Clean out of grit

Temp: 8C and overcast
Gut pain: negligible
Shoulder (referred) pain: so-so
Time to hit the (road) hills!

The dog was not on the same page.  He wanted to sleep in.  Maybe he was having a rough morning.

We did most of the goat loop; I shortened it for time, and rationalized that I was still getting the two big hills, and wasn't that the point?  It turned out to be a wise decision.  The shortened distance was a distillation and it ended up being a (mostly) honest tempo run.   Running on the road was invigorating: I pushed down and something pushed back.   I could feel those little taut springy areas I've been working on with the weights working for ME.  Sometimes running on sand and debris gets old.

Time--oh, yeah, the siren call of numbers: 43:30ish, including stops for the dogs (maybe a minute or two?).  4.83 miles.  Considering that there are two ~150 ft hills on this route, and a bunch of smaller ones, and I had to coax the dog along in parts, that's not a bad pace.  Maybe next time I'll stop my watch for the breaks to get a better idea of where I'm starting from.  Oh, and today was the first time I made it up the second hill without stopping.  It's not as high nor as long as the first, but the grade is a bit steeper and more consistent.  A 1/2 mile just over 5%.  Getting up that near the end of the run was a minor triumph.  At any rate, the shorter distance was much more satisfying than adding the extra mile and a bit.  If I get faster, maybe I'll add it back in. 

And then legs.  This was also a tough workout.  I feel I'm getting stronger, getting more pow.   I also had an odd meathead moment: I wasn't happy with the grip on my left dumbbell, so I kind of hefted it upward, just a little micro toss of maybe a centimetre to get it into a more secure place.  And then I realized that I'd momentarily relinquished 30 pounds to gravity, with just my weaker hand to stop it.  Thanks to the comfort of wearing steel toed boots!  At any rate, I should put more weight on for the deadlifts, and get into the habit of switching plates more often.  I take plenty of recovery time between exercises, I can adjust plates.  I don't have many extra, though, just four 2.5 lb plates remaining, 5 lbs for each dumbbell, 10 pounds more total.  That brings it up to 70 lbs.  Then what?  I think I'll be good for another month at least.

And then I did the daily double.  I considered going for 12 and 10 on the pushups, but wussed out.

And then I flinched at the usual cold shower.  I'm not tough enough for a full cold shower, at least not until deeper into summer, but I usually turn off the hot water at the end, just for a minute or two.  Or five seconds this morning.  Wasn't going to happen.