't hard, I just basically ate Paleo without fruit, and hi-carb veggies. So after about 2 days something very interesting began happening, I started having regular Lucid and Vivid dreams! Now I am a pretty regular dreamer, I would have a vivid dream about once a week but hadn't had a real lucid dream in recent memory. But once I hit Ketosis I was having them EVERY NIGHT!! Now, it wasn't always a lucid experience but the frequency went up to 4 or 5 times a week. The rest of the dreams were VERY vivid and not unpleasant at all. No nightmares or anything. Since the start of Ketosis they have dropped off a bit but I'm still having lucid dreams several times a week, and otherwise I have incredibly vivid dreams every night.

After I realized how frequent this was happening I wondered how it fits into our evolutionary makeup, and I came up with an interesting idea. We all know that in the past dreams were often taken as omens, or glimpses into the future. Well, I would hypothesize that some people may be more prone to have these "visions" during sleep on a ketogenic diet. Now do I think that my dreams are visions of the future? No, I don't. But they sure are sweet and interesting!

Has anyone out there had any lucid dreaming experiences during ketosis?

-Ultimate Russell

The Need to HULK OUT!!

2010-10-27T15:11:00.001-04:00

I'm, usually a very easy, going, pretty happy-go-lucky guy. I like to joke around, sing songs, do little dances, talk about the magical powers of the Walrus and many fish. But every now and again something will happen and I got from a manageable 5 on the anger scale to just red lining like a beast. When it happens suddenly it's like everything get's dark and I just see red! Usually for several hours afterwards I'm venomous and unable to be tamed. I like to pretend that I don't really know WHY I'm mad, but I do know. Do you want to know why? If you don't care to hear my personal issues just scroll down and you can see the weights I lifted to help come off my Hulk-Frenzy. But anyway, I think I have a SUPERIORITY complex. That's right, I feel like I should be INCAPABLE of screwing something up. I don't know why I think I should be perfect 100% of the time but I do. So when I screw something up with work, or say something stupid to Randie I just red line immediately. It's like I cannot believe I just did something dumb. And the worst part is that instead of cooling off and getting over it I prefer to stew and just let the anger continue to boil over and over. Thankfully the anger is always directed at myself, and I'm not a violent person so no need to worry about me going all "emo" with a butter knife. So yeah, I had one of my moments today, I just completely lost myself in the anger and let a good several hours of my morning get ruined. But I've calmed down now, and hopefully in actually getting this out there I'll be able to cool off quicker next time and get on with my life.

But in my many moments of Hulk-Rage the one thing that ALWAYS helps take the edge off is exercise. So I headed out to the garage and lifted weights for about an hour. It felt good to just push it all off my shoulders and zone out on something I enjoy.

So enough of that, here's what i did:
(all weight in pounds)

-Weighted Pull-Ups- 5 sets of max reps with a 20 pound weight hanging from my neck.
1. 5
2. 4
3. 4
4. 4
5. 3
Last week I only managed 5 sets of 3. So there's some improvement

-Bench Press- 5 sets of 5 reps going heavy towards failure.
1. 177
2. 177
3. 177
4. 182.5
5. 182.5 - only managed 4 reps on the last set.
Last week I finished my Bench at a weight of 173, so I started higher and finished even higher. Progress!

-Bent Over Row w/Olympic Bar- 5 sets of 5 reps towards failure.
1. 89
2. 94.5
3. 100
4. 105.5
5. 105.5
As you can see I started pretty light and didn't finish all that heavy, but this was the first time I attempted this exercise. I guarantee next time the numbers will be higher.

-Power Cleans- 5 sets of 5 reps not quite to failure as I'm trying to learn this lift better.
1. 100
2. 100
3. 100
4. 100
5. 100
This is a lift I am trying to learn and master so I went a little light. I probably could have added another 12 to 15 pounds and been okay but I wanted to be able to concentrate on form but still have a challenge. And it was a challenge, this lift really gets the blood pumping.

So I lifted weight's and then came inside and smashed some food. I feel back to normal, need to learn some better self-control.

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-10-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's Tabata Tuesday again. I've got a killer one for today! Enjoy!!

First Do:
Cardio/Conditioning Tabata:
-Jump Knee Tucks
-Burpees

After That:
-Bicycle Sprint Tabata

After That:
-Chair Dips/Push-Ups Tabata

If you're new to Tabata workout's it goes like this:

A Tabata is simply 8 rounds consisting of 20 seconds of hard work followed by a 10 seconds of rest. That means a Tabata is just 4 minutes in total but it's an INTENSE 4 minutes. So for example, the Cardio/Conditioning Tabata would go like this:

Round 1: 20 seconds of Jump Knee Tucks - You do these as fast as you can, an all-out effort!
10 seconds rest
Round 2: 20 seconds of Burpees - once again as fast as you can
10 seconds rest.
You repeat this procedure for 8 rounds. For the bike Sprint you ride all-out as hard as you can for 20 sec, and then rest for 10. Repeat for 8 rounds. And the Dips/Push-ups Tabata is set up just like the Cardio/Conditioning Tabata.

Laugh at yourself and Have Fun while you do these. They're supposed to be hard and you're supposed to be out of breath and struggling during the work sections.

If you want to read some info about why I do Tabata training go HERE.

Sweat Guaranteed!!

-Ultimate Russell

Lifting Heavy Things

2010-10-25T13:25:00.000-04:00

Woooo.... That was a good session today. I keep getting stronger, I think I bumped weights up a little higher than i should have as I had to back off a little for a couple of sets but it overall was really good! Got a little sweat going and there was a lot of intensity going on. Anyway, my numbers for today!:

-Overhead Press-
5 sets, 5 reps, all weight in pounds.
1. 111
2. 111
3. 111
4. 111 - Hit the wall on this one, only got 4 reps in.
5. 101 - So I dropped it down for this one. Was still rather intense, the Overhead Press is a lift for MEN!!

-Back Squats-
1. 168
2. 173.5
3. 180
4. 190
5. 190

-Deadlift-
1. 179
2. 179
3. 179 - Got all my reps in but it was really hard and I could feel some loose form so I backed off on the next set.
4. 165 - Once again, it wasn't like taking the weight off suddenly made these easy. By this point I was burnt! But I grabbed the bar and finished my work.
5. 165

So there's today's lifting. It was good, felt worked, but good afterwards. Next session I'll probably keep the weights the same or perhaps just bump up by 5 pounds.

-Till next time!

-Ultimate Russell

Dracula Slaying FAIL! A Beautiful Weekend for Running and Beard Shaving!

2010-10-25T12:20:00.001-04:00

Oh man, how embarrassing! It's not too often that combined friend power is not enough to beat a game but this weekend that's exactly what happened. The quest was to beat Castlevaina III: Dracula's Curse on the original NES. Well, everything was going fine until the GAME GLITCHED OUT!! And I'm not making that up, I will post video evidence below. So yeah, the game glitched and we had not gotten a password so we had to start over. And after an already long 6 hour Castlevania marathon we just did not have the heart to play more than a little while longer. It was sad. On a bright note I did make an epicly delicious slab of ribs. Mmmmmm.... still thinking about those ribs!!

So after that, I drove home and woke up Sunday morning with the desire to shave. It happens every now and again. After almost a full year of beard growth I had the desire to see my face again so I hacked it off. I initially left the mustache intact which was quite awesome/not awesome looking. So you also get several pics of that.

So this Sunday was crazy-super-nice out. It was about 70 degrees, sunny, breezy and the cold mornings were keeping the mosquito populations down low. So with such a beautiful day to work with Randie and I decided to go do some trail running. Not only is it one of my all time favorite activities but I also hadn't really tested the Sartorious muscle out so I figured it would be a good test. The run was nice, there was a little bit of soreness and pinching but not horrible. We ran for about 45 minutes which is probably the longest cardio workout I've done in awhile, and I was pretty beat by the end of it. I'm not going to run for a couple days now and hopefully my Sartorious woes are at an end. So, I'll spare the talk and share some pics. Enjoy!

All local, Organic lunch. All veggies grown by Randie.

-Ultimate Russell

Getting Stronger, Eating Ribs, and Slaying Dracula

2010-10-23T09:28:00.002-04:00

Hello World, how are ya this morning. Me, I'm feeling pretty good. It's Saturday here which means it's time to relax and enjoy some free time. But first I gotta get yesterday on the books first! So yesterday was a LONG day! I had to drive almost 2 hours out for work and then of course, turn around and come back. I had about 30 minutes from the time I arrived back home to smash a little food down, feed the dogs and get my junk together for work Round 2. So I did, and it was a mercifully short drive for my next appointment, only about 30 minutes each way. But when you add it all up I was sitting in my car for about a total of 5 hours yesterday! And that is WAY too long to be sitting still. So when I got home I had the urge to lift some weights... so that's what I did. I did my same Overhead Press, Deadlift, and Back Squats workout from Monday but I jacked up my weight and handled it pretty good. It was all still hard, especially the Overhead Press, but afterwards I felt like some level of normalcy had returned to my body. Here's the numbers:

-Overhead Press:

100 pounds

5x5

-Deadlift:

155 pounds first set

160 pounds for the rest

5x5

-Back Squats:

155 pounds first set

166 pounds for the rest

5x5

So to save any backtracking to look at previous numbers I increased my Overhead Press by only about 3 pounds. My Deadlift increased by 14 pounds, and my Back Squats increased by 20 pounds. So that is a significant gain in strength over the course of a few days. Since beginning doing lifting like this I have been reminded on why I always liked lifting heavy things so much. It just seems like it makes your brain and body feel good and happy :)

Now on to Dracula.

Much of my youth was spent in front of the Original Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES as it's commonly known. And though my desire to play video games has waned considerably I still hold a very tender place in my heart for "Old-School" gaming. So tonight I'm heading over to my good friend Jim's place where we will slow cook a slab of ribs and attempt to play Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, straight through from the beginning, to the epic conclusion. This will be the first time we're actually sitting down with the express goal to finish the game. At various times in our youth, we had played the game but always came up short of total victory. I myself had played it several times with the objective of putting Dracula back in his grave. But alas, I was always bested. It's one of those games that starts off fairly easy but just get's harder and harder the more you play. So maybe we'll win, and maybe we won't. If we get too pissed off I recommended we go check out Paranormal Activity 2. Jim said he wouldn't go see it, I don't think he liked the first one. But who knows, eating ribs can make you do funny things.

I'll fill you in with all the gory details.

Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.

-Ultimate Russell

More Weight Training and Bicycling?

2010-10-21T12:39:00.000-04:00

Yo, so yesterday I did some more strength training, including two exercises I've never tried before. Here's what I did:

New weight bench, bar, and weights
I LOVE IT!
Thanks Dad!

-Bench Press - I haven't done any weight lifting on a real bench in YEARS! So, as expected the first several sets I did were to feel out how much weight I could move. The numbers: (all weight in pounds)

-Bench Press - 5 sets of 5 reps
1. 150 - too light
2. 168 - still too light
3. 173 - my body weight, and was plenty hard
4. 173
5. 173

-Weighted Sit Ups - I think I had done a few sit ups holding a dumbell before but it was nothing extreme. So I set the bench to a decline position and got busy.

-Weighted Sit Up- 5 sets of 10 reps
1. 10 - WAY too easy
2. 22 - still too easy...
3. 22 - but I tried it again to see if I was getting fatigued.
4. 33 - still Surprisingly easy
5. 44 - there I started to get the feeling. next time I'll start there and see how high I can go!

-Weighted Pull Ups - Now this is an exercise I've heard about but the fact I don't own a weight vest or belt was always in my way. But this week I took a piece of rope, a spare 20 pound plate, and made a harness straight out of Rocky 4!

This knot is the "WTF Knot"

Kinda like Flava Flav

-Weighted Pull Up- 5 sets of 3 reps (could only do 3 as they are NOT easy)
20 pounds for all sets

So that was yesterday. Today, I helped Randie out with some lifts and then we headed inside for what would shock me as surprisingly hard. What was it, you ask? It was my bike! A few years ago Randie and I invested in two Trek Bicycles and a pair of indoor trainers. Now I have nothing against bikes, but my thing is mostly running, so I haven't done much riding since we got them. But with the recent never ending Sartorious issues I haven't been doing very much cardio, and my body was craving it. So today we got the trainers out, and hooked the bikes up for a Bike Tabata workout, and HOLY CRAP WAS IT HARD!! It's probably just an issue of not having the conditioned bike muscles but it was WAY harder than my sprinting. But while it was much harder on the heart and lungs I did not have any sore Sartorious area afterwards.

Our Bikes

MY Bike

So yeah, weighted pull ups, love em. Weighted sit ups, love em. Bench Press, really forgot how much I love it. And Bike Tabata's, I think I might love em.

Lot's of love going around.

And of course, there is some sweat Guaranteed.

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-10-19T10:54:00.001-04:00

It's a new week, which means it's a new Tabata Tuesday! Depending on where you live in this big old world of ours it's possible that it's chilly outside today. As I type this blog entry it is currently 43 degrees in Northeastern Ohio, and in my book that's pretty chilly. But I have a solution that will surely banish the creak from your bones. And naturally, it has to do with Tabatas.

So here we go!!

First Do:
-Burpee Tabata

After That:
-Bicep Curl Tabata

After That:
-Sprint Tabata - FAIL!! (see edit below:)

edit: so I went out to sprint but I'm still having some pain from the Sartorious injury. It was very minor but I didn't want to aggravate it again so I stopped running. I will replace the Sprint Tabata with some other cardio Tabata tonight. We're also going to hook our bike trainers up inside so we have a bike Sprint Tabata as an option.

There's the Tabata's for the day. After those are done I have some work related epic driving to accomplish but am going to try to bundle up a little and go for a 45 minute or an hour long walk when I get home.

And if you're a total n00b:
A Tabata is easily defined as 20 seconds of hard work followed by 10 seconds of rest. This pattern is repeated for 8 rounds, making for a total time of 4 minutes. So to further clarify, after doing all three Tabata's today you will have done 12 minutes of high intensity exercise.

Sweat Guaranteed!

-Ultimate Russell

Olympic Weight Lifting is What I Did!

2010-10-18T13:38:00.002-04:00

Yep, FINALLY got an Olympic Bench, bar and weights donated generously by my father (Thanks, Dad!) so I went out today for my first real Olympic Lifting routine. Here's what I did:

Every set of lifts were 5 sets of 5 reps, with just enough rest in between to still put a hurtin' on the next set.

-Overhead Press
1. 89 lbs
2. 89 lbs
3. 89 lbs
4. 97 lbs
5. 97 lbs

-Back Squat
1. 135 lbs
2. 135 lbs
3. 146 lbs
4. 146 lbs
5. 146 lbs

-Deadlift
1. 135 lbs
2. 135 lbs
3. 146 lbs
4. 146 lbs
5. 146 lbs

So yeah, I'm not going to win any competitions with those kind of numbers but it wasn't a BAD start, plus it was rather intense, so I knew I was doing something right. Plus, I could probably put up a little more weight but being this was my first session there was some playing around in there. But I recorded my numbers so I'll have a much better starting point for next session. Wednesday I'm going to do some bench press and some weighted Pull-Ups.

I'd also like to toss a shout out to Davie Easton of the Hobo Gym blog, because he was kind enough to chat with me on Facebook and give me some great advice on how to get started with my "O" lifting. He's a super nice guy and I enjoy the convo every time he hit's me up on Facebook.

edit:

Today's kind of a cold, crappy day here in Ohio and I didn't think I'd be doing much walking so I did another little 4 minute, Not-A-Tabata to get the heart pumping. Here it is:

-5 Squats
-5 Push Ups
-2 Pull Ups

Basically, just set a timer for 4 minutes and move through the circuit. Do your squats, bust out some push ups, and then get those pull ups done. After about 2 minutes you'll be ready for a break, but DON'T STOP! You can make it through 4 minutes!

Have fun!

Anyway, that's it! Olympic Lifting FTW!!

Oh yeah...edit: (Double) Sweat Guaranteed.

-Ultimate Russell

Free Weight Workout! plus There's Gonna Be Some Changes 'Round Here

2010-10-14T14:43:00.001-04:00

Today's workout was with free weights. I'm getting an Olympic Lifting set this weekend but was in the mood for some weight lifting so I came up with a fun, little routine.

Here it is:

-Deadlift
-Shoulder Press
-Chest Press (basically a bench press but I laid on the floor)
-Stiff Leg Deadlift
-Bent Over Row
-Chest Fly

3 Sets of the above exercises. I was lifting close to failure but not quite, usually between 8-10 reps. I also used a pair of 40 Pound Dumbbells for everything but the Chest Fly, for which I used a pair of 25's.

After that you get a BONUS SET!!

-Dumbbell Snatches - 6 with each arm (I did 40 pounds, and wished I had heavier)
-Max Push-Ups (And yeah, those were a WHOLE lot of fun after the intense upper body blast I just did :)

Now that we have that out of the way I would like to address some subtle changes that will be happening around this here blog.

You see, while I do LOVE working out, and talking Paleo Diet there are other things that the Ultimate Russell enjoys doing. What are those things? Well, I like movies, books, music (I even make some music!), and geeky video gamey, RPG stuff. The truth is that while I am a Viking Warrior in many respects I also like to be a huge Geek/Nerd and will be keeping you informed on whatever geeky thing I'm up to. So, basically be ready to read some geek talk. It's okay, it won't be TOO bad.

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-10-12T11:19:00.002-04:00

Whew, after a week off yesterday's workout blasted my upper body pretty hard so today is going to be a slightly different Tabata Tuesday. Instead of 4 exercises I'm just going to alternate 2. And they are:

First Do:
TABATA
-Air Squats
-Sit-Ups (seriously, if you don't know how to do sit-ups than you need to learn some basics!)

After That:
Sprint Tabata

That's it. It's a pretty nice day up in Northeast Ohio today, so if the weather's nice where you are go for a walk, or something.

Enjoy Yourself

-Ultimate Russell

Today's Ultimate Victory Workout - Back from Sickness

2010-10-11T10:32:00.000-04:00

So on Tuesday of last week I woke up ot feeling to great. I had a sore throat and felt foggy in the head. So I thought a good hard Tabata Tuesday would clear me out and perk me up. And it did for a short time but by that night I was WAY worse than I was in the morning. The week that followed was pretty rough. I had a pretty wicked cold and spent most of the time that I wasn't working sleeping. I did no working out except for a little bit of walking. But I'm happy to report that aside from a little throat soreness first thing in the morning that Ultimate Russell is back at it! So without further ado:

TODAY'S WORKOUT:

This is a 5 round workout, no time limit. Take little breaks when you need it but keep your form good and the intensity high!

-15 Elevated Leg Chair Dips
-15 Goblet Squats - I did 40 Pounds
-15 Dumbell/Kettlebell Swings - Once again, 40 Pounds
-Max Hold Low Plank
-Max Pullups/Chinups

That's one round, do it 5 times and you will feel something.

Also, I usually turn on iTunes and play a Genius Mix, usually it's a pretty good selection but I have to jump through a couple songs. But today it was a perfect mix! It played:

1. "Rehab" by Down
2. "Lament of the Aurochs" by The Sword
3. "Master of Puppets" by Metallica
4. "Big Fat Pig" by Clutch

Then during my Cool Down it played some 3Inches of Blood, it was a great workout mix!

Sweat Guaranteed!

-Ultimate Russell

My Experience with Fish Oil - or - Because Robb Wolf Told Me So

2010-10-07T11:13:00.001-04:00

So if you're anything like me there are sometimes things that you think are not or could not possibly ever be important to health, or in my case improve the way I feel. For me that thing was Fish Oil. Even though I've listened to every episode of The Paleo Solution Podcast by Robb Wolf, and basically take his recommendations as gospel (of course I do my own research and trial and error, I don't advocate robotism here).

Wait a minute..... no red underline? ROBOTISM IS A REAL WORD!!! Freaking AWESOME!!

Anyway, back to the point.

For some reason whenever I heard Robb talk about Fish Oil I just wasn't interested. Basically I would just tune it out and be like "yeah, not gonna buy fish oil." I figured I already strive to buy the best eggs and produce I can as well as grass fed beef. Do I really need to take a fish oil supplement? Besides, my personal motto has always been something along the lines of "If you need to take a supplement then you're doing something wrong." Seems like sound advice, right? So here's the question:

Q: Ultimate Russell, do you feel that you NEED to take a fish oil supplement?
A: No.

Wait, wait, wait, don't leave yet until you've heard.... My counterpoint question:

Q: Ultimate Russell, have you experienced any benefit from taking a fish oil supplement?
A: Yes. Absolutely. Definitely. Heaven's Yes. Hell Yeah. And Sure.

So here we go. Yes, I have seen a difference in how I feel and perform since starting a serious regimen of fish oil. I will tell you what I take and how I figured my amounts. I must also say up front that I take a little less then was prescribed by the fish oil calculator, but it is pretty close.

How I started:
So finally after listening to an episode of The Paleo Solution where Robb Wolf said if there's one supplement he would recommend it would be fish oil I finally seriously considered buying some. Another big point was Robb said that he really didn't care what his customers bought. If they bought some cheap oil and tried it that eventually they would get interested in upgrading. At this point I had been doing Paleo for about a month and had already witnessed dramatic results. So I figured maybe it was a good time to try it. So I did.

The next day I was at a Target Department Store and I saw this bottle:

And it was on sale for $6.00!! Now if I was gonna give this a try it was gonna be on the cheap. So I bought the bottle and brought it home.

The first thing I did was go HERE to the Whole9 fish oil calculator. I figured myself in as a Factor 0.5. So I did the calculations and at the time (being a bit heavier) it recommended 8 doses! The serving size for this bottle of oil is 2 pills so that would be 16 a day!!! That just seemed crazy to me so I decided just to do 2 servings a day. So that's what I did. One with breakfast and one with dinner. So after a few days I didn't exactly see a big difference in relation to body comp but my performance in exercise seemed dramatically improved! At first I also didn't tie it to the fish oil, I just thought I was kicking some major ass! Which I was. Not to mention all the great Paleo Nutrition I had been getting. So after about three or four weeks of honestly giving the fish oil a pretty lukewarm effort I decided to not take the oil for a week and see what happened. It was immediately before and during this time period that I strained my Sartorious muscle which has led to some discomfort while running as well as a dramatic reduction in performance. So the week went by and while I did zero running I did do a lot of conditioning and walking. The most interesting thing was I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something was just not quite right. It is hard to explain but I guess I just felt slightly off. It wasn't until nearly the end of the week that I wondered if it had to do with the fish oil. So the next week I once again calculated my fish oil and it came out to 5 doses a day. Even though I still felt that it was pretty high I decided to do it. After all, if it made a big difference for me the bottle was only six bucks so whatever.

The most interesting thing was that over the course of about 2 weeks my Sartorious did not seem to be getting any better, it was still sore and my running was quite weak. But after a few days of my full dose of oil the pain and discomfort dropped noticeably. This is even more interesting because if you know anything about Omega 3's and 6's you know that we have an abundance of 6's in our modern diet and having an out of whack ratio of 3 to 6 means your body is in a pro-inflammation state. That's the reasoning behind fish oil. Since it is high in Omega 3's it aims to balance out the ratio an take you out of a pro-inflammatory state. And after a few weeks of the full dose my Sartorious feels almost all the way back to normal. It is still a little tight but there's barely any discomfort. And the "twinges" I would sometimes get during exercise have vanished. Since upping my doseage I've also been sprinting and doing faster short runs and seem to be getting my mojo back. On another related note I have ALWAYS had difficulty doing exercises like Plyometrics, Pull Ups, and anything basically intense and rep heavy. I was always quick to burn out and need to take a break. For example my average number of reps for jump knee tucks was about 25. But recently I've done up to 50 in a set and have still had plenty of gas to keep going or to hit the next exercise hard. This is a level of skill previously not accessible by me.

Skeptical?:

Could my improvement be merely due to a smarter training plan, more recovery time, and a healing muscle. Yes, it certainly could. And no doubt, the healing of the Sartorious plays a HUGE role in the improvement of my fitness. But before I began really working the fish oil I just didn't seem to be getting any better. And since getting serious about my fish oil I've had a startling jump in my performance. So yeah, if you're still on the fence about taking fish oil, I understand. And my story probably will do little to change your mind. But if you have $6.00 take it to Target and buy this bottle of fish oil. Give it an honest 30 day try (just like you probably did when you started switching over to Paleo) and see what happens. If you get zero benefit than all you did was waste $6.00 in the name of feeling and performing better which is WAY less than most other supplements or "miracle cures" will run you. This is just an accounting of MY experiences with fish oil. And as to what Robb Wolf said about people getting into fish oil and looking to upgrade as time goes on, well I'm in that camp. This may be my last bottle of cheap Target fish oil, I'm looking to higher quality sources.

I hope none of you thought any of this story was fishy!!

(haha. HAD to do it.)

-Ultimate Russell

31st Birthday Post - And a Paleo Treasure Trove

2010-10-07T09:34:00.001-04:00

So, October 4th was my 31st birthday. And crappily enough that happened to fall on a Monday this year. And who the hell want's to have a party on a Monday?! Not me! So on Saturday I had some friends over and I pretended that it was my birthday. It was good times. I drank a few too many NorCal Margatitas and kinda felt like shit in the morning but hey, 31st birthday, ya know? So the day started with an amazing breakfast of Primal Pancakes (Almond flour, Eggs, and cinnamon all whipped together) and Uncured Bacon:

The 4-Burner Cooking Technique

Some Finished Product

The Beautiful Chef

Can't forget the coffee!

Voila!!

This is often what happens after Primal Pancakes

I also got some early presents!

Stainless Steel, Bitches!!

So we ate breakfast, did some present giving and then hung out for a while. We were originally planning on going for a hike but the weather decided to be Uber-Shitty so we did some running around instead and ended up eating lunch at Chipotle!

Mmmmmm.... I had a Burrito Bol, no rice or beans. Beef and Pork. All three tomato based salsas, guacamole and lettuce. Randie had a Bol as well minus the crap with Steak and Pork, Mild and Green Salsa, and DOUBLE GUACAMOLE!! She saw Robb Wolf's wife get it on a video and has been obsessed with the idea ever since. Like always at Chipotle, it was damn good!

A little later we were visited by a good friend of mine named Jim Stafford who I haven't seen in some time. It was great to catch up and he himself is embarking upon the Paleo Lifestyle Journey! So we discussed diet, I ranted for a bit on Monsanto and GMO's, we also talked about some of the old times and what we're up to now. It was good seeing him. Around the time Jim had to get going my party guests were just starting to arrive. And I must apologize because I meant to take pictures but the NorCal drinks quickly banished the notion. Anyway, it was a great time! We ate Grass fed burgers (no buns) hung out and had a blast! I'd like to thank Jim Stafford, Jim Gregorski, Shaun Staylon, Ben Clark, Alex Kantelas, my Brother Dave, and my Wife Randie for all pitching together to give me a very nice birthday party.

Now, even though I partied on Saturday I didn't receive one gift until my birthday on Monday when UPS dropped a package at my door. This was from my mother and I honestly did not know what she sent so I brought it in and got to opening.

Box from Amazon.com

What's in the box?! What's in the Boxxx?!
-Brad Pitt, Seven

BLAM!!

Wow! Four Awesome books I've been wanting to make my own! Too freakin' cool!

So it was a great birthday weekend. Big thanks to my Mom and Dad as well, and for everyone who made a phone call or left me a Facebook message. You guy's are too kind.

I cannot believe that I am now Thirty freakin One!

-Ultimate Russell

Damnation!!

2010-10-05T15:04:00.002-04:00

My blogging has been temporarily interrupted by the reading of Robb Wolf's "The Paleo Solution."

We will return to regular blogcasting soon.

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-10-05T08:14:00.000-04:00

Another week, another Tabata Tuesday. My goal was to make this one especially difficult. Here we go!!

Jump Knee Tucks
Burpees
In and Outs (couldn't find a good video so... Start at the top of a push up. Jump both feet in towards your hands, and then jump them back. Repeat. Too easy :)
Jumping Lunges

After That:
Push Up Tabata

After That:
Sprint Tabata

Whew.... that's a good one.

Enjoy!

Sweat Guaranteed!

-Ultimate Russell

Today's Ultimate Victory Workout

2010-10-04T18:52:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, I'm currently getting things together for a couple of big posts but in the meantime here's my workout from this morning. Enjoy!

20 Minutes As Many Rounds as Possible:

2 Turkish Get Ups (one with each arm, I used a 40 pound dumbell)
10 Sit Ups
10 Dips
20 Air Squats
2 Pull Ups

After That:
Ran 1.5 mile Tempo Run at about 85% max effort.

This was a great way to start the morning. It's dreary and chilly here today so this really got the blood pumping.

Sweat Guaranteed!

-Ultimate Russell

Friday Afternoon Walk in the Park

2010-10-02T07:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Randie and I went for a walk down at the Wellington Metro Park. It was a nice hour in the sun so I got that Vitamin D, and a nice session of low intensity cardio to offset our Olympic Lifts earlier in the day. Took some pictures, here they are:

INTENDED doesn't mean I CAN'T use it

1 of 50 pull ups (rest not pictured, but I swear that's how many I did!) lying.

Me walking very naturally.

Our intrepid photographer, and my wife.

Nature!

I had to hurl this boulder at a charging bear! (not pictured)

That's grass, with trees in the background.

Just a walkin'.

Ancient Druidic Rock Formation.

Made a little cave drawing in the rocks.
I call it "Man Frolicking."

These were an early B-day present from my Randie.
For those counting I now have 3 pair of VFF.
Yes, I'm "that guy" now.

It really is a lovely park, and it was a lovely time.

I turn 31 on Monday. Just putting it out there.

-Ultimate Russell

Kerry Gold Butter! Tub of Butter, Baby!

2010-10-01T13:32:00.004-04:00

Jealous?

-Ultimate Russell

Sleeping in my Cave

2010-10-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

I have a pretty epic beard. I like minimalistic workouts. I run barefoot. I eat meat, lots and lots of meat. And on top of it all I sleep on the floor, I do not own a bed. That's right, no mattress, no box spring, no comforter or silly "runner" thing around the bottom. I sleep on the floor, and believe it or not, it's frickin' AWESOME!!

Why did I start sleeping on the floor? I would like to say it came from doing a bunch of research and have some sweet links to show you. But alas, that's not how it happened. It all started because I was sharing my bed with a fungus. More commonly called mold.

-"But Ultimate Russell, how did you get mold in your bed?"

-"Just sit tight kid, I'm getting there."

It starts like this, I have two Bassett Hounds. They look like this:

Goose and Professor

Adorable, right? Totally awesome dogs. But they have one big issue... they are short. So, back to the bed. It was up on box springs but I got tired of getting woken up in the middle of the night because a dog had decided to get off the bed and was then having trouble getting back on. So our bright idea was to nix the box spring and put the mattress on the floor. And it worked great for Short-Hound-Bed-Summiting-Disorder. So that problem was solved, just in time for winter. And that's where the trouble really started. We have hardwood floors throughout our home. Our home is also quite old, with a very old basement. So we get some cool air leakage from the floor as well as some moisture. We also like to keep the thermostat at a reasonable level and are quite adept at dealing with the cold. But when we would sleep we'd turn on a little, electric space heater and a small bedside humidifier. See where this is going? Porous mattress directly on the drafty floor with a heater and humidifier going, every night, through the winter months. What it did was create a mold colony inside our bed. We started to suspect something was up when we'd be all headachey, and out of it in the morning no matter what we did. I did some googling and saw that one easy way to tell was to simply smell the thing. So I did and it smelled like mildew. DISGUSTING! So out went the mattress, and at the time we figured we'd just buy a new one. So we went shopping one day and found, much to our shock, that for a king sized mattress and box spring we were looking at probably $500 on the low end! HOLY CRAP!! So we borrowed two full size beds and recreated a 1950's "push the beds together" deal. And it was fine but we knew we had to do something. So one day I was just like, "When I was young I slept on the floor all over the place, maybe I should try it again." So I did try it again and... huh, let's just say it didn't go too great. But if the options were to drop $500 or to give the floor a few more shots I decided to sleep on it for a week. And by day 3 I was sold!

I can't say that there weren't times I woke up sore and that it didn't take some time to fully adjust, but I did adjust and right away noticed I was sleeping longer, better, and waking without a tight, sore back like I was used to. At this point I was sleeping on a yoga mat with a light blanket on top of it (because sleeping on rubber feels weird!). And after I started telling Randie about it, she decided to give it a try. And it went in much the same way. The first couple nights are difficult, but then it get's easier and easier the more you do it. So, we managed to avoid a $500 mattress but we found that sleeping on the small mats just weren't that great because you had such a small space to lay on, and let's face it, stretching out and having a bunch of room is what makes sleeping so good. So first I thought I would try sleeping directly on the floor. But honsetly, the wood was just too hard. And in the winter it would be VERY cold. So I nixed that. I was looking around for some kind of low profile, thin, futon like mattress to put down when I saw a picture of rubber gym mats. Those would work great! They're inexpensive, would cover a large area, aren't too soft, and would insulate us from the cold floor. So I eagerly told Randie about it.... and she wasn't impressed.

So we endeavored to keep looking.

Then about 3 weeks later Randie show's me a picture of RUBBER GYM MATS and says "These look like they would work great!" So of course, I had to point out that I laid this plan out like 3 weeks ago but yes, I still thought it would be a good idea. So we bought 2 sets of the mats from Wal-Mart brought them home, assembled, and voila....

The Cave Floor

There it is. I do have to mention that when we first got them there was a noticeable chemical smell. So we let them sit outside overnight and by the morning it was gone. Now we just throw a blanket down and have all the room in the world to stretch out and get comfy. I was getting good sleep on the yoga mat, but now I get great sleep! And it only cost about $50!

In addition to this we also have removed our bedside alarm clock from the room. I felt it was too bright and looking at it in the middle of the night could cause a person to force themselves up "now" instead of getting that extra hour of sleep. If we do need to wake up early we set an alarm on our cell phone. No prob. We also put up black out curtains (really just thick, dark towels) so at night there are no distractions. We get some good, comfortable, uninterrupted sleep... unless a dog has to whiz in the middle of the night. I'm looking at you, Professor!!

So for me, this whole thing works on many levels; It's cheap, minimalistic, comfortable, primal, and fun. Like I said, it takes a little while to really get into it, but after this there's really no going back to a bed for me. Much like taking off the shoes for running.

That's it, now get some sleep!

-Ultimate Russell

Today's Primal "Workout in the Wild" - WITH VIDEO!!

2010-09-29T16:31:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody! It is Wednesday so it was our day for an outdoor Primal-type workout. Ton's of fun, as always and today you get to see a video of all the action! Now, please keep in mind that it was filmed with a digital camera sitting on a stump so it's not quite Scorsese level but it does show what we did. Also I would like to note that while the total running time is under 10 minutes that we actually did about 25 minutes of working out today, you just get to see the edited "montage."

edit: there was music but it got flagged by Youtube. I'm going to re-upload with new, non infringing music.

edit: new music added. It's some of my own personal surf rock. enjoy!

Enjoy!!

Make a Primal workout up yourself and give it a try.

-Sweat Guaranteed!

-Ultimate Russell

My Paleo plus Dairy Experiment

2010-09-29T13:45:00.001-04:00

So, about a week and a half ago I decided to give some dairy a try. I decided to add heavy cream into my coffee rotation. My desire to do this was three fold:

-Reason 1: See if anything with digestion has changed since going Paleo. In the past I would have some intestinal issues when drinking milk. Since having so many changes have happened from going Paleo I wondered if the heavy cream would give me the same issues.
-How did it go?: From a purely digestion/discomfort standpoint I had ZERO issues. That's right. It used to be if I drank a glass of milk, or even added some to my eggs I would get a sensation similar to a big, sharp rock being stuck just under my stomach. It sucked. But surprisingly enough, it was not an issue at all since cutting out grains, legumes, and processed fake foods.

-Reason 2: Get some extra fat easily. It might sound weird but I sometimes have trouble getting what I think is the right amount of fat into my diet. It's not like I'm totally deficient in it, I just know I need a little more because when I get a little more my performance goes up. So I thought some heavy cream in the morning in the coffee would be a good way to load some fat in.
-How did it go?: From the standpoint of getting it in, it went very well. I was able to up my fat intake easily. Drinking calories is not always the best option, but hey, it was an experiment.

-Reason 3: See the difference in performance or body comp.
-How did it go?: Okay, honestly I thought it would take much longer to see any changes or results. I was wrong. I've spoken before about my "man-boobs" and how they have been steadily declining since the adoption of Paleo. Well, in just over a week I have noticed a small amount of growth in that area as well as a general puffiness around my midsection which had been getting extremely lean lately. As far as my athletic performance I honestly noticed no change.

-What am I going to do?:
That's easy, I'm going to stop drinking the stuff. I guess I have some dairy issues, which I kind of assumed already and this short experiment has shown me them very clearly. Now, I do have to concede that the cream was not from a grass fed cow, but was organic and hormone/antibiotic free. And I suppose if I got my hands on some real grass-fed dairy milk maybe my experiences would be different. But until that time I'm just going to stop drinking the stuff.

Also, just for the record I do use Kerry Gold grass fed butter from Trader Joe's for a lot of cooking and do not appear to be having any issues right now, but I will be keeping an eye on it.

-Still got love for them cows!

-Ultimate Russell

TABATA TUESDAY!!!

2010-09-28T10:39:00.002-04:00

Alright, today's Tabata Workout is:

Cardio/Conditioning Tabata
-Speed Skaters
-Burpees (there are many variations of this exercise)
-Touch the Floor (couldn't find a good video. basically start with legs together, then jump them out to the side like a jumping jack. but instead of reaching your hands up use one hand to reach across your body and touch the floor by the opposite foot. If that's too confusing just do jumping jacks.)
-Jumping Lunges

After That:
-Clapping Push Ups - 3 Sets of 8 Reps
-Hand Stand Push Ups - One at a time for a total of 8 reps.

After That:
-Sprint Tabata

Gonna give the Sartorious a go and do the Sprint Tabata today. Jogged for a mile yesterday and I think it went well. Regardless of how it goes today I will most likely not be running the rest of the week. As long as I make it through the rest of the week without issue I'll start running more next week.

If you don't know what a Tabata is then this should help:
You do an exercise for 20 seconds as hard and fast as you can followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat this for 8 rounds. So if you look up top it would be 20 seconds of speed skaters all out followed by 10 seconds of rest, then you got to burpees for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest repeat. When you finish the fourth exercise (in this case Jumping Lunges) go back to the top.

Hope it goes well!

-Ultimate Russell

Today's Workout

2010-09-27T18:42:00.002-04:00

I tried something a little different today. I don't know what the inspiration was, guess I was just a little bored. I wanted to do a full body workout in which I would get close to failure, back off for a moment and then push back to near failure. And when I say near failure I'm talking about that moment in an exercise where if you can stop for just a second you can gather up your will and bust out a few more reps. So when you get to that feeling (like when you pause at the top of a push up for a sec before you knock a few more out) that's when you stop the exercise. It was pretty fun, I did 3 rounds with three "sets" in every round. I set it up like this:

Round 1:

Push ups and Chair Dips - These start easy but by the last set I was really struggling for reps. Start with push ups and do a bunch until you're getting near that rest point and then get up and start doing some dips on the chair. When you get close to failure on the dips then stop. That would be the first "set" of Round 1. Each round get's 3 sets.

There is a chair back there, and a Basset Hound checking out his wang.

Round 2:

Jump Knee Tucks and Mountain Climbers - Here's another one that starts out relatively easy but get's harder and more annoying every time you start a new set. I was surprised how quickly I recovered from the jump knee tucks, those have really fried my quads in the past.

Another helper-hound.

Round 3:
Pull ups and Sit ups - Ahhh... the last round, I started with strict pull ups but decided to throw a couple kippers in when I was getting toasty. The Sit ups were really quite brutal, I didn't realize I could do so many when already fatigued. It was a good Round.

Not tough enough to give a thumbs up here.

He was not impressed with my performance.

After all that we headed out for a brisk 1 mile barefoot run, it was a great way to finish out the work. Total workout time was around 20 minutes and due to the nature of the exercises and the way we stacked them it was very intense the whole way through.

Give it a try if you're feeling tough!

-Ultimate Russell

How's the Paleo Diet Going?

2010-09-24T09:21:00.004-04:00

It's been some time since I've discussed what's going on with my Paleo dieting so I figured I'd drop a short post. In a word I would say it's going "GREAT!" That's right, this has turned from a diet experiment into a full on food lifestyle. The benefits I've seen in a short time are amazing! What have these benefits been? Just look below:

-BODY COMPOSITION:
One of the most apparent results have been in how my body looks. I don't think I'll ever have a Calvin Klein body but I've gone from a muscular but soft frame to a MUCH more muscular and lean body type! My body fat percentage hovers between 8-9.5% and my weight has stayed put at 175 pounds. There have been three major areas I have always been unhappy about on my body, belly (including love handles), chest, and thighs. These places have where my body seems happy to store plenty of fat. The first big difference I began noticing was in my thighs, my Dickies pants I wear for work have always been comfortable around the waist but very tight around my thighs. But no longer! Now they fit comfy from top to bottom. As I walked past a mirror one morning wearing my boxer shorts I actually did a double take at how much slimmer my thighs have gotten. Upon measuring I discovered I had taken almost a full 2 inches off of the right and about 1 3/4" off of the left. And that was after ONE MONTH of Paleo (remember I'm only about 3 months in). As far as the belly and love handles I always figured I just had a genetic disposition to be fat there. I would tell myself that there's no point in wanting ab definition because my body type just did not make it possible. Well, that was a big pile of crap! My belly fat has continued to lessen and dissapear and my love handles are almost completely annihilated. There is a bit of loose, saggy skin (not excessive) which will probably take a while to tighten up but I'll take that over big fatty blobs sitting on my waistline. And ab definition is happening! I think it would be even more obvious if I wasn't so hairy, but whatever, I know what's going on. Now the chest, this is a very touchy subject for me because despite my weight I've always had "man boobs." Granted they weren't Double D's or anything but I HATED having them! I can vividly remember the first time a school mate commented on them when I was perhaps in 3rd grade or something like that and I know I've been very sensitive about it ever since. And I tried EVERYTHING to shrink them! Thousands of Push ups a week, hundreds of pull ups, bench pressing max weight for few reps, and light weight for many reps, running between 60 and 80 miles a week and NOTHING ever worked. I did develop some powerful pectoral muscles but they always had a flabby boob-like layer of fat over them. That however, is changing rapidly. Even though the time spent working out has gone down considerably since my past chronic cardio routines my body has been tightening up like crazy! The man boobs, while still there a little have shrunk A TON!! They have now assumed much more of what is considered a "flat muscled chest" look. One thing I don't think I've ever mentioned before is that while it was never diagnosed I believe I did and still suffer from a distorted body image. When I was in High School and ridiculously skinny I thought I was fat. Seriously, when I looked in the mirror I saw a big blob of fat. And then when I was on my way to getting quite heavy (probably 210 pounds) I was somehow under the delusion that I was fit and trim, even though I still hated how I looked. It was very weird stuff, and I have in the past basically despised my looks. Well, that has all changed! Now when I look in the mirror I feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment! And not only for me! I know I look better for my wife. I don't want to be a kind, loving, unattractive hippo! I want to look as good as I possibly can for her, because she deserves Thor, not Haggar the Horrible. I also receive a big mental boost because I know that this is a lifestyle I can keep up for life, which should give me a ferocious hand on the reins of my future! And this kind of plays into the next aspect of my life that Paleo has improved....

-MY BRAIN:
No, eating a Paleo diet doesn't make you smarter (I guess you could argue that smarter people do give up processed, crap foods, but I digress). Eating healthy Paleo foods does not add IQ points but it has done some pretty remarkable things for me on the mental front. Now of course before going Paleo I was taking part in the Standard Weight Loss Diet which is low in fat, and high in carbs. And while I was loosing weight (slowly, and with an extremely high level of difficulty) I was NOT happy! I was ALWAYS hungry, and if I didn't eat every 2 or 3 hours I would go into some kind of crazy sugar crash death spiral where my critical thinking skills became useless. Try explaining to a customer what their "County Tax Pro-Ration Credit" means when you feel like your operating your body from some wonky 1970's computer 20,000 leagues under the sea. It was a ridiculous situation. What's really crazy is that just by changing what I eat I can actually go almost ALL DAY without getting ravenous. I mean yeah, I might get hungry but I now routinely go 6 to 8 hours without eating or snacking and it's easy! Before Paleo I was also DEPRESSED AS HELL!! Like so depressed I would listen to emo rock and like it. Like so depressed I almost watched Twilight. Like so depressed I felt like the overdrive button in my car (get it? you mainly just leave overdrive on, so the button's depressed all the time. No good huh, oh well.). I also lacked the ability to deal with anything remotely important. Having to make decisions or split second changes in my schedule led to intense anger and sadness. I just felt like I couldn't deal, and it was WEIRD! I just was barely ever happy. BUT NO MORE!! As you can tell by my use of CAPITAL LETTERS I have emotion back in my life! Seething rage and anger have been replaced with feelings of happiness and that things are actually gonna be all right! It's shocking that eating different foods could do this for me. It's really hard to believe, but I am my own walking proof. Another thing that has helped my brain has been...

-SLEEP:
I used to have the "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" attitude. You know, whatever, who says I NEED sleep! I can power through anything! And while that's true to some degree and my ability to operate on little to no sleep was quite amazing at times it was not healthy for me. I have since initiated a much earlier bed time and have been working on getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. And while it doesn't always happen perfectly, the fact is that adding more sleep has made things on my brain and body much easier. I wake up feeling recovered and ready to rock! I really don't have to much anecdotal evidence to add about sleep that hasn't already been said above but I do feel A LOT better! Also, if I get run down in the middle of the day instead of drinking a pot of coffee and powering through I just close my eyes and take a 20-30 minute nap, and it's like in that short time the batteries are recharged! Which is no to say that when I'm on the road and tired I won't get coffee, but at home, where I can control my options I now opt to just zonk out for a few and rest. There is also plenty of scientific evidence that show's sleep helping regulate, body stress, cortisol production, and muscle regeneration. So it's not just me saying you should get more sleep, it's your own body.

So, what to do? If you are even remotely interested in trying a Paleo diet don't stress it. Just try it. Give it about 30 days and try to be strict. Initially I had some bread and pasta cravings but found that if I ate an apple or orange I could quickly banish them. But yeah, give it a try and if you backslide or cheat a little it's not the end of the world. All I know is that it's working very fast and efficiently for Randie and myself. Gonna take some "after" photo's this weekend and show you guy's how far I've come.

"I Salute your Solution!"
-The Raconteurs

-Ultimate Russell

Olympic Lifts Start Tomorrow!

2010-09-23T21:16:00.000-04:00

Oh man, I am so excited! I finally have my gear together to start doing some Olympic Style Lifting! It's something I've been kicking around in the back of my head for a while but haven't gotten around to it since I was concentrating on bodyweight exercises and improving my running performance. And I don't plan on doing too much honestly, probably just O lifting once a week, most likely Fridays or Saturdays. I plan on structuring the week like this:

-Monday:
*20-30 minutes intense Ultimate Victory Workout (pull ups, push ups, squats, jumps, other wacky shit)
*Walk or light jogging

-Tuesday:
*TABATA TUESDAY! Tabata Sprints and some other Tabata Ultimate Victory routine.
*Walk

-Wednesday:
*Movnat inspired Primal backyard workout
*Walk

-Thursday:
*Rest
*Walk

-Friday:
*Olympic Lifts (Starting with the Deadlift, Back Squat, and Overhead Press)
*Walk
*A nice 20 minute tempo run if I'm feeling good.

-Saturday:
*Trail Run/Walk
*Rest

-Sunday:
*Walk
*Rest
*Open for fun activities

Of course everything is subject to change, and I should note that being open for fun activities is always on the board. And if I'm feeling broken I'm going to actually try to do the whole "Rest and Recover" nonsense everyone keeps talking about. I'm interested to see what happens with the O lifting. I think I have enough weight for 4 weeks of lifting with periodic weight increases. Randie will be lifting with me and I surely will chime in on her progress as well, (sniffles and wipes a tear) "She makes me so proud!" Also we are actually planning on taking pictures of our adventures so you'll actually have some Paleo-work-in-progress-bodies to feast your eye's on!

My only concern with getting the weights in the house is that it kind of goes against my desire for minimalism. But as much as I LOVE bodyweight exercise I am getting just a little bored with it, I just need a break. So I'm mixing stuff up a bit. But on the good side of it, we're cleaning out our garage this weekend to turn it into our own little "Hobo Gym." So I guess finally throwing out a bunch of crap piled in our garage puts a couple of chips in the minimalism pile. I also have a great update on floor sleeping I'll be dropping here in a day or two. I just need to take some pictures. YES, MORE PICTURES!!

I wonder if I can get Randie to give up chairs and tables.....? Probably not.

Come on in! Take your shoes off! Would you like to sleep on my floor?

-Ultimate Russell

Primal Workout with Randie and Tabata Push Ups!

2010-09-21T10:57:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had some late work but it was still bright enough outside to get a "Primal" workout in outdoors. Randie joined me for a good 20 minute workout.

Here's what we used for equipment:
-70 pound Heavy bag
-Tree stumps we have yet to chop up into firewood

Here's what we did:
-Pick up and throw the bag onto the ground (any throw you want) then jump on it and strike it 10 times (once again, use any strike you want. fists, elbow, knees, whatev). We alternated throws for a total of 10 sets.
-Pick up bag and and carry 30 yards using a variety of carries (bear hug, over the shoulder, across the back) the person NOT carrying the bag walk or jogs alongside and you trade off at the end of each carry. This is also 10 sets.
-Stand up and hold your arms out in front of you, palms up. Have your partner pick up the heavybag and place it across your arms. When you have it secured in your arms do a squat. When you stand back up dump the bag into your partners arms and have them do a squat. This is a simple exercise but after a few reps it gets hard! To make it more fun try to continually pick up the pace and frustrate your partner. I tried but Randie was too strong yesterday.
-Pick up a big stump, hold it to your chest and throw it explosively away from you, then drop to all fours and run on all fours like a bear to the stump, pick it back up and throw it the other way. Repeat for 10 throws.
-Still using the stump grab it on the ends with both hands and power it upwards like a kettlebell swing and toss it as far as you can! Repeat this for 10 throws.
-Get a tall object, somewhere between 2 to 3 feet tall is good (we stacked one stump on top of another), and with a short running start leap over it. Run back in a circle and jump it again. Repeat tens times.
-Set up three shorter objects in a line with about 4 or 5 feet between them and jump the series using a variety of jumps. You could jump each stump bunny hop style, jump from one leg to the other, etc. Just have fun!

When we finished up we were both out of breath and feeling SUPERCHARGED! It all worked well and it was a really good time! Randie was actually smiling and saying how fun it was! Good times!

That brings us to today in which I continued to experiment with Tabatas. So yesterday I did Tabata sit ups and they were hard but I really don't do A LOT of sit ups usually. Even though I should probably do a few more, more often. But one thing I do quite a bit are a variety of push ups, so today I wanted to do a set of Tabata push ups. I didn't think they'd be too hard.... I was wrong! Tabata push ups are H.A.R.D.!

After that I did a bodyweight Tabata Cardio/Conditioning set which went like this:
-Speed Squats
-Burpees
-Mountain Climbers
-Power Skips
You repeat that set of 4 exercises twice in the 8 set Tabata routine. It get's the blood pumping for sure!

Also today IS Tabata Tuesday which is usually my day to do Tabata Sprints, so I'll be doing those with Randie later. Barefoot, of course.

Otherwise, I'm also "Greasing the Groove" Pavel Tsatsouline style on One Arm Push ups and Handstand Push ups this week.

It's all good stuff!

-Ultimate Russell

Sit-Up Tabata = ....

2010-09-20T10:55:00.001-04:00

OUCH!!!!

Yep, a sit up Tabata is HARD!! At least it is for me. However, if I do enough of these they should become easier.

What's a Tabata?

Tabata = 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. You do that for 8 rounds. The first initial sets aren't bad but it gets you by the end. Gonna be experimenting with some different Tabata's for the next couple weeks.

-Ultimate Russell

Foot Humility. Trail Running Barefoot.

2010-09-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

Alright, so if you know me you already know that I'm basically like a cyborg! I can take punishment like crazy and just come out golden! Seriously, I'm like Stallone and Schwarzenneger combined but tougher! YEAH!!

(and now back to reality)

Okay, okay, I'm not really like that. I seem to often get my skill levels mixed up with that of elite athletes and people that have been running barefoot for 20 years which can lead me to do some things that I'm not quite prepared for. But really, what are you ever READY for? You never really know until you try and I like to push my limits. So I tried something the other day.... and I was NOT ready... it was a lot harder than I thought. Here's what happened.

As you may already know Findley State Park is one of my favorite running playgrounds. They have somewhere around 20 miles of well maintained trails varying from easy walking nature trails to advanced mountain biking sections. I LOVE IT! Add into it the fact that it's 4 miles from my doorstep and that just adds more appreciation. So anyway, I typically wear my KSO Sport Trek's when I hot the trails, although I have done some barefoot trail running I haven't done THAT much. I often run on the roads at Findley barefoot though, and it's a pretty awesome mix of debris, and roughed up pavement that keeps the mind active during the runs. Some people may find the challenge of avoiding pain in rough terrain annoying, but I enjoy it. Revel in it, actually. I really like the feeling of using the split second reaction timing of the brain and body to negotiate things that could be painful to it. It's a rush every time! And it's not like I'm always 100% successful. I step on things... a lot but one of the most interesting aspects is that things that really would have bothered me when I started my barefoot journey barely effect me now. But I have spoken at length about that before, I should just get to my humbling experience on the trails.

So, the other day I decided I wanted to go out and just do an easy 30 minutes of barefoot running on one of the "easy" sections of the trails. It's a section of the Buckeye Trail that it usually considered a walking or easy hiking trail. I've run on it many times in the KSO's and have always found it to be what I consider easy. So I arrived at Findley sans shoe's (didn't even bring an emergency pair) and headed out. The first section is basically just grass fields and was really nice! It was a sunny, but cool day and the grass felt warm and dry under my feet. I reached the big "Spillway" valley and crossed to the opposite side and into the trees, and right away started second guessing my original plan. You see, Fall is on it's way in and as it's name implies, the leaves are coming off the tree's. And what this unfortunately does is make things like rocks and roots invisible. But I am careful, and pretty damn proficient at avoiding injury from that kind of trickery, like I said earlier I like the whole split second timing of the brain and you'd be surprised how fast your foot can come down on something "ouchy" and immediately shift weight and position to take the "ouch" away. It's really amazing. Anyway, the going certainly wasn't easy but I know what I'm doing so I continued on. The path basically goes immediately down a hill which I navigated well and then back up which also wasn't a problem as there are several steps thanks to tree roots. Thanks Trees! So as I crested the top I saw what must have been two high school or college freshman Cross Country runners walking, talking and doing a couple functional stretches as I approached. I passed them with an "Excuse me Gentlemen" and one of them playfully said, "You need a pair of Vibrams!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I actually have a couple pair, but sometimes you just need to work them feet!" He chuckled and I kept going. I looked at my watch and saw I was already about 13 minutes into the 30 minutes I wanted to spend out there but I didn't want to turn right back around and look like I was giving up to those guys so I made an error. Just as I thought that I came across a portion of the mountain bike trail that I knew would curve back around and bring me out behind them. So I took it, and initially it was a good choice! The trail was clear and practically free of debris, but that would not last long. The rest of the trail was a mix of short, easily and enjoyable stretches interspersed with extremely rocky and challenging sections that at some points took me down all the way to a slow hike. It was not easy, and it was bordering on not being fun just as I came out back onto the main trail, at which I actually said "THANK GOD!" out loud and turned back towards the lot where I parked my car. The way back was just as nice as it was on my way out but I was at once both disappointed at the difficulty I had on the trail and proud that I actually navigated the whole thing barefoot and actually didn't injure myself! My original plan of easy 30 minutes turned into a 50 minute slog that ranged from heavenly mind/body connection running to carefully picking my way across long sections of rocks and other debris. But just to reiterate, I did NOT injure myself. And that is good. It was overall a humbling experience as I realized I still have a lot of improvement to do until I'm ready for something like that again but it was still a pretty awesome experience overall as I learned more about myself and skill level. As long as I know my weaknesses I can always work to overcome them. Yesterday I actually headed BACK out to Findley (in my KSO's this time!) ran a fast mile on the technical portion of the mountain bike trail and then did 10 hill repeats out at the spillway and that was awesome! I really belong out on the trails, it's soooo much nicer than the roads, and maybe one day I'll be Ultimate enough to tear them all up barefoot style. At the very least I'll continue to strive for it.

Until then...

-Ultimate Russell

This Morning's Ultimate Victory Workout!

2010-09-17T14:33:00.001-04:00

Alright, the truth is that I took this one from Mark Sisson over at Mark's Daily Apple it was one of his Workouts of the Week. Or a "WoW", as he calls it. Anyway, it's called "Easy as 1,2,3" and in essence it seems easy, but if you push it hard and intense you will feel the pain! In a good way, of course.

What you do is perform, 1 Pull up, 2 Push ups, and 3 Squats. And that's it! Oh, but you repeat that cycle for 20 minutes, forgot to add that! I personally like to play with some of the exercises as well. You know, throw in some wide pull ups, close grip, staggered grip, and the same with the push ups. Do whatever variety you feel like.

1. 1 Pull up
2. 2 Push ups
3. 3 Squats

I find it beneficial for workouts like this to put iTunes on and let the iTunes DJ give me songs. Keeps me smiling and singing along while working.

So that's it right there. Later today I'm heading over to Findley Park for a short Trail Romp in my KSO Sport Trek's followed by 10 short hill repeats. Keep it hard, short, and intense... gotta love it.

Sweat Guaranteed

-Ultimate Russell

Ultimate Victory Strength and Conditioning 9-15-10

2010-09-15T07:16:00.001-04:00

Here's this mornings workout. I will be using my awesome home made pull up bar (I should post some pics) but if you don't have one then you can always open a door, hang from it, and do pull ups that way! Without further ado:

-5 Jump Knee Tucks (jump up high and pull your knees up towards your chest)
-5 Push Ups (good form! don't go super slow but make sure your chest touches the ground and you lock out your elbows at the top. No bouncing at the top!)
-Flip over and crab walk to your pull up bar/station.
-5 Pull ups (any hand position. I suggest mixing it up: wide, close, chin up)
-10 Air Squats

That's one set. Repeat for a total of 8 sets!

Edit: I didn't think that first section was enough fun so I threw in a set of 8 Turkish Get Ups afterwards.

Sweat Guaranteed

-Ultimate Russell

I Don't Just Run...

2010-09-12T17:38:00.001-04:00

Yeah, there's more that goes into building the Ultimate Russell than JUST being barefoot. That's right, I also do strength training and conditioning about 2 to 4 times a week depending on how beat up I am. I call these sessions my "Ultimate Victory Workouts" and they can encompass many different things. I've spoken before about my love of Crossfit but the only problem I have with it is that there are often Olympic Style lifts that are involved and I do not own Olympic Weight Equipment. So what do I do? Simple, I modify it or I make up my own circuit. I do own a rack of dumbbells ranging between 5 and 40 pounds and a pull up bar and so far that has been plenty to get strong and cut with. It's hard to believe but I am actually starting to see a little bit of a six pack poking out there. Amazing what good food and exercise can do for a body. But anyway, I'm going to start listing my Ultimate Victory Workouts when I do them. Give one a try sometime, I guarantee sweat.

9-12-10 UVW:

4 dead hang pull ups
10 push ups
8 lateral burpees
1 hand stand push up

(20 minute AMRAP) = Repeat this set as many times as you can for 20 minutes.

Sweat Guaranteed

-Ultimate Russell

Ahhh.... REST!!!

2010-09-10T17:13:00.001-04:00

So yesterday and today I took it easy. No running, a little bit of strength work, nothing serious, and some good long walks and I must say that I feel MUCH better! I feel like I'm getting some "pop" back in my actions. Did a couple handstand push-ups just to make sure I still had the mojo. And I do. Still have the mojo, that is. Next week I'm going to get crazy and do some kinda "off the wall" workouts including a lot more natural movements ala Movnat. I'm also going to go back to strict bodyweight work for a bit and try to make it down to the local rec park twice a week and abuse the jungle gym for a while. Should be fun. At least if someone calls the police I can surely out run them and climb a tree. Anyway, gonna start taking some pics next week of some fun primal workouts some you can feast your eyes on me. Just warning you, it might be scary.

-Ultimate Russell

Over-Trained...again

2010-09-08T16:36:00.001-04:00

Ahhhh... Hell! I did it again! I should have learned better by now but no, Over-Training strikes again!! (sigh)..... it's hard. With the Paleo Diet, and Crossfit I've been seeing the results I've always hoped to achieve. So because, I was getting such great returns I decided to go harder, and harder. But what I end up with is a VERY sore core and an inability to go fast. It's really annoying. My goal yesterday was to run 1 mile in under 8 minutes and yeah, TECHNICALLY I did do it. I got it in 7:58 which was much too close to comfort for me. And it all felt weird, I felt slow like I couldn't get my leg turn-over to smooth out and go quickly. Also, strangely enough, I was having difficulty "lifting" my feet instead of pushing off. I have to put most of the blame on my Psoas muscle being sore as HELL from all the sprinting lately. Since that's the muscle group that really helps lift the foot it would make sense in it's weakened state for my performance to suffer. So knowing I had kind of an off day yesterday I decided that today I would go even harder. Silly, yes, but my heart was in the right place. I only wanted to do better. Todays workout was to do 5 - 1/2 mile intervals. I went out to Findley because I have a well marked 1/2 mile course out there and I wore my KSO's just in case I was sloppy and not lifting my feet. Which is also stupid, I shouldn't purposefully run with poor form. But I wanted to tear it up out there, ya know, heart in right place and all. So my goal was to try and run each interval in under 4 minutes.... that didn't happen. My first one was in 4:35 which totally sucked. I knew I was slow too, but I just couldn't seem to pick up the pace and my core was really tight and sore. So my next interval came in at 4:20 which yeah, was 15 seconds faster but still over my goal. And it didn't get any better, I ran 2 more coming in right around 4:25 and was really hurting. I was pushing and pushing on each interval and just couldn't seem to get my legs to move faster. That's when I threw in the towel, screw the last interval, my body's telling me to slow down so that's what I'm gonna do. So yeah, gonna take the next 2 days off from running and let my body heal up a bit and hopefully by this weekend I'll be back out there giving it my all. So next time your body says, "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Listen the first time. I promise that I will..... but I probably won't.

Just being honest.

-Ultimate Russell

Minimalism Updates

2010-09-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

Well, some time ago I did a post on some steps I was taking to reduce clutter in my life and to live a little more "minimally." I guess that label would apply very differently to different people but to reiterate here were my big changes:

-Getting rid of clothing/shoes that were no longer being used.
-Sleeping on the floor.
-Increasing my barefoot time.
-Back to basics (Paleo) eating.
-No TV.
-Change in exercise routines.

So let's start at the top with an easy one:

-Getting rid of clothing/shoes that were no longer being used-
I guess the term "easy" is pretty relative. I am not the kind of person that gets really attached to things but like most people I had certain clothes that I liked more than others. But when I went and looked at the shirts I normally wore compared to others I did notice one constant: 100% cotton. Specifically I would usually feel most comfortable wearing Fruit of the Loom t-shirts. They just feel, comfy and snug and light. I also kind of like the fact that there's no logos, tags, or itchy stitching to bother me. So I actually have quite a few shirts now sitting in a pile that are going to Goodwill. Plus a lot of my older shirts (some from as short as 3 months ago) are just too big and baggy for me now. I also have to buy a new pair of jeans! My current jeans were bought at the end of this last winter and when I bought them they were just on the verge of being uncomfortably tight. But I figured in a few weeks they would loosen up. Well now to make them stay up I have to crank a belt on and they either bunch up in the front or back. On one hand it's really cool because my waist line has gotten so slim. On the other hand I REALLY LIKED THIS PAIR OF JEANS!!! Hopefully I'll be able to find an equally stylish pair. Also just for the record, before I started working on becoming "The Ultimate Russell" I was wearing a size 42 waist. I am now down below a 30, probably a size 28 in jeans. It's hard to believe. I honestly never thought I would get here. Shocking... Also, because of my desire to wear as little shoe as possible, a lot of my old winter shoes in the closet will be rendered useless. So someone is going to get some pretty nice shoes from Goodwill this winter.

-Sleeping on the Floor-
I can't lie, this one took some time to get used to. Why did I start sleeping on the floor? Honestly it didn't start with any concerted effort to live minimally. It came as a result of having a mattress that by complete accident ended up getting filled with mold! It was pretty crazy when we figured out what was going on, and of course that mattress went outside that minute! So yeah, why didn't we just buy another bed? I figured you would ask. Well it all started purely as an economic reason. We had just paid our big chunk of bills for the month and were looking at another 2.5 weeks until we had the money. So in the short term Randie's father let us borrow a couple of single beds (which we pushed together 1950's style) to get us through. The beds were actually slightly different in their features. One (the one Randie slept on) was more similar to our previous bed. It was a pillow top mattress and fairly firm but still with plenty of cushion. The other (the one I slept on) was much thinner and had far fewer springs in it. At first it seemed kind of uncomfortable but soon I was sleeping on it very well. In our original bed my back would always feel tight and sore in the morning, especially my lower back. But this cheaper, less cushioned bed seemed to alleviate much of that soreness. I was intrigued. I had Randie try sleeping on it and she concurred. So I did a little reading and ultimately decided to attempt sleeping on a 1/2 thick yoga mat that we own. It's kind of rubbery and I believe it was originally intended as a camping mat. So anyway, I gave it a try and at first found it to be pretty difficult. I couldn't comfortably roll onto my side, and sleeping on my back made my lower back ache. but it was a weird ache, much more similar to the feeling you get after working a muscle hard, so I figured I just had to keep working it until it got stronger. So that's what I did. I just kept sleeping on it and suddenly one day the discomfort was gone and I started sleeping all through the night without the middle of the night tossing and turning I was so used to. It was pretty shocking. I would also wake up with no sore back and I wouldn't have any of that groggy, zombie like feeling I've basically had for the last 10 years. As I got used to the mat I've experimented with less padding and have found that I can sleep quite comfortably on nothing more than a blanket on the ground (we have hardwood floors, by the way). So yeah, I can even comfortably sleep on my side now and we didn't have to drop a couple hundred on a cushy bed that probably would have continued to aggravate my back. Just a big win of WIN right there. Something else that's nice is that now any room with a clear space can be a bed room which has been really nice for some of these hot summer days as our bedroom is small and in the back of the house and just my moving our mat to the living room with it;s big bay windows and epic ceiling fan we could drop the temp by an easy 10 degrees.

-Increasing my barefoot time-
You would think this one would be easy. And it is. In a way. And I'll explain...
But first a question:
"Where is it the law that you have to wear shoes?"
Answer:
"Nowhere."
"What?" You may ask/or think, if you don't like talking out loud to yourself. But it's true, it's more a question of "When is it law that you have to wear shoes." There are certainly Health Department codes that require covered feet in establishments that prepare food and there are also OSHA regulations that require certain types of footwear in situations where you could badly injure yourself. And that just all makes sense. I personally would not want to work at a Tool and Die plant barefoot. It would just be silly. And your probably thinking about the classic sign "No shirt, no shoes, no service." And yes, you are correct you can be booted out of a private establishment for not wearing shoes. But that's private property, and as far as I'm concerned, if it's your property you can restrict whatever you want. Period. So what does a person who wants to be barefoot do? Well, they adapt. One place that I unfortunately cannot go barefoot is my job. When I walk into an office I am expected to retain a business-casual look such as, shirt, tie, slacks, and SHOES! But common work shoes are soooooo uncomfortable! They're stiff, confining, and don't breathe well. But I have found a way around this. First of all, when I'm in my car, the shoes come off. Pumping gas, no shoes. Walking from house to car and back, no shoes. Walking the dogs, no shoes. But when I do have to work I found a pair of Aqua Socks, or Beach Shoes, that actually look a lot like dress shoes. So I just slip those on, and BAM! Work mode! And when Randie and I are going to a private establishment that requires footwear I just slip on my Vibram Classics and all is well. It is quite silly the whole anti barefoot thing though. I mean I see people in the tiniest of flip flops all the time! Really, how much protection or added grip are you getting in those? It's just silly. But whatever, I really don't have the time or patience to argue with a store employee, who is really just doing their job, about how I should be allowed to go barefoot in their store. So I'll play your game people.... I'll play it. Also, if your the type of person that is considering ditching their regular shoes and going with something lighter and more minimal. Or maybe you want a pair of Vibrams but are currently turned off by the price then I highly recommend a cheap pair of Aqua Socks (you can find them at any Target or Walmart or online usually for $10 or less). They will give you a tone of flexibility and a good feel for the ground. Just pull that stupid little insole out, for it does nothing!! BTW, I've run in them too, and they're not bad.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back with a post on TV and food. Until then, get out there and use your feet!

-Ultimate Russell

A Few Quick Words on Speed, Form, and Nano Technology

2010-09-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

So if you've been following this blog you will know that I've been doing a lot of speed work lately, and I've been doing as much as possible barefoot. So yesterday's CFE WOD (if you haven't been following that means "Crossfit Endurance Workout of the Day") was a 24 minute pyramid. What's that? Glad you asked, it basically breaks down like this: After the warm up jog and a couple short sprints you run as close to your max as you can get for 4 minutes. That's followed by 2 minutes of rest. Next interval was 5 minutes, followed by 2 of rest, and then 6 minutes on and 2 minutes off. The 6 minute interval was the top of the pyramid, so to speak. After that you went back down to 5 minutes and then the last 4 minute run to finish it up. We did this workout at Findley State Park in Wellington. You've probably seen me mention it before. I like running there because of the light traffic, if any traffic, the shade, and the pavement. However yesterday the pavement wasn't on my side. Being that we were running all these intervals as fast as we could (Randie was running with me in her KSO's) without being totally annihilated at the end we ended up covering a lot of ground which brought me into an area I have not run barefoot before. It's the road leading into the campground so it probably see's a lot more traffic day to day, and it showed! The pavement there was much rougher and pitted as well as containing 2 pretty serious hills. It was at this point that I was getting a little worried about my feet because they felt like they were taking a beating. But at this point I was at the furthest point from my car so I decided there couldn't be any quitting. We turned around and headed back for our last two intervals in which I really locked my form down hard, making sure I was lifting feet, had a good knee bend, and was landing near my center of gravity. And for the most part it worked great! My feet were still tender but the increase vigilance to my form seemed to stop any further damage. The only hairy section happened with about 2 minutes left of running in which I repeatedly got sharp pieces of acorn or sharp little stones lodged right in my forefoot pad which caused me to have to stop and smack them out several steps in a row. It was annoying and really put a damper on the end of tat interval. I was concerned at the end because to me my feet looked pretty rough and I was scared that I would need maybe 48 hours of recovery before I could run bare again. But it wasn't so. This morning my feet seemed fine, no soreness or raw spots. They felt so good in fact that I did todays CFE WOD, which was a 1.5 mile tempo run starting at 80% max effort and ramping up to 90% by your half way point. I did it barefoot and I was HAULING ASS!! No soreness, no nothing! Just some sweet, sweet-ass barefoot action! As I was running I was thinking about how much my form has come along in such a short time. I went from shuffling at nearly a 11minute pace to consistently running 7:45-8:00 paces. I don't know if it would work for everyone but the fast running has seemingly whipped my form into shape in a hurry! I also thought about a line I heard Barefoot Ted say in a Podcast interview for the show Marathon Talk (which is quite good, btw). Now, if you've ever heard Ted speak he can kind of go off an a tangent, but the line I'm talking about came when they were asking a question about running shoe technology. Ted's answer was, and I'm paraphrasing here, something along the lines of "Why do i need any new technology? I have the most advanced, self-repairing nano-technology already installed on my body!" Of course Ted was referring to his feet which I've got to agree with him, it is amazing. I mean, I beat em up, wear em down, ride them hard and put them away wet and every morning they're healed up and ready for another walloping!

On another note Randie is really starting to get prolific with her minimal running. She hasn't been doing a whole lot of barefooting yet but she's been putting in some serious work in her Vibram KSO's! Today she put on her pair of Nike Free Run+'s and was pretty disgusted with how they made her feel. I had told her that once she goes down the road of barefooting it's pretty hard to go back. And she got to experience the same thing I recently experienced with my whole Lunaracers in the garbage because when we left the house she had Nike's on, but when she ran up to our finish line they were in her hands and those feet were bare!! YES!! She told me she pulled them off around the half way point and was "Looking for a garbage can." That's my girl!

So yeah, take them damn clunky things off your feet and exercise them arches a bit. They will love it, you will love it, it will be a love fest.

Oh yeah, go Paleo too.

-Ultimate Russell

Confidence and Barefoot Running or How Stella (if she were a white guy from Ohio) got her Groove Back. Or, "Into the Groove" Madonna - 1985

2010-08-26T14:38:00.001-04:00

Much like Madonna required a boy prove his love to her, barefoot running requires that you prove your skill before it lets you advance. For some people this comes very fast and natural, and for some it is a step by step process where a lot of little victories end up equaling a big return. I, just for the record, am in that second group. Not that I can't just take my shoes off and run, anyone can do that. What I mean is that I require actually learning FROM my body in order to function properly. And believe me, I had done plenty of research before hand on "Proper" form and the whatnot. It was only when I began subtlety throwing caution to the wind that I really started to see improvement. You see, when I first started running barefoot I was tense. Even though I knew that one of the main tenants of the skill is to relax and not force anything it was hard. And not too surprisingly. As you can guess, when you first start getting out there and tearing it up things can hurt. Pavement, rocks, and acorns are the first barefoot enemies I think of. So when you first start doing it the mantra is slow and easy. But here's my problem, I'm not a slow and easy type of guy. I like to run fast! And there were some consequences to doing so. As I've stated in previous blogs I did too much, too soon early on and was in a constant state of running barefoot while not completely healed. So none of my runs were great. That is until I took a little break, let my feet heal up and started doing more high intensity work like barefoot trail running, running on gravel, and sprinting. The main difference with these activities is that they were much shorter in duration than I had previously been running and I didn't think that my foot toughness would improve. So because I was skeptical about my ability to step on certain things or to push for too long or too far I always was tense! And being tense while running sucks! It's something I'm not very familiar with. When I wore shoes my first order of business was always to relax. And I could relax HARDCORE if I wanted to. But take my shoes off and I'm out there padding along like a princess. But not anymore. You see, my recent 2.5 mile barefoot time trial taught me something important: My feet ARE tough and strong. After my domination of the route I realized that I was going to fast to really worry about stepping on things. Even though I did. At one point a little pebble even got caught up under my toes and I had to hop on one foot for a couple of steps while I brushed it out with a free hand. And while I would say it was uncomfortable, I can't say that it really hurt. I stepped on other things too, things I would normally avoid like really hard, gravely, blacktop patches. I would normally vault or go around these black lumps of hurt but this time I just stepped on them. And it didn't hurt. I could feel the change in texture, but nothing bad happened. I also knew that the area of the run containing the last half mile had a lot of gravel and rough, torn up sidewalk and as I turned onto it I thought "Okay, you may need to slow down, it's not a sign of weakness." But I didn't slow down, I just glided right over all of it. I was actually pretty amazed with my performance at the end. I realized that I had never been able to run like that barefoot before because I was so scared of getting hurt. And when you tense, everyone knows, everything hurts worse. So yesterday I had my short CFE "Tabata" intervals to do. usually the warm up is a half mile jog followed by 3 short sprints. So I headed out in the late afternoon into some really nice, cool weather and started going. At about the half mile mark I really noticed how relaxed I was, it was amazing, I was totally relaxed! Shoulders down and loose, breathing even and steady. I was so relaxed that I warmed up with an extra half mile before starting the serious work. So I did 3 short test sprints where I really leaned into them via POSE running style and found that I was pushing off a little more than I should. I made the mental correction, bent my knees more and took off on my first interval, and wow! Let me tell you, I was flying! My confidence was so increased that I just ran, didn't worry about what my feet were doing, didn't worry about the possibility of steeping on a stone because I knew it wouldn't be bad. I seriously really sprinted all out, where as before I always seemed to have a mental re-stricter plate stopping me from going all out. It felt great and I purposely ran longer intervals than i was supposed to just because it felt so good. I'm really excited because I think I'm turning a pretty serious corner here and if it just keeps getting better than I have some awesome barefoot races coming up next year. All that said, it's not like I've invincible. I know I can't just go run ten miles barefoot all willy nilly, but my barefoot future is really exciting me!

In conclusion, the sprinting and shorter, faster run's I've been doing have really laid a great groundwork for me to be much more confident in what I'm doing. Instead of fearing every step and trying to micromanage my form I am now free to just run! Which is all I ever wanted to do anyway.

Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free
At night I lock the doors, where no one else can see
I'm tired of dancing here all by myself
Tonight I wanna dance with someone else
-Madonna "Into the Groove"

-Ultimate Russell

It Couldn't Have Been Nicer

2010-08-24T09:10:00.001-04:00

Man, yesterday's run was a treat! Seriously, the last several weeks up here in Ohio have been hot and muggy which makes for some not bad but kind of uncomfortable running. Especially barefoot as the pavement can get really hot and I'm not a fan of cooking my feet. But yesterday was 78, breezy, dry, and partly cloudy! Just perfect for some hard running. So that's what I did. My CFE objective was to run 2 - 12 minute intervals at about as hard as I could with a 2 minute breather between intervals. For this workout I decided to go down to the local metro-parks where I would stick to the paved trail for about half a mile before hopping onto the crushed limestone horse path and whizzing around out there. And man, it was just what I needed! The air was cool and breezy, no sun baking down on me, and I didn't see one other person the whole time. It was like I had the metro-parks all to myself! I do have to admit that I didn't run the crushed limestone barefoot, my skill level isn't high enough to do it with any kind of speed yet. I'm sure I could go out there and put around barefoot but that wasn't the goal! So i wore my KSO's which felt really nice out there with the soft earth and lightly packed limestone. The only negative things that happened were at one time as my right foot came down my heel caught the sharp edge of one rock pretty hard. At the time I didn't notice anything but a slight moment of "ouch" but this morning there's a little bruise and it's just a tad tender. Nothing serious by far. And the other negative thing was going from the awesome "Running through nature in the middle of nowhere" experience of the limestone trail back to the hard, paved path back to my car. I did make the best of it though. After I finished the actual running portion of my workout I took off the KSO's and walked back to my car barefoot. Probably about a half a mile. I never miss an opportunity to toughen up my feet! So yeah it was a GREAT run! I did feel a little stiff and sore before the run and felt kinda roughed up this morning (I have been putting a lot of work in) so I was hoping that CFE would be a rest day today and whaddya' know? It is a rest day! So I did my strength training this morning consisting of a variety of weighted squats, overhead presses, and handstand pushups and now I get to relax, do some work, and maybe enjoy a nice little hike later being that the weather is sooooo nice again today!

On a completely unrelated note, I got the winning bid on a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Classics this weekend for $46 WITH shipping! So I'm super psyched! The seller already shipped them so i should get them this week! Super excited to have a pair of VFF's that are a little more casual to wear!

Anyone doing any fun exercising activities this weekend?

Catch you on the flip side!

-Ultimate Russell

More Fast Running

2010-08-23T19:29:00.001-04:00

This weekend was pretty awesome! Everything was pretty light and easy, no big plans to do so I had an easy "go with the flow" thing going on. But running this weekend was exceptional! First on Saturday was a hill repeat day, I knew of a hill I wanted to try just down the road from us so we jogged over and while it didn't at first appear to be too intense it's only when you really get to see it's profile that you understand. First of all the incline travels for about 75 yards in distance but the grade gets higher the farther up you run. It starts with a very moderate incline for about the first 5 seconds of sprinting but then rises sharply for about 10 seconds before a VERY short leveling off (maybe 3 or 4 strides) and then sharply rises up for the last section which accounts for about another 15 seconds of straight out sprinting. The routine was to perform 10 sprints with about a 2 minute rest after each sprint. It worked out really well too! At the top of the hill after each sprint I really felt tired, like I had poured it all out. But miraculously, after the 2 minute break I felt refreshed and ready to do it again. So yeah, not too much fanfare but I completed all 10 sprints and felt really good afterwards. I should also mention that it was raining pretty good and the hill is a little to technical for my bare feet so I wore my KSO's. Also, I should mention that Randie did the repeats with me which helped keep the spirits up.

Sunday. Sunday was to be an interesting run. The schedule said to do a 2.5 mile time trial. The rub was that I was going to do it barefoot which would make this my longest run trying to go fast! I have run farther barefoot but it's different when you turn the speed up, all the little negatives you do get multiplied many times over and can lead to some seriously screaming feet! So I mapped out a simple to follow route on mapquest and Randie and I headed out. This is kind of funny because I'm a faster runner than Randie but before we started she said something like, "I should be faster than you when you're barefoot." My mouth said "yeah, maybe" but my mind was like "NO EFFIN' WAY!" So I started my watch and took off! A few notes, while I have done several interval workouts barefoot this was the first time I really got to enjoy running at a fast steady pace with no shoes on. And I've got to say, it was pretty incredible! I resisted the urge to look at my watch the whole time and finished up in 21:03. Yeah, not a world record pace but the one huge factor is now that i know I can run it that fast barefoot my confidence should be ten fold for the next time trial. And this was trying to run at race tempo without the added adrenaline and crowd surge.

Take them shoes off!!

-Ultimate Russell

What I did this Weekend/Ultimate Russell Construction Complete?

2010-08-22T21:23:00.002-04:00

What did I do? Well lets see, I did some strength training. Mixed in pull-ups with weighted front squats, and then spent a couple of rounds doing hanging leg sits mixed up with some hollow rock yoga action. Then let's see, I ate! I made some awesome Flank Steak which I broiled and sliced up for quick eating, marinated a Pork Roast in homemade, organic tomato soup that my lovely wife made and then threw it all in the crock pot. It made a delicious and tender Pork Roast! Also made some NON-LEAN Turkey Burgers, because fat is good for you, and some awesome scrambled egg's with mushrooms and a little full fat, not processed butter. Because once again, fat and cholesterol are good for you! And this is maybe the ONE time I'm not being sarcastic. Usually I HATE to preach about diet, I don't care what you eat, or what you do, I only look out for myself most of the time. If someone asks me for my opinion or my help I am MORE than glad to lend a hand or drop some knowledge. But the name of this blog is "Building the Ultimate Russell" and this change in my eating habits has played a huge roll. Let me explain.

For several years since I started this quest to slim down and get my physical self in shape (hoping that as it came together my mental side would tag along) my weight has been my biggest adversary. Like most people, when I first started trying to eat healthy and working out my initial weight loss was impressive and fast. I think I dropped 10 or 15 pounds in the first month, but like most people who've wrestled that gator know, you hit some long plateaus. Sometimes they're really long. Like staring out across the plateau and not even being able to guess where it ends long. And this is where most people fail. And I admit I did some backsliding pretty hard around that time. Bad habits reared their head and I let them start to creep back in. But I realized what was happening and steeled my will, and worked harder at it! And I did get more results, but while I could see them in the mirror and could feel them in the new found looseness of my pants it was never quite what I expected. When I got down to around 195 it really stalled out. Around this time I took a little break from working out as hard and decided to stop my calorie counting for about 2 weeks. I ate a little looser, worked out a little lighter, and tried to get a little more recovery. I figured I was probably over-training (and I was) and needed a little break to get back to it. So after those 2 weeks I hit it HARD!! Really hard. I was doing Insanity and P90X together EVERYDAY FOR TWO MONTHS!! Along with running 40 miles a week and anything else I could think of. The weight was coming off but I felt like HELL, was tired all the time, was hungry all the time, and had developed a pretty nasty attitude. Seriously, you can ask my family that talked to me often, I was not the same person. But yeah, I hit my goal weight of 185 for Christmas. I probably should have been happy but all I could think about was how I would keep the weight off. So for most of the new year and into the summer I hovered between 185-190. I looked a lot better in my clothes, and my body composition was improved but I still had a lot of fat stores. And I'm not being self deprecating. I know what I look like naked, and while I wasn't upset I just didn't understand while all my hard work wasn't burning the fat off. But I did find the answer, strangely enough through barefoot running. I don't even think I can exactly remember which website it was that linked me to Mark Sisson's blog at MarksDailyApple.com which led me to Freetheanimal.com and information with testimonials that I couldn't believe! Even though what I read there seemed insane and crazy at first. But the more I looked the more sense it made. You can ask my wife, one question I would always ask whenever some doctor would be touting some new fangled diet or "SUPERFOOD" was "If this is soooo important than how did we survive for millions of years without it?" I would often think of those ancient relatives of ours making it by without all the tech we have today. Very strangely though I never thought of them not having bread. Yep bread. Processed grains, sugars, corn, hi fructose corn syrup, all those things (and many others) your body turn right into sugar. SUGAR!! Even the mighty "Whole Grain" foods get turned right into sugar, and sugar will make you fat. No if's and's, or asses about it. So yeah, I started the Paleo Diet. I cut out grains and rice (including beer !), processed sugars, dairy like milk and cheese, as well as legumes which are basically beans, peanuts, and cashews. I instead ate just meat, lot's of veggies, fruit, and nuts. And the change has been dramatic. Like Dramatic Chipmunk dramatic! I've gone from having to fight like Hell to hover around the 180's to 190's to effortlessly staying put right at 175. My body fat percentage has dropped from 13.5% to 8.9% and the best part is that I'm not hungry all the time! It was awful before! I had to eat every 2 to 3 hours or risk going into some kind of sugar crash where I got nauseous, dazed, and faint. It was a horrible feeling that demanded I eat something to stave it off for another few hours. So I would eat a Clif Bar or something and that would get me over the hump but the crash was always waiting there right around the corner. Now like I said, I don't get hungry, I don't have carb (sugar) crashes, my mood has done a complete 180, and I've lost the fat and gained the muscle I've been trying to get for the last few YEARS!! I know you'll probably initially balk at the idea of cutting out carbs and adding more fat to lose weight but we've been fed a load of crap from the FDA. Seriously, name one time the government got something right. They can't balance a checkbook, how the hell are they gonna figure out what kind of foods we should eat? It really is a crazy racket they have going. I would urge everyone to check out the movie "Fathead." The info in the movie will blow your mind! Anyway, like I said, you don't have to try it, it worked for me, maybe it won't work for you, I can't say. But if I'm going to be honest about my progress in this blog than I have to talk about my eating habits as they are probably close to 80% of the puzzle! So I hope I'm not coming off as trying to be preachy about it, just wanted to let you know what I'm doing. I'd expect to hear more about my Paleo journey as it's really just getting started.

Anyway, the next blog will actually talk about the running I did this weekend as it was pretty damn cool!

Don't Stop Believin'

-Ultimate Russell

Running on the Surface of the Sun

2010-08-19T17:13:00.001-04:00

Okay, so it wasn't that hot, but damn it was hot. I did something a little silly today, my intervals today were long intervals. Namely, 5 minutes running at as near race pace as i could get followed 3 minutes of rest. I had to do this interval 4 times. So I was admittedly a little nervous about it as usually when I run long intervals I wear my KSO's but I decided to be adventurous today and do it barefoot, and it all would have been absolutely fine except for the fact that the streets were hot!! The first two intervals didn't seem to bother me much but I was really feeling the heat o the last two and got my first official blood blister from barefoot running! Yay?! No biggie though, I need a day off from zooming around full speed anyway and it's good to subject my feet to a myriad of conditions. So no running tomorrow (which means I get to do a bunch of strength training YES!) and then Saturday and Sunday will be KSO's unless my feet are totally recovered, than one day I'll probably do barefoot. Worst case scenario I have to bust out some Moleskin. Well, that's all I got for ya. I still did some awesome barefoot sprinting!

-Ultimate Russell

Words of Wisdom. Epic, Epic, Wisdom.

2010-08-19T05:05:00.001-04:00

Have Truer words EVER been spoken?

NO!!

Why'd you even ask?

-Ultimate Russell

Feast Your Eye's on THIS!!

2010-08-18T19:50:00.001-04:00

Alright, here's some pics. I'll post some good ones right here and here's a link to the rest: Barefoot at Findley

Also, it was pretty cool, after completing my speed work an elderly couple on bikes exclaimed that I was amazing. They were really cool, I tried to tell them that anyone can run barefoot but they were pretty amazed. We ended up talking for about 10 minutes and they filled us in on a local 5k that we didn't know existed so we marked it on the calendar for next year. I like the small, local races. They're just lot's of fun!

Barefoot Speed Part 2: It all gets easier from here.

2010-08-17T19:24:00.001-04:00

If you remember last week I did a barefoot speed workout, and for the most part it went fine but honestly I did beat my left foot up a little. It wasn't bloody and just hanging there or anything but I had rubbed off a pretty good chunk. Anyway, I repeated the workout today with MORE intervals! And how did the feet fare this time out? Just fine, man, just fine. No soreness, no hot spots, my feet are surprisingly relaxed and comfy feeling. Now you might think that this has to do with a tougher or more heavily calloused foot, but you would be wrong. Wrong, I say!! The real reason is that my form was much better this time out, those feet were right under my center of gravity and doing their thing. I actually have some pictures to upload which I will do soon. I finished up the intervals by heading out and doing a little barefoot trail running, which was the first time I actually gave that a shot. And while I did take it real slow and easy it was a very cool experience. When I have a little more confidence I'll give it a real go.

Until another time.

-Ultimate Russell

Ouch, Nike Lunaracer 2's in the trash can, at a park, literally... just read.

2010-08-14T17:52:00.001-04:00

Why do I second guess myself? Really, why? I do after all have an almost uncanny record of being correct. So why, would I second guess my decisions? Well, it so happens that I sometimes jump into new things (maybe) a little quickly sometimes. So this last week I've been dealing with some sore feet. Why? I think because I've been doing a lot of speed work this week which is kind of new to me, and some of those speed workouts were barefoot. If not barefoot they were in my KSO's. But anyway, I awoke this morning and wondered if perhaps I had just "drank the kool-aid" a little to fast on the barefoot running. The way I figured it in my head is that by this point my form, feet, ankles, knee's and generally the rest of my body should be stronger, and more efficient then when I was previously wearing shoes for most of my runs. "So", I thought, "what if I put on my old Lunaracer 2's this morning and take them out for a good 2 hour run? Just to see what it's like. Why don't you do that, Russ?" Yes, I actually asked myself that... don't judge me. So, that's what I did. And no, It did NOT go well.

It was interesting, I can say that for sure. You see, lately my running has felt pretty dang strong. My stride has been good, aside from some sore feet I've had no pain, and I've been considerably faster lately. So imagine my surprise as I went out on a beautiful, cool morning to find that I just couldn't seem to hit my stride. It was weird, I it really felt like everything was off. And yeah, i hadn't worn a real pair of running shoes in weeks so I first thought that I just may need some time to get accustomed. So I waited, and ran, and waited, and kept running, and gave it a little more time. And no, it wasn't getting better. It was in fact seeming to get worse! I kept kicking things like I wasn't getting my feet up high enough, and I was developing hot spots on the bottom of my feet. I was also inexplicably doing a mild heel strike! I mean WHAT THE HELL!! I used to run without my heels even touching the ground! I'm a natural forefoot striker who now tries to get the whole foot on the ground as I roll through! Except for when I thought that I was "supposed" to heel strike, I haven't done it since and here I was HEEL STRIKING! I really didn't know what to think! I've read plenty about elevated heels contributing to heel striking and now I was witnessing it. I was shocked! So right around the hour and a half mark I stopped at the Wellington Metroparks to eat my snack of almonds and raisins (it was early so the park wasn't even open yet, I was totally alone... nice!) and sitting at a table I look down at my feet. My feet do NOT feel good. They feel hot, cramped, and beat up, all I want to do is take the shoes off and go home. But I still wanted to put another 30 minutes in, but there was no way I was running another step in these shoes. So I looked at my shoes and then looked to my right at a garbage can. Shoes. Garbage Can. Shoes.... garbage can. I can put, my shoes... in.. the... garbage can? Yes, I can do that. And just like that, shoes off my feet and in the garbage can. BOOM!! That just effin' happened!! The relief I felt was immediate and amazing. I still had socks on but I could feel the ground again. Suddenly I felt like I could run again. But I wasn't going to be foolish! So I decided just to jog it out home. So I started on my way. The change in everything was amazing! I felt better, I was moving faster, i was striding smoother, everything just clicked back in for me. About 10 minutes from home a surprise rain storm sprang up and my socks got soaked... so off they came! I ran the final ten minutes barefoot splashing through puddles and smiling. I believe I can now safely say that barefoot running is definitely for me. Until my feet are super tough I have my Vibrams, but that's about the most shoe I want to have on. Kinda, maybe, sorta thinking about getting a pair of Vibram Bikila's. Maybe for my birthday. Anyway, here's an artists rendition of my shoes getting thrown away:

Bye, bye, shoes!!!

-Ultimate Russell

Late Wellington 10k Update

2010-08-10T17:40:00.001-04:00

So, I don't remember exactly if I said anything but it turns out that Ben Clark and myself actually placed first our age groups at the Wellington Cheese Fest 10k. So 2 out of 4 Raccoon City Runners took home a medal. Here's a pic from last Saturday of Ben and I looking awesome!:

Good Stuff!

-Ultimate Russell

Barefoot Speed Work or Running Hard or Hardly Running?

2010-08-10T08:56:00.001-04:00

Bam! Running Barefoot is awesome! Bam! Running fast is awesome! Bam! Doing both at the same time is awe.... wait a minute... it is awesome, right? Well, I can tell you.

First off just to alleviate all the tension, yes, it is awesome. But there are issues that deserve dissemination. Okay, so we already went into great deal that running fast, and barefoot is awesome, right? So why even post this? Ha, I have info that you want to know, that's why! So that brings us to Crossfit Endurance. If you haven't looked at CFE yet I highly urge you to do so, it's okay, I'll wait... you see CFE's approach it to do short(er) high intensity workouts. My usual type of workout is to run at an easy pace for an extended amount of time with the irregular tempo run every now and again. So if my style and CFE are so diametrically opposed why am I even bothering? Now come on, that really is a silly question. Answer: I'm trying to better my running game. Especially now that I've been doing a lot of barefoot running my mileage and speed had to drop while I adapted to the barefoot style. But now that my competence in running without shoes has gotten higher my desire to start improving my running game has been cropping back up. I had already been working on it back during the 10k training but had to scale it back after the 10k for the barefoot reasoning above. So yesterday the CFE workout of the day was intervals. Specifically, step down intervals. If you're not familiar with those, the workout goes a little something like this. Run (fast! basically sprint as fast as you can) for 30 sec, then jog for 30, sprint for 30, jog 25, sprint 30, jog 20, sprint 30, jog 15, basically keep dropping 5 sec off your jog until you get to 0, then rest (walk or stretch, consume fluids for 2 minutes) and then repeat the whole thing two more times. If you're not used to running fast these workouts can be hard. I have done these types before and have found them to be a lot of mental game. When you first do workouts like this you tend to look at the big picture, you know "that's like 18 sprint intervals with just short rests between! that's gonna be HARD!" But it's not that hard. Especially like this, divided up into rounds I find it easy to just focus on the task ahead. For this workout I had no problem keeping my spirits up. So now you know the workout and doing it in my KSO's would have been easy but I flipped it up and decided to do it barefoot. Why? Basically to see if I could. I've been putting in a lot of work in getting my barefoot running time up and I was eager to see what my feet could take. So I did it. For this workout I decided to go to Findlay state park and run on the road. The thought behind this was that the roads are very similar to asphalt streets (in fact, I think they're a little gnarlier at Findley) and I'd have all the same obstacles (stones, gravel, sticks and twigs, potholes) except the number of cars I'd encounter would be almost zero. I did bring my KSO's with me just in case I tore my feet up early but I ended up not needing them, which doesn't quite mean that the run was easy and uneventful, it was actually hard, mentally taxing, and I learned a thing or two. I guess it's a lot like watching Jersey Shore (OH SNAP!!) Actually, running is much more enjoyable than that crap. Anyway, I started off with an easy 5 minute jog, and then busted out a few quick, short sprints just to get a feel for what I was about to do. And it went pretty good. So I set my watch to stopwatch mode and started my first set of intervals. Now a note about running form: You've heard me say it and if you read any other barefoot running resources you know, light steps, bend your knees, lift your feet, stay relaxed. It sounds very easy and I have found that with a little practice it is easy. Especially while keeping the speed down. The problem comes when you turn the speed dial up, any little flaw in your form becomes magnified hundreds of times over. And I noticed one flaw pretty straight away, my left foot. Why my left foot? I'll explain: It does stupid things. Where my right foot comes down directly under me, and evenly applies pressure over the whole foot before a clean liftoff my left foot paws forward slightly ahead and drags the big toe (like striking a match) at liftoff. That is not good. It took a supreme amount of concentration while sprinting to make these adjustments and stop the match strike from occurring. And while I did manage to keep it in check for the most part, I still had some match striking happen from time to time and have a nice little friction-burn hole on the underside of my left big toe. It's not serious, but it's there. So yeah, I still have some work to do on form. More speed and gravel will help me fix it. Just gonna take time. But I did finish all three sets barefoot and that meant a lot to me. Another reason that I wanted to do speed work barefoot was that I really want to run some races barefoot next year and in order to be competitive I need to be fast without shoes. I mean, I could probably finish a 5 or 10k tomorrow barefoot but I'd be slow and it wouldn't do much to help the PR of barefoot running. Another really cool aspect of this run was the mental conditioning. I always figured that if stepping on stones running slowly hurt, then running fast and stepping on stones would hurt more. And I actually found this to be untrue. I ran over many little stones and through a few short gravel sections and while I did feel these things there was very little, if any discomfort. Now, this probably has a lot to do with form, if I just made a big one-footed jump onto a gravel patch it would hurt. But I had a really good, light step going and basically just glided over and through the rough patches. the only negative I felt for this workout was that I could have run it a little faster with my KSO's on. But really, not much faster, and I would have probably succumb to looser form and poor bio mechanics. So all in all the barefoot speed work was a success! It will take my feet about a day to heal up though. I have a tempo run to do today and will wear my KSO's for it. Anyway, yeah, barefoot running is great.

-Ultimate Russell

-Russell the Un-Shod (Viking Name)

No Long Run Today :(

2010-08-07T10:36:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I was out bombing the mountain bike trails at Findley state park and I kicked a root really hard with my right foot. I was wearing my new KSO Trek Sports and luckily my big toe missed the root, but I slammed it hard! Hard enough that I was temporarily concerned that I may have just broke three toes! But they weren't broken, after some easy walking the pain lessened and I finished up my run. When I got home my foot was a tad swollen and sore so I just took some tylenol and it was all good. But this morning it's definitely a little more sore and swollen but I don't think it's anything serious. I can walk on it easily but I thought it was better to be safe and not run 15 miles on it. If it continues to get better I'll just do my long run tomorrow. Oh, and I was KILLING the trails, I was flying. I'm running faster than I think I've ever run. Things are really starting to come together. Also, the Paleo diet is doing it's thing. I've had a couple little drops in energy now and then (which is common in the adaptation phase of the diet) but I'm putting on some nice new muscle mass and leaning out fast! Starting Monday I'm going to be doing a lot more fast running during the week, which will include more intervals and hill work, and getting my long run in on Saturdays well rested and strong. Also, my experiment with Crossfit this week has gone really well! It's a HELL of a workout, and it's fun and quick. I've also played around with Kemme Fitness which is similar to Crossfit and have done the famous "Spartacus" workout from Men's Health Magazine which is a killer! All is good.

-Ultimate Russell

My KSO's are now KSO Trek Sport's

2010-08-01T20:19:00.001-04:00

So, I just bought a pair of Vibram Five Finger KSO's like last week, or two weeks ago, anyway not very long ago. So why pray-tell, did I buy a new pair of the super swanky Trek Sports? Well, it's a simple answer: The KSO's didn't fit right. And now I'll explain that. So if you've never heard of something called "Morton Toe," the simple way to explain is that it's defined as your second toe (the one next to your big toe) is longer than the big toe. I did not know that I had Morton Toe because in it's natural state of lying flat on the floor my big toe does appear longer, even though they are both pretty close. Closer in fact on my right foot than my left foot. So what was happening was that when I took a stride forward my right second toe would project forward where it would hit the end of the toe pocket. Which doesn't, at first sound too bad. The bad part would come when my right foot would come down and 170 pounds x 5-10 would come down on that already mashed up toe and crush it, which would resonate back into the top of my foot. It wasn't immediately apparent, plus I also assumed that some of the discomfort was just getting used to a new pair of VFF's. But it wasn't. So yesterday Randie and I were out and about because she wanted to try some on. We went to The Backpackers Shop in Sheffield Ohio and I saw they had a pair in what I now know to be the size I should be wearing (Men's 41). Which is one size up from the size I bought. Turns out though, that these are the new KSO Trek Sport that are soooo new that they're not even on the Vibram website right now! They've only been shipped out to selected retailers. Lucky me! So basically the shoe is a mashup of the classic KSO with the KSO Trek, but with some cool new changes. Number one is that the upper has been changed from kangaroo leather to a weave of coconut fiber with active carbon to cut down on stink, and that sole is a remix of the cleated KSO Trek sole. So it's really like the best of both worlds. It is a little thicker and more protective than the original KSO but there is still plenty of ground feel (you WILL feel the rocks and cracks in the ground) and the fit, at least to me is much more comfortable. Check out the pic and try not to salivate:

So, huh, yeah. Pretty flippin' sweet!

Randie thinks that my previous KSO's will fit her fine so they'll most likely stay in the family. If not then we'll get her a pair of her own and the old one's will hit eBay. So yeah, KSO Trek Sports are badass to the highest degree! They feel totally great, look like some kind of sweet, sweet ninja footwear, have some really cool updates, and are monsters on the trails (I know because I rocked them for a good hour out there today on the mountain bike trails). So if you are considering the purchase of a Vibram Five Finger product and you happen to see these somewhere I would consider it a very wise purchase.

Later!

-Ultimate Russell

Back Atcha'!!

2010-08-01T15:57:00.001-04:00

Hmm... wha?... Oh, I guess it's..

NUMBER 2: TIME INSTEAD OF DISTANCE!!

What's up with that, huh? Time instead of distance? What does that even mean? I'll tell you right now. It means measure your time instead of your distance. It's actually pretty simple, I'm kinda surprised I had to spell it out for ya. Anyway...! Yeah, why am i doing this? Isn't it important to know how far you ran? Well... yeah, it can be important. But do you NEED to know is the question. I used to think that it was the most obvious thing to keep track of. So I did. I kept track of distance, and pace. Time was in there but it wasn't my main concern. Surprisingly, it was hardly a concern at all. But here's the deal: your body does not have an odometer. That's a fact. What it does have is a brain that with training can do a whole lot of awesome stuff. So yeah, I used to concern myself with distance. It became kind of uncomfortably almost obsessive at some points. You know, I've GOT to get home to put in my extra 7 miles tonight! Or okay, I'll get up at 5 AM so I can bang out my tempo run and have it out of the way so I can get in 8 or 9 miles tonight! And if I didn't have a life that would be fine. But I do, so it just wasn't working for me. But it never occurred to me that I should just stop the distance obsessing. Until I read a copy of Running Times magazine. There was a big article in the April 2010 issue about improving 5k times. And it was good because we were just getting into the racing season and I did want to improve my 5k time. The article featured a 5k training plan by Pete Magill. Who's Pete Magill. you ask? Pete Magill is a multi record holding runner who currently owns the record for the record for the oldest American to break 15:00 for a 5k. He did it at 47! Damn! Anyway, Mr. Magill's philosophy is to drop the distance tracking and run for time. There are some intervals in the plan so you may have to do a little distance measuring but being a 5k plan they're relatively short intervals and repeats so it's not hard. So I followed his training plan for about 5 or 6 weeks and proceeded to beat my previous 5k best by about 3 minutes. So after that I started doing work for the next race which was a 10k. I stuck to the same formula but actually dropped intervals and repeats and focused on solid medium time runs (1 hour to 1:45) with a couple solid tempo runs each week. Also made sure I did plenty of easy recovery runs (30-40 minutes) when I was feeling whupped, and of course, would get my long slow runs (2:30-3 hours) done on Saturday. And if you've read previous posts you'll know that the 10k went really, really well. In fact I didn't know it in the original post but I DID win my age group and now have my first medal. So after the intense training for fast approaching races was over I decided to take a couple weeks and run more for fun and work on my barefooting. However, I was conflicted. You see, one part of me wanted to know how far I was running (because I figured people wouldn't understand talking time instead of distance), but my heart just wanted to get out there, do some work and rejoice. So ultimately the heart won. I took the Garmin forerunner 305 off, put a $20 watch with a stopwatch feature from Target on my wrist and just went at it. For myself it's incredibly freeing. I like just going out for a timed run. Besides if I REALLY want to know my distance there's this thing called Google Earth on them internets that will let you map a route. It can't be too much off the Garmin. So yeah, I love it. Maybe you could try it sometime. Also worth noting is the fact that my ambitions lie much more in the direction of Ultra Distances so putting in the miles to me is less important than putting in the time. It makes me more comfortable in my head, so it should make me more comfortable on the track. I guess we'll see how it goes for the November half-marathon.

Keep it breezy for sheezy!

-Ultimate Russell

The Current State of my Running

2010-07-29T16:30:00.001-04:00

Why, how do you do today? It's me Ultimate Russell, here to give you a kindly update on what I've been doing lately in relation to running. There have been a few significant changes. What are they? Well, keep your pants on! The changes are:

NUMBER 1: I have ditched what is typically thought of as "shoes."

NUMBER 2: Time instead of Distance!

NUMBER 3: High Technology is out!

Do you require expansion on these topics? Yes? Good, because that is what I was planning to do.

NUMBER 1:

Shoes, who needs em, right? Well, a lot of people sure do wear them. And I guess I'm just as bad, it's not like I go to appointments barefoot! Although if I COULD that might just be one of the most awesomest (not a word, don't care) things that could happen. But, it won't so back to topic! So a few months ago I started slowly experimenting with barefoot running. I had read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall and was intrigued by the character of Barefoot Ted. Now, I had always known that there were some barefoot runners out there but I didn't realize how many there really were or that they were anything more than just show-offs like ("Oh, you just ran a 5k? Yeah, it was hot? Oh yeah, really? WELL I JUST DID IT BAREFOOT!!!) I did not realize that there was more to it than just taking off your shoes and running. But there is, turns out there's a lot more and no fast track to getting good at it. The last fact there, the "there is no fast track to getting good at it" is what really got my goat. When I first started busting out some barefoot runs I had done a little homework (not NEARLY enough) and thought I knew what was going on. I had been previously working on Chi and Pose Running techniques and figured I would just port those skills over to barefoot. Ha, yeah not quite. You see, one integral part of my running went missing the moment I took off the shoes. It wasn't lack of cushioning, and it wasn't lack of protection from debris (which the dangers of are WAY over rated) it was the fact that the sole of my foot has nerve endings and when these are rubbed on the hard, coarse, asphalt it causes friction, and eventually pain, and blisters. So, I wondered how do I fix this problem? So I looked it up, and it turns out that it takes a lot of time to slowly build up the skin in your foot for barefoot running. To this I initially scoffed, because really, I am the boss here. I make the rules for Ultimate Russell. But the asphalt has ways of humbling you. It only took a couple of runs to realize I needed to change my plan from "Just run whatever." To "Have a plan to run just a little farther every time. So that's what I did, and started to see results really fast! The first thing I noticed was that walking down my gravel driveway barefoot was much LESS unpleasant than it used to be. The second thing I noticed was that at the end of my barefoot runs my feet were not totally done! Where as before they'd be burning and ready to blister they were now comfortable, and tough feeling. Until last week. So last week we had a friggin bunch of hot days all strung together and I knew I couldn't just go out and run barefoot because the ground was too hot. So me being the Invincible Ultimate Russell, I thought "Well, I'll take my KSO's along and when my feet get too scorched I'll just pull them on and all will be fine. Wrong. So while I was up to about 30-40 minutes of barefoot running at a time last week I think I made it 16 minutes before I had to pull it over and pull the KSO's on. And honestly, I should have put them on at the 10 minute mark and come up with a more intelligent route then "All the streets with no trees and tons of sunlight!" It was bad. I scorched my bare feet pretty good but not horribly. The problem came after putting on my KSO's. You see, it turns out that a 4mm piece if rubber on your foot will also get hot running on the burning pavement and that heat will go right into your foot. So yeah, scorched feet. Couldn't barefoot the next day and decided to take it off for running. The day after that I go running and I KNEW that I should put my KSO's on, I friggin' KNEW IT! But I didn't. I went out barefoot and the previously cooked soles of my feet that were just starting to get better, got all kinds of tore up... fast! It was disappointing and I was feeling low. I tried to put a regular running shoe on just to get the miles in but running in them felt like trying to play guitar with gloves on. I couldn't feel shit! So I strapped the KSO's on, even though I should have just taken another day off and went out for an hour. I ran just a short run the next day, and then it was Saturday. Now Saturday's are my LONG run day. Being that I'm running in much less of a shoe now (KSO's) I dropped my usual time of 3 hours down to 2 hours. It once again was hot as hell but it was cloudy and looked like it would storm. That was fine with me. I had my hydration pack, my feet duct taped up so the sore parts would be protected, and some mid run food, and I was off! The first hour went down easy! I was light and free and having a great time despite the crazy heat (102 degree heat index) and I ran my normal route which goes down a back country road where there's this little rear access route to the mountain bike trails at Findley State Park. And I live for running trails, so-a-down-I-go!! Like I said, everything was going great until I started hitting some wet spots in the trail. The first couple I just vaulted or went around, but a few I had to quick step through or walk all stealth like to avoid plunging in. So yeah, mud is dirt that gets wet, so there's water involved and my feet got wet, and my KSO's got wet and because I didn't WRAP my foot with duct tape (I put a patch on) the duct tape got wet and came off, never to hold anything together again. Of course I didn't know this, and I was so high on endorphins that I didn't even notice any pain or discomfort, until I took a break at about the hour and a half mark. So I pull into a little picnic area, have a seat and pull out my hydration bladder because there's a convenient place to refill it, and upon standing back up I notice the pain in my left arch. So I'm thinking maybe there's a rock or stone in there because I was tearing up some gnarly trails there. But alas, the duct tape was a wet ball in my KSO and my arch was torn up and not looking too nice. Now, a clear headed person would think "That's it, time to call in backup." And being temporarily sane I whipped out my phone, and I had a txt message from Randie indicating that she was going to be picking berries for a few hours and wouldn't have her phone on her because of the chance of rain. Now, it would have been very easy to call her mom, or dad and get someone to holler at her or come pick me up, but I thought, "It's only about 30 more minutes of running to get home, I can do it." And I did, but I paid for it. First of all, like I said earlier, the run started off cloudy and hot but tolerable. However, the way back home, which involves running up State Route 58 was now bathed in the midday sunshine and was baking! So yeah, it was HOTT!! Not luckily the dampness of my KSO's did give me a good 20 minutes of protection until the heat really started to get into my feet, but the sun also sapped my energy and made me have to really take it slow. At one point a kind Amish man in a buggy asked if I would like a ride. I should have said yes, but I said thank you and that I was fine (I lied). So anyway, I slugged it out and eventually made it home where I peeled off the KSO's and whimpered at the state of my feet. Strangely it was really only my left foot that got the worst of it, my right had a few marks but was unhurt. So not only did I have a big open wound on the arch of my left foot, but I had a weird half moon shape cut right behind the base of my big toe on top of my foot. I can only assume that it had to do with all the wet, rubbing, friction that was going on. So yeah, bandages, Neosporin, and athletic tape for a week, but everything's healing up fine and I've taken the KSO's out several more times and they appear to feel like they're loosening up and breaking in a bit. So that's good. Another good thing is that the damage did not impair my barefoot running ability at all, so I got a lot of barefoot time in this week which has been awesome! Two awesome barefoot experiences this week were running shortly after a thunderstorm while the streets were filled with warm puddles of water and splashing through with abandon, and running up and down my gravel driveway with discomfort but no pain. The latter is especially significant because when I started this barefoot adventure I could barely tip toe down the drive without "oohing" and "aahhhing" all the way down. This morning did a 33 minutes barefoot run on the mean Wellington streets and am going to try and start adding 2 minutes each barefoot run. So far it's all working out great and I'll keep you posted. Okay, this post got LOOOONNNNGGGG and I didn't get to my big second or third topics, but I'll have them up in the next couple days. They shouldn't be as prolific. Anyway, should you want to get started with some barefoot running, first read this, keep it short, keep it slow, keep those knee's bent (this really is the secret, you have to bend more than you think. especially on rough surfaces like gravel) and LIFT YOUR FEET BEHIND YOU!!! No big push offs with your toe's and forefoot. Try it and I guarantee you'll like it.

Til' another time,

-Ultimate Russell

5 Great Albums to Listen to While Running

2010-07-24T11:25:00.001-04:00

Like most people I'm a big fan of music. I played music for many a year and still have a great love for it. And like many other people I have an iPod and listen to music while I run. Now, one thing worth mentioning, I haven't listened to music while running for a couple of months now, I've been using the time on my runs to really concentrate on what I'm doing. By this I mean mostly listening to my footfalls and breathing, because of course, the goal is to make as little noise as possible while running and to keep my breaths nice and smooth. And while I can monitor my breath while listening to music I cannot hear my footfalls. And even though for me I think it will take many, many, years I would like to be able to cultivate a “silent mind” state of running, like a moving meditation. The only issue with that is that my brain tends to spit stuff out all scatter-shot whenever it's deprived of attention. But I'm working on it and making great strides. Hell, I've done 3 hour runs without any music, and it wasn't so bad so maybe one day I'll reach a zen running state. Maybe not. Either way it's a part of the greater journey and I enjoy the challenge. But, back to music! Even though I don't currently listen to music while running I do like making recommendations to people for workout music just to see what they think, so I'm gonna make a couple suggestions, and maybe you'll hate it all or maybe you'll find a new favorite band. I don't know what you like! I'm a runner, not a psychic!

So first I have the five full albums that I would listen to the most while running.

Number One:
Artist: Andrew W.K.
Album: I Get Wet
Released: 2001

If you know who Andrew W.K. Is then you probably already know if you love him or hate him. I personally think that this first release is a crazy focused blast of energy and pure fun! It's a whole album of upbeat, fun, and relentlessly pounding songs. It's a whole 35 minutes of upbeat rage that could get the dead up and moving. From the opening salvo of “It's Time to Party” to the final strains of “Don't Stop Living in the Red” the songs just ooze energy and positivity all over you. Put this on during a Tempo Run, I dare you! You'll be tearing it up!! Would also make a great album to listen to during a 5k.

Best of the Best Tracks: Party Hard, Ready to Die, Take it Off, I Get Wet.

Number Two:
Artist: Streetlight Manifesto
Album: Keasbey Nights
Released: 2009

It took me a little while to give Streetlight Manifesto a try and the reason is so superficial that it's hard for me to admit.... it was because of their name. Sad, I know. From their name I believed them to be an “Emo” band. You know, skinny kids in tight girl jeans, and limp black hair falling over one eye shrieking about love and shit. I realize I sound like an old curmudgeon, but I hate that crap! Anyway, Streetlight is NOT an emo band! Very far from it, they play a prefect blend of Ska and Punk complete with distorted punk guitars along their clean ska brethren, horns, and a drummer that tears into the tempo like Animal from The Muppets. Now, if you search for the album “Keasbey Nights” you may be surprised to find that there is another band with an album of the same name, that band would be “Catch 22.” You see the singer/songwriter from the early Catch 22 days is the same singer/songwriter for Streetlight Manifesto. And while it's true that I first became a fan of this record in it's rawer Catch 22 days, Streetlight re-recorded the whole album and polished it to gleaming standards without getting rid of the frantic “catch me if you can” feeling of the original. This album just completely rocks from beginning to end, anthem like choruses, quick fast and witty lyrics, and a driving beat with insanely dancey basslines all come together to make an album that every time I hear it makes me wanna move... on the street... with my feet... I mean run.

Best of the Best Tracks: Sick and Sad, Keasbey Nights, On and On and On, 1234 1234.

Number Three:
Artist: Girl Talk
Album: Feed the Animals
Released: 2008

Mashups! Have you heard of mashups? If yes then you can skip down a bit, if no let me educate you. In a few words a “mashup” is the final state of a what you get when you smash two or more songs together and have them play in such a way that it makes a new song. You may have heard DJ's do this before. But what Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) does is sample many different songs from different eras, genres, and styles, and smashes them together in a way that is clever, driving, dancey, and easy t listen to. Although, his early stuff, like many “Electronic” music makers is much more avant garde the later work is what I'm referencing here. “Feed the Animals” is soooo freaking awesome that it's really hard to put it into words. From the very first seconds of this album it just sucks you in! The samples and mashups are so clever, smooth, and catchy that it really kind of blows my mind! And I've done my share of computer assisted music making, and I can't even get close to the magic that pops up in this record. Seriously, if you're a fan of 70's, 80's, and 90's rock and rap with a techno party feel then you owe it yourself to listen to this AT LEAST ONCE! If you really hate it, I'm sorry but I really don't see how that could happen. Unless a little bit of profanity ruins music for you. And if that's the case then probably none of this music is up your alley. Your loss. One more important note: This record is FREE!! You can make a donation (which I have) if you want to or you can check it out first and decide if you like it. I'm looking forward to the next Girl Talk record, if it rocks as much as this one I don't know how I will contain myself.

Best of the Best Tracks: This is a hard one, the whole album is basically one long track, but the very first track, “Play Your Part (Pt.1)” really does it for me. And then towards the middle you get Lil' Mama mashed up with Metallica. Just listen to it!

Number Four:
Artist: Weezer
Album:Weezer (the blue one)
Released: 1994

This was a hard one. Weezer is awesome, that's a fact of life, and this record along with Pinkerton are two of my favorite albums to listen to while running. So why did this one win? Well, let me explain. I personally feel that in a showdown of songwriting, raw hard rocking, and that hard to categorize “X” factor that Pinkerton is by far the better album. And while that may be the case, this record is no slouch! It's just soooooo fun, and good, and endearing that when I would need that lift while running this record could always come through for me. While Pinkerton is great, the songs are just not as uplifting as they are here. I mean if the breakdown in “My Name is Jonas” doesn't get your heart and legs pumping then you're a zombie. And if you haven't ever given Weezer a try, then what the hell are you waiting for? They're great! There are a couple weird, spotty records later in their career, but the original self-titled album and Pinkerton are 90's rock gold. I would say that Pinkerton slays any other album by any other 90's rock band, and yes, that includes Nirvana!!

Best of the Best Tracks: My Name is Jonas, Buddy Holly, Say it Ain't So, Holiday

Number Five:
Artist: Clutch
Album: Blast Tyrant
Released: 2004

The mighty, mighty Clutch. Currently reigning supreme in my world as the best band in the land. For real! Here's a band that delves into every aspect of hard rock, and keeps comes up fricking aces. Every. Damn. Time. Here's another band where it's hard to pick one of the many great albums Clutch has put out, but these albums aren't really picked on their individual merits. These are about running, and if there's one, just one, Clutch record that just screams “PUT THIS ON YOUR IPOD AND RUNNNN!!!!!” it would be “Blast Tyrant.” The music here is pure awesome genius. Some kind of crazy amalgamation of the finest rock riffs every cultivated paired with the tightest rhythm section in all of modern rock and a singer that knows no bounds when it comes to creativity and you have them makings for a band that will probably one day stand side to side in respect to bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and The Who (I personally think they're already in that caliber!). This is one of those rare hard rock records that is not only heavy and rocking but is also disturbingly catchy and contains lyrical content you are unlikely to hear anyone else get into. Just amazing stuff. On a long run this record is indispensable! You need something to listen to while you get into the groove? This record will be your huckleberry. Buy it, listen to it, run to it, do it, do it, do it!!

Best of the Best Tracks: Profits of Doom, Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes), Spleen Merchant, Subtle Hustle.

Alright, so there you have five albums guaranteed to get your blood all a-boil for running, or to pick you up when you're out there feeling low. But if you're more of a single song shuffle person I've got you covered! Here's a list of five single songs to ignite the fury!!1!

Artist: 3 Inches of Blood
Song: Deadly Sinners

3 Inches of Blood is a band of young men playing Metal like they were stuck in the late 70's/early 80's. They have a lot of good content if you're into vintage metal. There's a strong Iron Maiden and Judas Priest influence going on so if you don't like that sort of metal you might not appreciate this but “Deadly Sinners” is a great song with an awesome driving, give-it-all-you-got intensity to it. Grade A stuff here.

Artist: Usher
Song: Love in this Club

Usher?! What? Yeah, that's right, I like, nay, LOVE this song!! You telling me you don't? Are you trying to tell me that the awesomely wicked B3 Organ intro to this song doesn't make you smile, raise your heart rate and make you want to move?! Is that what you're telling me? I hope not because yeah, this song is silly, and it's not the first thing you might think of when it comes to running music but it's got a great beat and feel to it and I find it to be TONS of fun when I'm having a low moment or near the end of a run when I'm feeling good and beat. It's good, so enjoy good music whenever you can fin d it because there's WAY to much crap out there.

Artist: The Raconteurs
Song: Salute Your Solution

I first heard this song at the end of the movie Zombieland (LOVE IT, btw) and was instantly feeling it. It's got some great riffs, a good driving beat, and fun, catchy verses and choruses. There's a couple other decent tracks on their record “Consolers of the Lonely” but for the most part it's kind of hit and miss for me. But this song, this song tears it up!

Artist: Lady Gaga
Song: Bad Romance

What can I say, I'm a complete SUCKER for some sytnth heavy electro-pop! Gaga doesn't always knock it out of the park but this song fires me up. I can't say exactly why. Maybe it's just this exact tempo, but I also like Gaga's voice and think the chorus is simple and catchy. She's just one of those artists who once again is basically reworking 80's pop into a more modern sound but man, she does it with panache! If you say you hate this song I don't believe you.

Artist: The Killers
Song: Mr. Brightside

I'm always surprised how many people I know who do not like The Killers. Personally I find their music to be a very nice break from the norm. I first heard this song while I was sick, lying on the couch, watching VH1 for about 24 hours straight. I probably saw the video for this song 20 times that day but I liked it every time! Great hooks, great lyrics, great beat. You put it all together and you have a great song. If this was a 45” I would have worn the grooves out several times over.

So there you have it. Those are my picks. I'd love to hear other recommendations, or how much you hate or love the picks I've made. Til then, I'll see you at the starting line!

-Ultimate Russell

Minimal

2010-07-21T09:19:00.002-04:00

As you know I'm into minimal footwear. But do you also know that I enjoy a minimal lifestyle? It's true. Now, I don't live as minimally as some people, but I'm working on aspects and seeing what I like and what I don't. For example, my food mostly consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries, and about 1 serving a day of lean meat(edit: LOL!! I can't believe I used to only eat 1 serving of meat a day! That is no longer accurate! It's all about the Paleo Diet now. And I eat quite a bit of meat!) . It really helps control weight, and provide energy. I eat 5 balanced meals a day, so my energy levels stay constant and hunger stays warded off.(edit: once again, that has changed COMPLETELY!! I eat 3 meals a day and sometimes less. I do quite a bit of intermittent fasting as well) I also exercise with little to no equipment, I do this by utilizing bodyweight. Meaning I do lot's of push-ups, pull-ups. dips, squats, and crunches or sit-ups, or whatever other crazy core exercise I feel like. I guess a pull-up bar is equipment but not much. I do splurge a bit on my running stuff though, clothes, hydration pack, but it all get's used. Anything that's too big, or I don't wear anymore goes to friends or Goodwill. We also just cut our cable and disconnected the TV. I mean, I would often watch TV for 3-5 hours a day! Granted I would work out for some of that time but it REALLY can cut in to being productive. I don't miss it. Besides, everything is practically on the internet now, so if I REALLY want to see something I can. Otherwise Randie, my dogs, friends, blogs, music and books are plenty of entertainment. We also are considering losing the bed. Many cultures sleep on the floor or thin mattresses and have no problem. I think a soft mattress could be just as detrimental to alignment as cushy, supported shoes can be to your knees. Maybe I'm wrong but the no bed experiment starts tonight. I'm also trying to clear out clutter, so I'm going to be getting rid of a bunch of t-shirts, and other stuff, I've already launched a massive ebay campaign. Just mentioning it because it's something I'm into. You don't have to be, everybody's different. Just talking.

-Ultimate Russell

Adventures in Minimal Footwear: A Retrospective

2010-07-21T07:49:00.001-04:00

I have always been a gadget/gear junkie. It's always been that way, whether it was previously new computer processors and video cards, to these days which are more about tech clothing, anti chaffing, and hydration systems. But my obsession lately over the last year or so has been minimalist footwear. Last winter 2009, I began with wearing so called "minimalist footwear." My first foray came with a pair of Nike Free Everyday V.1 shoes (which I don't think they make anymore, this and this would be pretty close though). Though not very minimal at all in the grand scheme, they were much lower profile than any shoe I had worn in the past, I alternated between the Everyday's and a pair of Nike Free 5.0's which are definitely more minimal than the Everyday's (ED's from here). Both shoe's were extremely comfortable and noticeably closer to the ground than shoes I was wearing immediately previous which were Asics 1050's, which are kind of a motion control/stability shoe but I had bought them before I know what I know now so back off! Anyway, once the weather started to warm up I began to run barefoot. Now a few notes about barefoot running, number one, it is freaking AWESOME!! If you haven't tried it you owe it to yourself to try it at least twice before you make up your minds. Number two, unless you're a quick learner that has perfect form right away it's going to take some time! My personal recommendation would be to look at Chi and Pose running for good form ideas. For bare footing you really have to "lift" your feet instead of pushing off like you are most likely used to. Some tips for first timers though would be to start slow and short, seriously. There's nothing worse than realizing your feet are done and you're like a mile from your house. It has happened to me, and if you're the same type of person that generally thinks that you're bullet proof, it's going to happen to you too. In the event that it does immediately start walking. Try to walk in curb lawns, and let your body tell you what gait feels best. Also, if you are serious about trying barefoot running there are many great resources for finding info, such as therunningbarefoot.com. So, back to footwear this Spring/early summer I bought a pair of Nike Lunaracer 2''s for wearing to races. Now the Lunaracers, ah, I guess it's a personal thing. When I first got them I thought they felt perfect, very light, nice tight feel, and decent protection but decent ground feel, you WILL feel rocks, sticks, and even pebbles in these shoes. The big negative to the Lunaracers would be that the soles have upper have not held up very well to my mileage. They really started to break down after about 250 miles, rocks were getting stuck in the soles, one good size rock practically punched a hole through the sole! It didn't completely compromise the sole but it did leave a large gouge that smaller stones like to get sucked up into. It's like a lime-green black hole. I hindsight the Free 5.0's took three times as much abuse until they really started to break down and they fit was really, really nice. One other issue I have with the Lunaracers is that after doing more and more barefoot running I got used to having no padding or elevated heel so when I would put the Lunaracers on I would experience a real big disconnect with the ground while running, it would affect my form in some cases rather severely! In some cases it took almost an hour of straight running until my body figured out how to run with all that padding and heel support. It made some runs VERY un-enjoyable and left me with sore knees and ankles. So I knew that I had to get something with less heel and padding. Of course the popular option was a pair of Vibram Five Fingers, (VFF's) I had read "Born to Run" (which if you haven't read already you are doing yourself a GREAT disservice!) and was familiar with the product. The only problem is that they're a relatively small company and were having trouble with the volume of ordering they were getting, which meant that they were incredibly hard to find on a local level and you basically had to check the website every day and cycle through all the options hoping to stumble upon a combination which was magically "In Stock." So in pure punk-rock fashion I was like (in a British accent) "Sodding Wanker's! Shove your shoes, mate!" And decided to find another footwear option for barefoot-like adventures. The first thing I tried was the Invisible Shoe huarache kit here, which are nice, cheap, comfortable, and have many tying options. I ran about 30 miles in my pair and while they weren't uncomfortable I had a hard time really getting into the groove in them. My main difficulty revolved around finding the right mix of tight, but not too tight which put me in a perpetual state of either the tops of my feet getting chewed up by the straps or the soles flopping around too much, and making for difficult cornering. So, I stopped running in the sandals but do wear them casually for they do have a great barely there barefoot-like feel. So next up I found a link to these. Sockwa's! I saw these and thought they may be the perfect, cheaper alternative to VFF's. So I ordered a pair of the Amphibians using the recommended sizing tips from Sockwa but it was still slightly confusing. Example: I typically wear something between a 9.5 to 10 in normal shoes. My foot measures 10 inches from back of heel to end of my big toe. Now Sockwa recommends going up a whole size but here's where it gets tricky, they currently offer 3 sizes. The first sounded to small, the second size was listed as: 9.5/10/10.5 and the third at 11/11.5/12. Strange. So I figured, "I normally wear 9.5-10 so I should order the 11." I double checked my thoughts with Randie and she agreed, so I ordered them, I found an online coupon code and got them shipped and all for under $40. So I got them and immediately took them out for a 10 mile Saturday run (now everyone knows that you don't wear brand new products on a long run) and despite the basic logic I found them to work very well. They were comfortable and light, and I felt a little magical in them, like I was skimming over the ground. Very enjoyable. The problems began to arise around mile 8. It was a hot day and I was freely sweating at at the point of maximum saturation I started to slip around on downhills which led to considerable friction and discomfort in the bottom of my foot. At the end of the run my forefoot pads were pretty beat up and screaming. No real damage but they got worked over pretty hard. Mow, like I said, the sizing was kind of confusing so maybe I ordered the wrong size, but it's also worth noting that the Sockwa's have stretched out a little in the short time that I've been wearing them. I in fact took them on a short 45 minute run yesterday morning and found that even on the town streets that my feet were sliding around in them, and that is something I really don't like. So they've been demoted to a casual, walking around shoe along with the Huaraches. So I was a little on edge yesterday with my shoe situation. I didn't want to run in the Lunaracers anymore, and unless I wanted to cut my mileage drastically and only run barefoot I figured I was out of luck. I was considering wearing a pair of Hi Top Chuck Taylor's that I own because I wear them for work and in many ways they're awesome! No heel of arch support, flexible, and relatively inexpensive. But they're also pretty heavy and still have a pretty big amount of padding underfoot. But if you're new to minimal running I think they're a great place to start along with short barefoot runs. So I had to make a stop yesterday on my way home at the Fin, Feather, Fur in Ashland, Ohio and they're on the official retailers list on Vibrams site. Now I had actually gone there once before looking for a pair and had a bad experience. I don't know if the woman working the footwear section was having a bad day or what but she treated me like I was an annoyance instead of a paying customer and actually REALLY pissed me off that day. If she were a man we would've had words that day, but because she was a petite, older woman I decided not to tear her down. But yesterday, on my second attempt not only did they have a pair of KSO's in stock in my size but the woman working the shoe department could not have been nicer! She was extremely helpful and along with an employee at a Borders in Columbus that day have at least temporarily restored some hope for humanity in me. So, VFF's, I got them home last night, changed clothes and immediately took them out for a 30 minutes run, and damn! VFF's! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE!!! Seriously, I see why so many minimalist/barefoot enthusiasts love these things. They're literally like a foot glove! You still get a good feel for the ground (obviously not as much as actually barefoot but very good) and they're ON your feet! You don't slide and I could actually handle corners at a fast clip and not have to worry about slipping around. I really can't say enough good about these things, they're incredible and I look forward to wearing them for a long time! Some people say they're expensive for a "minimal" shoe but the price in entirely worth it! If this is a path you want to start down than I highly recommend VFF's! They're going to become my new everyday running shoe, when I'm not barefoot and I'm planning on doing some racing in them. My plan for next year is to run a few 5k's and maybe a couple 10k's completely barefoot. So there it is, I've torn through quite a bit of info here and I hope it wasn't terribly boring. If you have questions I'm always happy to entertain.

Take it easy!

-Ultimate Russell

Wellington Cheese Festival 10k Race Report

2010-07-19T11:00:00.001-04:00

So, I'll put it right out there: I'm not a very fast runner. I've been seriously running now for about a year. Before that it was just a couple miles here, a couple miles there. I've run a couple of 5k's before this 10k and was seeing better results every time. Well almost. My first 5k was in March, of 2010 and I ran it in 24:09. I was happy, it was my first race after all and I didn't know much about pacing, where to start in the pack at the starting line, and I don't even think I did any kind of speed work. I wore a pair of Nike Pegasus 26's and I know I ran with bad form on the account of sore knees, calves, and shins the next morning. It was an interesting race. I was just starting to get into minimalism yet I was running in a pretty high, clunky pair of shoes and it was also 40 degrees and chilly. I ran in a Nike hoodie that I own. It started out comfortable but by the end of the race it was like wearing a down coat! I ran way to fast thru the beginning and middle and really crashed in the last .25 mile. I did have a freaking AWESOME time though. I learned a lot from that first outing. The next 5k was in late May of 2010 and the weather could not have been any different. It was the first really hot day here in Northeastern Ohio, the previous weeks had been a nice 50-65 degrees but this day it was 79 and VERY sunny! It was another 5k and I tried to follow a little more of a race plan by keeping my pace more even for the first 2 miles and then my plan was to really kick it out for the last mile. This didn't quite happen. The whole first two miles were basically through a park with ample tree cover and the sun at my back. I was breathing hard but not sucking air, I felt good. My pace was a little faster than I had planned but everything was smooth, until that final turn. The last mile was straight into the sun on a freshly blacktopped road and the heat hit me like a punch! My energy started to wane, my form went completely to shit, and I started veering a little from side to side. All of a sudden I just lost all my focus. I ended up slowing down and finishing in 24:58, slower than my first race. The blame was all on me though, I had done a lot of long slower miles and neglected speed work almost entirely. I would correct this for the next 5k. One good thing I learned was that I needed to run in lighter shoes. I had a beat up pair of Nike Free 5.0's that I had gotten several years earlier and never really used them for anything but sneakers, so I dug those out and wore them for the race. I did love the weight difference as opposed to the Pegs. The next 5k was in the middle of June. It was overcast, muggy, but not too hot. about 75 degrees that morning. This time I had done plenty of tempo runs and intervals and was following a 5k program by Pete Magill. I had also begun to really get into my form by following the basic tenants of Pose and Chi running, it was also about this time that I was dropping the shoes for many runs and getting out there barefoot. It only took 1 half mile loop to know I was in love. Since then I log some kind of barefoot mileage almost everyday. Depending on the conditions I'm up to about 5 miles barefoot. Anyway, for this race I started near the front of the pack with my wife and two good friends and we all took off together. I was wearing a Garmin Forerunner 305 and was pretty shocked when I looked down at the half mile mark and saw that I was cruising around 7 minutes a mile. I knew I couldn't maintain that for the whole race so I consciously slowed down and decreased my forward lean. Everything went fine for this run, I did go out a little fast too early but I managed to keep the pace up and even had a dead sprint to the finish line with my buddy Jim for about the last 1/4 mile. I ended up finishing this race in 23:24 and placing second in my age group. My only goal was to go sub 24 minutes and I achieved it. I was stoked. I ran that 5k in a pair of Nike Lunaracer 2's. They're alright but definitely have too much arch support going on. And all this brings me to the Gary Jordan 5/10k race at the Wellington Cheese Festival on July 17th. The day was nice, sunny and warm, a little muggy, but the whole previos week had been 90+ degrees with nearly 90% humidity! I was a little worried because a lot of my training runs were a little shorter than usual and the sheer heat really slowed me down. But I approached the finish line knowing that I had did all I could. I had got in plenty of tempo runs, intervals, and long distances on the weekends. I was prepared. The best part of this race was that the starting line is a whole 1/4 mile from my house!! Nice! My team met up at my house (team consists of my wife, Randie, and friends Ben, and Jim. We're the Raccoon City Runners, anyone who knows anything about Resident Evil should get the reference. We're geeks, what can I say.) and we headed over. We noticed a lot of cross country runners from a nearby college as well as some other pretty serious looking guys, it's a small race consisting of maybe 100 racers so you could really see who was there. We lined up near the front and go to it. My initial plan was to run the first 3 miles at a 9 minute pace and then to begin really dropping the hammer over the last 3 miles. But, things don't always go according to plan. The first 3 miles I kept telling myself to slow down, but I really couldn't, I was clipping along around 8:30 and just feeling awesome! My form was tight, breathing was smooth and the morning was beautiful! Not only that but the race was on the same streets that I run everyday so I felt like I had the home field advantage. So at about the 2 mile mark I grab a cup of water, take a sip and dump the rest over my head, it feels invigorating and I just keep on plowing. Around the 3.5 mile mark I notice the 10kr's in front of me starting to slow down and lose their forms a bit. I could see a hill I know well coming up so I leaned forward passed them on the ascent and tore down the other side. After that they would not be seen again. At this point I'm feeling awesome, I'm already seeing some elite looking guys heading back, they must be about 8-10 minutes ahead of me, maybe more but it doesn't matter because I'm running my race and loving it. There's another water stop at about the 4 mile mark, I grab a cup and perform the same thing as before. There's a woman in front of me who had been running very well but around this time was starting to get slow, I zipped past her, and continued on. My new target was a local man who I see running almost every morning. He's got a short shuffly stride and always looks relaxed. Well, always til today, I noticed I was gaining on him fast. As I came along side I asked pleasantly "How's it going?" He huffed out, "It's... going." between labored breaths. I gave him the thumbs up and continued to accelerate. The last section of the race was pretty quiet. I was mostly alone and passed about 5 more runners struggling with the last leg of the course. The 5 mile mark was right in front of my house, as I passed I heard my Basset Hound Goose bark at our other Basset Professor and I chuckled. It was just all too fun. I rocked the last leg of the course which is usually the start of almost every run I do and cruised through the finish line. My final time was 50:55 and I was sublimely happy. My only concrete goal was to get in under an hour and that was no problem. The course was fairly flat and fast, I heard a few runners got stopped by a train and that really sucks. The course could use 1 or 2 more water stations. I mean, it IS July. I also ran this race in my Lunaracer 2's but will most likely be purchasing a pair of Vibram Five Fingers next and plan to do all my racing, and training in them. If you haven't tried barefooting yet you should really take a crack at it, go slow and easy and short. It really is fun and comfortable feeling. My next scheduled race is a half marathon in September, but I'm going to try to get another 5k or two in and maybe a trail race of some sort. I know this kind of was more of a long recapping than a race report but I felt like I had to explain where I'm at and how I got there. Hope it was enjoyable!

-Ultimate Russell

A Little Bit About Me

2010-07-12T09:01:00.001-04:00

Why, hello there. My name is Russell Taylor and I'm a 30 year old fitness enthusiast from Northeastern Ohio. About three years ago my beautiful wife Randie and I decided that we did not like the state of ourselves very much and it was time for a change. It was not easy. It was in fact, pretty difficult. We hit walls, backslid, made every rookie mistake in the book, and at different times were hurt, sick, and disgusted with our progress. But we didn't stop, and that's the key. Because it is hard to change everything. But as long as you keep trying, and you keep moving forward, even if it's slow going it eventually starts to fall in line. And then it starts to get easier, and then, believe it or not it becomes fun! Three years ago I weighed in excess of 265 pounds. Add to the fact that I'm only 5' 9" and you start to get the picture. I was very overweight, drank to excess almost every night (and sometimes, hideously enough, during the day), and subsisted on a diet of pizza, fast food burgers, ice cream, chips, and any other kind of sweet I felt like shoving down my throat that day. I was depressed, and disgusted with myself. Back high school I was slim (but this in truth was a problem, we'll get to that later), athletic (even though the thought of playing a team sport went against my Punk Rock attitude), popular, played lead guitar in a punk-rock band and felt like I had the whole world in my hands. Jump forward several years later and I'm in my mid twenties still delivering pizza, still playing guitar, and quite obese. I had turned into the older guy still thinking he's really cool and hip because he can play guitar and all that. When from the outside I had to look like a fat, sad, twenty something who was holding on to the past in vain. And I basically was. Up until the age of twenty four I had never drank a drop of alcohol, but right around my twenty fifth birthday I decided to give it a try and promptly began developing into a low grade alcoholic. I mean, I've never been to an AA meeting or anything like that but I think that drinking every night until I'm nearly passing out drunk for two years probably qualifies somewhere in the ballpark. Looking back on the night when we decided to get back on track is kind of funny. My wife and I were quite trashed. It must have been a Friday night because it was late. It must have been one or two o'clock in the morning and we had gone through either several bottles of wine or were drinking one of those big gallon sized jugs that makes up for what it lacks in quality with volume. I call it a "Friar Tuck." Anyway, when we would get about to this point of being wasted all our insecurities began getting voiced. Mostly we talked about how fat and lazy we had gotten and how we had to start working out, which of course we had been talking about for many years. Because as you know you don't balloon up over night, it takes time and we knew we were doing poorly. And we actually would try to get going! We would start working out for a few months but we would never really change our eating habits, so then your spending time and effort, and not seeing results and you end up throwing in the towel. Eventually we'd figure all that out. But I digress. It was late on a Friday night, we were drunk and on the television comes an infomercial for Turbo Jam by Beachbody. We had seen this before and kind of joked about it (haha, punch-dancing). But this night Randie said she wanted to try it. And I said that if she was willing to give the whole plan a real try that I would try it with her. Now for the most part the danceiness of Turbo Jam didn't appeal to me one bit, but growing up I had spent many years studying the martial arts and the kicking, punching, and horse stance stuff I was seeing in the videos was something that I could get into. So we ordered it (that night before the alcohol wore off) and the next week we started down the path that brings me here today. Although I don't do Turbo Jam anymore we did eventually graduate to P90X, which we did several rounds of, and even Insanity, which we did several rounds of. Basically today I don't do any video workouts, instead I run a lot (roads, trails, races, wherever), hike, and only do bodyweight exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, squats, evil things) there's so much variety that every day is something new. Over the last year or so I've been experimenting with varying degrees of minimalism which has led to my current infatuation with barefoot running (Thank You, Christopher McDougall!) and tightening up my lifestyle in general. But the most important parts are that I've lost 90 pounds bringing me down to a lean 175, and while I can't say I don't consume any alcohol, I now only have drinks one night a week and I do not drink until sloppy drunk. No more hangovers for me! And the best part is that I'm not done yet! I know I still have excess fat that I can burn off and I have new speed and strength challenges every week to conquer! I continue to improve all aspects of my fitness everyday and have broken through barriers that I honestly NEVER thought I would be able to do. And if I can do it, seriously, anyone can. So, what I hope to accomplish with this blog is to get out my feelings about fitness, and my other interests in life. So, once again: Hello, I'm Russell Taylor and I'm in the process of "Building the Ultimate Russell."