Back, Tree, Midnight Mile, Guy at Work

Medium 4 miles today. First 2 were at a quicker-than-usual pace. Had to jump over snow piles and trudge through ice and snow at 2.5...had to fling the arms around to keep my balance. The back started hurting all of a sudden and almost forced me to start walking. But no! There were cars driving by, so I kept on going. During the next half mile my back started to feel better.

Back was doing good and feeling better every day...then yesterday my dad and brother and I were cutting down a tree, so I was pulling a rope. Yep. I pretty much pulled the tree down. That is what probably made the back sore again. Anton kicked a tree down. It is a true story.

It is nice to get 2 days of running in a row. Need to get on a regular schedule again. I am planning to run every day this week, with a total of 35-40. That will be a good way to get back into running higher mileage again.

Ben suggested that we start running right before the new year comes, and bring in the new year while we run! What a great idea! Just like old times, when Anton and I would do a Midnight Mile...

•••••

I believe they have an actual Midnight Mile in Central Park. That would be fun to do!

•••••

Yesterday at work this guy comes up to me and asks if I am a "fitness fanatic" or something like that. I said, "I guess so."

Basically, he wanted some help with fitness and health, and I offered him a lot of advice and said that I would be his personal trainer. He doesn't do any physical activity at all, really, and his diet is not that great. So, I suggested small changes in his diet and am going to help him increase his max pushups from 1 to 40 or so in 4 months. I think that is a good goal for anyone.

Hopefully, it isn't just one of those new year resolutions that dies in about three weeks. Regardless, I am glad that I can help someone out!

A Run with Anton

I ran an easy 2 miles with Anton today...the first time running with someone since August! It was a grand run. The weather was nice, 43, sunny, and a slight wind coming from the north. What a good day to run!

Wore his Garmin. It was awesome. Having your pace, heart rate, etc. right there in front of you is a real help! Grand!

Christmas!

This Christmas was sort of strange. I had to work at 7:00 am until 3:30 pm...dang work! Dang!

Did not run or do PT. The back is feeling a lot better, though. At work, when I was sitting there, something sort of popped, like it popped back into place, and since then it has been feeling better.

Yesterday my sister looked at my back, and then my mom gave me a massage, which made the it feel better too. Thanks to them!

•••••

Jason Statham once said "if you're going to eat s***, eat s***," and that's exactly what I did today. I did not, however, overeat. Hooray! I am getting good at not overeating...it used to be that I overate whenever there was turkey, and mashed potatoes, and pie, and et cetera, et cetera...

•••••

Hope that you all had a very merry Christmas! Hooray!

Pain Migrates from Knee to Back

The pain in the knee is gone...but yesterday when I was trying to move a suitcase, I didn't really use my legs at all (I was wary about my knee), so I think I lifted wrong and now my mid-back is sort of sore.

Well...I might have to take another day off. My knee feels good to go, but now I have to wait for my back to feel better.

:(

A sad face. Boo-hoo!

Knee, Pullups, Hot Tub

So after having an excellent run yesterday, I awoke today to find that the back of my knee was sort of sore. It might be the place where the calf or the hamstring attaches to the joint. I do not know.

I do know, at least I am pretty sure, that I did not hurt it running yesterday. Sure, there was snow and a couple times were I almost fell, but there was no pain at all yesterday. I went running at 11 am, and there was no pain all day. When I was at work, there was no pain either.

Maybe during the night I somehow hyperextended the knee. Maybe I had some kind of crazy dream and was kicking my legs around. Who even knows? No log is kept of what happens when I sleep. Once I tried to get my cat Nacho to take notes of what happens at night, but she ended up falling alseep herself.

Anyway, I have been icing it, put some heat on it, have it compressed with a bandage, and am going to do nothing today. That should help it recover fast. Actually, right now, I am about ready to go get in the hot tub here at the hotel...that will DEFINATELY make a difference. It will improve my mood too.

So, there it is. The negativity has been released. Now recuperation can begin.

•••••

PT

Pullup pyramid, 30 seconds rest between sets. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, failed on 10th with 7 pullups. Waited one minute before doing another max set of 10. Total: 62. Not a bad workout. Only took about 7 minutes.

Planning on doing pushups and situps later...but for now...

HOT TUB!

Run! Finally!

Finally, I got outside for a run! It was awesome! Ran 6 miles...bundled up to survive the -16 degree windchill (the temp was 3). Had to run through some snow...worked the legs. A good time. Didn't get cold at all!

•••••

PT

5 sets max pullup, roughly 90 seconds between sets: 23, 15, 10, 8, 9 = 65 total
87, 70, pushups and situps w/ 15 minutes between sets = 157 each

•••••

I plan to get back on my schedule of getting up at 7 am. It is a good schedule.

•••••

Happy running for all! Are you excited? I am excited! I want to run all the time now! Whoo!

No Run, Again!

There was no run today (Sunday)! I was going to get up at 7:00 and run at 7:30...but then I only woke up at 9:00. Then I fell asleep until 10:15! Oh no! No time to run!

•••••

Planning to go 7 miles tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be 0 degrees at 8:00 am with a windchill of -17. That's what I'm talking about. Real winter. Bring it!

•••••

I am hungry right now. I wish I had a nice meal, but there is no nice meal.

Nicknames, No Run, No Pain!

My freshman year of college I told people I was from Mexico when they asked about my hat, which said "El Rancho Grande." Some people (about 2) started calling me "Taquito." It was a good nickname.

Early this year, I got the name "Blue." That is a good one.

"The Duke" has been placed upon me now. What does it mean? Why me? Why have I been chosen to have duke-dom?

(I like all these names. Call me whatever you want).

•••••

I did not run today (Saturday). I plan to get up and run 8-10 miles tomorrow morning. Hoorary!

•••••

I meant to say "hooray!" but it came out differently. "Hoorary!" is the new "hooray!"

•••••

No, Ben, there hasn't been any "flare ups" with the pain in the hip. It has left me. The pain is gone.

Don't dig it up from where I buried it, though. Don't let the pain prey upon you!

•••••

:)

A happy face. My mood right now.

Glorious Run

What a glorious run today! It was 18 degrees, a warm day, considering that the windchill has been pretty vicious the past two weeks. There was hardly any wind at all. I wore something over my face, though...I don't like to breathe in the cold air.

Took it out in the country, past the tracks, past 34, then right to 14, then home. Had to run through 6-10 inches of snow piled on the side of the road for a little of the time. Running in snow is tiring! I had to rip the thing from my face so I could get enough air, but then my lungs got cold so I put it back on.

Ran past the Clark's house. Emily and Patrick are living there now, and Carolyn, Chuck, Molly, and Andy are living in Lincoln in a house. Hmm. Interesting.

Formed a plan during the run. I think I will run a 50 miler in June, after I get back from Hawaii. That gives me 5 months to train. I think it is a good plan. What are your guys' plans for this next year? Spill your ideas here.

Day Off, Time to Vote

Today was a day off. Nothing physical was done. I slept in to 10:15. I sort of felt groggy and sick-like, but not too much. Drank some tea made from ginger and cinnamon. Ate a bunch of nuts. Watched The Office. Took a nap.

Vote, now! For this next year, should I:

1) Focus on completing a 50 miler. Training includes running long, having tons of fun, and really listening to my body. If I want to take a day off, I will. Mileage will be 70+ a week.

or

2) Focus on running a marathon PR. Training includes a very structured plan that may cause me to find running less fun.

•••••

Abby said that she hasn't run a race in a couple of years, but it seems like she is enjoying it immensely. That is why I am leaning more toward option 1. I want running to stay fun.

•••••

Comments? Those of you who know me, what would you suggest?

Nice Day, Good Run

Today was a nice day. I wasn't feeling too great in the morning, this time feeling sort of like I had some kind of sickness. I decided to take the day off work. Yes, I wanted to spend some time just taking it easy and resting up, but also I think the reason I got a bit of the sickness because that damn guy always comes to work when he is sick. Why won't sick people stay home? I don't have insurance right now, so it's not like I can go get medicine from the doctor. I just have to do my best to stay healthy. There is no reason for me to get sick. I get plenty of sleep, eat a great diet, bundle up when it is cold, and take it easy when I am not feeling the best.

Took the legs out for a run about 5 pm. The sun was making the sky a nice color. In the first mile, my toes got really cold (wasn't wearing 2 pairs today), and thought about only going 2, but then they warmed up. I ended up doing 4 at a pretty easy pace, with the last 400m or so at a faster pace, probably around 6:40 or so. Felt good to get the legs moving again!

Glad that I did not wipe out on the ice. I want to avoid getting injured by losing my footing. That is the worst way to go.

Hope your day was good too!

Fact: only 14 days of the year left. Then begins 2009, the year of awesome running!

Getting Back on Track, Complaining, Anton's Birthday!

I went for my first run since Thursday...I don't know why I didn't run this weekend...probably because I was so busy. On Friday I went to Kearney and had a dress rehearsal/lesson deal...Saturday morning I rehearsed again, then went to Arnold, NE. Played with the dogs and sat in the hot tub. Watched some movies. On Sunday I got up, bummed around, then had to go back to Kearney to record at 4. Then at 6:30 it was back to Arnold. On Monday, had to get up and drive to Callaway because Lisa had a dr's appointment. Then back to Kearney. Then back to Aurora. Then I had to go to work until 11 pm.

So this brings it up to Tuesday. I was going to get up at 7 am, but slept in until about 8:40. Felt bad about it. Felt behind already.

Made sure to get in a 5 mile run. I got out the winter gear to survive the -4 windchill. I ran out in the country, so there was no windblocks at all, just dead corn fields. When I got back I did 10 sets of 11 pullups. Had to break the set in two half the time, but oh well. At least I got in 110 pullups.

As I am writing this post, I am throwing in some more PT. I am doing 10 sets of 22 pushups followed by 33 abs. Don't feel like doing arm haulers, but will do 2 x 50 anyway. Then I will do 5 x 20 dips or so. And 30 neck each.

•••••

So I did some dips and some neck. I only did 2 x 20 dips and 30 neck each. I was going to push through my sour mood, but then I said "feck this. I'm eating cereal." I am going to eat cereal now, bitches.

•••••

Right now I am feeling sort of bummed out. The reason? More frequently it seems that I spend months working up to something, only to perform below my ability and expectations. For instance, the recording I just made, it was okay, but my intonation was pretty crappy in a lot of places. Usually it isn't, but for some reason, it just sucked on Sunday. Then I was messing up in places that I had worked on and mastered. Feck.

Also, I am having similar feelings for running. I was doing awesome in fall of 2006. I had run my first marathon in 2:57 of that year, and trained hard in the summer. I ran a half-marathon in September in 1:18:29, and was feeling pretty good about running right around 2:50-2:54. In that October's marathon, I came through the half in just over 1:21, and only needed to run 1:30 for the next half, but then I cramped up and slowed down, busting out 8:30-9:30 miles for the last 3 or so.

Maybe I am just being a little bitch, but it sucks when you work so hard at something only to not do as well as planned.

Right after the marathon in October 2006 I decided that ultras were the place to be. I ran the Psycho Wyco in February of 2007 and loved it. Ultras are fun because, for me, I don't worry about time, really. I just worry about finishing and having a good time. If a long run goes bad, then I don't feel too crappy because at least I got in some good miles and saw a lot of cool stuff.

To complain more (I'm sorry!) there is always a set back, like when I tried to get some speed back in September or so. I started doing fast runs. And then my hamstring started hurting. Then it got better, and I started training again, only to have my hip start hurting. Then I went back to the long, slow runs, only to find out that a low-mileage plan wasn't that great, and that it is not good to run 28 miles on a Saturday when the previous mileage for the week was only 15. That's bullshet. That's why I'm going back to 70 a week, or more.

•••••

So that is all the complaining for right now. If you have read this far, thank you for getting through all of it. Please feel free to say "quit being a little bitch," or even say "hey, it's okay, at least you can make good stir fry."

•••••

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANTON! 25! Can you believe that? I hope you have a good day at the beach, and that your quarter century has been SWEET!

•••••

Totals
396 abs
220 push
110 pull
40 dips
100 arm hauler
30 neck

A Few Days Ago...

A few days ago I ran and did a workout. I think it was Thursday. Actually, it was Thursday.

I ran 5 miles. It felt good.

I did a workout. I did 15 sets of 7 pullup, 20 pushup, 25 crunch. Inside I did 2x50 arm hauler, 5 x 20 dips, 40 neck each.

Totals:

375 crunch
300 pushup
105 pullup
100 dips
100 arm hauler
40 neck.

The Earth is Round

Was running short on time, so did a 2 mile run instead of 4. Felt incredible! It was warm out today, like around 27. The air was not cold enough to hurt my lungs.

While I was running I started to think about the curvature of the Earth. Then I started to think how long I would have to run in order for me to know that the world was round, to actually be able to tell that I was running on a big ball.

And then, for the briefest of moments, I thought I could feel the curve beneath my feet...

First COLD of the YEAR!

It was COLD today! 21 degrees with a windchill of 4. I was scared my penis was going to freeze off. But it didn't. Even worse was breathing in the cold air. My lungs are not used to anything this cold yet. I forgot to bring the red thing I wear around my mouth and nose, so I had to pull up the turtle of my turtle neck and clench it between my teeth. That was the only thing I could do to not breathe the cold air. When I took the neck of the turtle away from my mouth and let it go back down to where it was supposed to be, it became stiff as the moisture began to freeze within a minute. Dang cold. Dang!

Had planned on 3 miles, but ended up doing 4! This is partly because at the 3 turn-around, a car was coming up behind me, and I didn't want them to think I was going to jack them or something. Actually, I am happy the car came; otherwise I would not have gone 4.

•••••

Did some PT. Was going to do 2x as much, but decided not to:

10 x 15 abs = 150
10 x 10 push = 100
5 x 10 pull = 50
2 x 25 dips = 50
50 fire haulers = 50
30 neck each = 30

•••••

I went to bed at 1:30 last night, but naturally woke up at 6:49 and felt so refreshed that I thought it was at least 8:30. It was a good, productive day. I took a small nap at around 1:30 in the afternoon, in which I had a dream where Caleb Stephens was doing something funny with his mouth, like making it form into a real bird beak, and Anton and I were laughing at it. I woke up because I started laughing (in real life) and smiled really big, which hurt my lips, which are chapped. Fun times.

•••••

I hear that Anton is going to Seattle after Christmas...tell me more. Tell me more.

2 days in a Row, Some Quality PT

This weekend was pretty good...but really busy. Rushed home from Kearney on Saturday morning to run 2 miles, practice, and eat before having to go to work at 3:30. Had to work until 12:00...it was completely boring, plus I was tired for having slept an average of only 5.5 to 6 hours of sleep each night for the past week. Or maybe it was just work that made me tired, because when I got off, I felt very energetic and excited to do something fantastic.

I went home and went to bed.

Saturday's run was good...wore shorts, and felt awesome. Tried to make friends with the dog who always runs at me and barks, but it didn't want to be congenial. Bee-atch. The hip didn't hurt at all. The pain is gone.

•••••

Sunday was good. Very productive. Meant to get up at 8, but fell asleep again until 8:39. Got up and did some stuff. Then practiced from 10-12, ran at 12, 25 supersets at 12:30, eat at 1:45, tried to help fix the car, 5 x 10 pullups at 2:30, 4 x 25 dips while doing dishes, another round of 5 x 10 pullups, eat, pack lunch, go to work.

For the superset, I did the most I have ever done...25 this time! Abs didn't hurt until around after 18...did situp/half/crunch. For pushups, everything felt good the whole time, except maybe for a little burn in the muscle that sort of connects the shoulder to the torso, sort of low socket, sort of right above the armpit. Alternated reg, tricep, wide. Managed to pump out a lot of abs and pushups in only 50 minutes. Had to keep my mind off the workout by cleaning the room looking through a scrapbook Lisa made for me. Bless her heart!

I think I need to get in more pullups and dips. The abs, pushups, and fire haulers are increasing, but the pullups and dips are staying about the same. I wanted to get in 200, but didn't have time. The pullups are difficult to do, too...every minute I did a set of 10, and by the 4th set it was a struggle. Oh well. That is how it is supposed to be. Planning on bumping up those two later this week.

Overall, PT is going good. It is quality PT. Over the past few months my endurance has improved considerably. Hooray for hard work!

2 miles
750 abs
750 push
100 pull
100 dips
200 fire haulers
70 neck

Quick PT, Brisk Night Run

4 x 100 abs = 400
80, 70, 50 push = 200
5 x 10 pull = 50
5 x 10 dips = 50
2 x 100 fire hauler = 200
2 x 30 neck = 60

Pushups felt hard. Side crunches were good...felt it working the whole side...maybe the fire haulers contributed to it. Good stuff.

•••••

Took on the shoes upon my feet and ran outside, an easy 2 miles. I thought I felt the hip during the first 3 minutes, but it was just my imagination. Felt good the whole time. Very relaxed.

Oh, how I have missed running!

12 degrees, 9:15 pm. What a good way to end the day.

•••••

Jose Cuervo.

•••••

Just thought it sounded fun to say the last one. It is a fun combination of names.

First Run, Definition

I went out running, 2 miles, the first time in almost two weeks. I had a most excellent time, and my hip didn't hurt at all! That's what I was most scared of: the hip pain. I am glad that it was nowhere to be seen. I have passed it on to someone, passed it to a mammoth who can take the pain. The mammoth will carry it around for years and years and remain unaffected.

The plan is to ease back into running. Maybe 2 tomorrow, then 5 Thursday, 2 Friday, 3 Saturday, and 5 Sunday. Then rest Monday. Something like that.

By the end of December I want to be at around 50-60 a week...then 2009 can begin! I feel that next year is going to be GREAT!

•••••

On the PT menu, there was another Mammoth workout. It is called The Full Mammoth, which means that you get in all the main exercises: pullup, situp, pushup, fire hauler, dips. It is different from The Mammoth, which only has the pullup, pushup, situp.

This was what was on my plate:

15 sets of The Full Mammoth:

8 pull = 120
20 sit = 300
20 push = 300
20 fire = 300
8 dips = 120

At first I thought I would do 20 sets of The Full Mammoth, but then decided that I wanted to do PT again this week without being sore and tired. A good choice, I think. On Thursday I am planning a small pyramid workout, and then supersets on Saturday.

Finished off the workout with 2 x 30 neck and 200 crunches.

Totals:
120 pull
500 ab
300 push
300 fire
120 dips
60 neck

Can't wait to get back into doing atomic situps, leg levers, and flutter kicks...but this time I will ease into it...they might have been what initially caused pain in the hip flexor, pain which migrated throughout the hip joint.

•••••

Mammoth = pullup, situp, pushup

•••••

Full Mammoth = pullup, situp, pushup, fire, dip

•••••

SUPER MAMMOTH = 200 meter sprint, pullup, situp, pushup, fire, dip

That is what I want to do. The SUPER MAMMOTH. It has to be capitalized, the word does, to make it look awesome.

•••••

WOOLY MAMMOTH = 200 meter sprint, pushup, situp, pushup, fire, dip, 25 meter swim sprint

•••••

Who wants to do the WOOLY MAMMOTH sometime?

Raise your hands, bitches.

Pam Reed, PT

Anton's gonna pull a Pam Reed. I can tell.

But it is good! He's gonna feckin do 240 fire haulers next week. Do it. Do it!

Sunday came and went. I did a PT workout. Supersets. 24 of them. The most I had ever done. Felt the burn mostly on the wide pushups. Strange, because usually the close ones burn the most. Abs: no atomic situps, or leg levers, or flutter kicks. Those, I think, would aggravate the hip, so I did the regular situp, the half situp, and then rotated between the three crunch. Finished off with 10 x 8 pullups in the evening.

Totals:
720 abs
720 pushup
80 pullup

On the Way to 200 Fire Haulers...

An idea:

Ben, you did 160 fire haulers. I was thinking that you can boost that number up to 200 in a matter of weeks.

Here is the plan: we will all continue to do fire haulers, how many and how ever much we want to. Thursdays will be "The Day" in which someone will do 5 more than the person the week before.

Ben did 160 this week, so Anton, you do 165 next week, and then I will do 170 the next, then Ben will d0 175, Anton 180, me 185, Ben 190, Anton and I 195, all of us do 200.

So in 8 weeks we will all be able to do 200. What say you?

Some Thanksgiving PT

Some good Thanksgiving PT.

2 sets Variation Pushups w/ 20 ab between each variation:

200 pushups
400 abs

10 x 8 pullups = 80
4 x 20 dips = 80
2 x 30 neck = 60

Planning to do fire haulers and a 2 mile run this afternoon. Am hoping that the hip will not hurt! I will give thanks if it doesn't.

•••••

Threw in 2 x 95 fire haulers, with 15 minutes in between. Good stuff.

•••••

This was the 1st Thanksgiving in as long as I can remember where I didn't overeat. I am proud of myself. I feel good. I am going to eat a bowl of cereal now. I can, because I didn't overeat at lunch! Ha ha! Ha!

The Mammoth

I named today's workout The Mammoth because it had NO recovery time, and it allowed me to get in a lot of pullups, pushups, and abs in a relatively short period of time.

I did 20 sets. Each set was comprised of 5 pullups, 20 pushups, 25 abs. Right after doing each exercise I would immediately begin doing the next. Right when I got done with a set, I started the next one. So, in just around 25 minutes, I was able to get in 100 pullups, 400 pushups, and 500 abs.

Not that it was easy. The pushups were TOUGH sets 7-15 or so...or maybe all the up to 18. I don't remember. There was a lot of weakness leaving the body, though. That much I know is true.

Maybe The Mammoth will be 40 sets sometime. That would be INCREDIBLE!

After The Mammoth I went inside and did 2 x 95 fire hauler (which REALLY burned today!), 2 x 30 neck, and 4 x 25 dips. I had to take about 3 short breaks (2 seconds or so) when doing the 2nd set of the fire haulers, and had to take a small break during the 3rd set of the dips. Otherwise, it was all good. I was surprised on the last set of dips that I was able to get in all 25 dips without stopping.

A GREAT workout today. GREAT!

Next workout will be The Thanksgiving Day workout. I plan to get in some dive bombers and other kinds of pushups...

Totals:
Abs: 500
Push: 400
Pull: 100
Dips: 100
Fire Haulers: 190
Neck: 60

Clarification.

Perhaps my comment that I am scrapping the 100 plan was mis-interpreted, taken as a statement that I was going to quit entirely.

This is not the case.

I am simply going to train differently. I feel that I need more miles to prepare myself. The low mileage would be good for someone with already a couple 100s under their belt, but me, I need to really go after the training, really be voracious.


So, the plan is still on. It is still on.

Afternoon Shake Out Runs

Remember, Ben, when we used to do 2-3 mile shake out runs in the afternoon, and how great it made our legs feel?

I think I am scrapping the 100 plan. I am going to train how I feel like. If I feel like going 13 one day, I will do it. Yes, ma'am. I will also do some Afternoon Shake Out Runs. ASORs. That's what I am going to do.

I might do max situps, pushups, and pullups next Monday. At first I thought I would delay it to make sure that I could do more than last month, but then I realized that reason was wrong. It is wrong to interfere with the body's natural gains/losses. Plus, it will give me an idea how much progress/regress that is going on. I hope there is progress...although I don't know if I have been doing enough PT. Or maybe I have.

Nacho is looking out the window. I'm sure she sure wants to go outside!

But it is cold. It is cold.

Friday and Saturday Prior

On Friday, I did PT. 21 supersets. Then 2 x 95 fire haulers. Then 5 x 20 dips. And 30 neck.

Friday totals:
630 abs
630 pushups
100 dips
190 fire haulers
30 neck

No time to do pullups. Neck was sort of sore, probably from practicing so long the days before and maybe because my lymph nodes seem to be a bit tender. That's why I only did one set of neck exercises.

On Saturday, didn't do anything other than pullups. It was a pullup day.

I had envisioned myself busting out 150 pullups in 10 minutes by doing 5 pullups in a 20 second cycle. Each minute has 3 cycles = 15 a minute = 150 in 10 minutes. I planned to do reg, wide, close, reverse, left, right.

It was much harder than expected. I did 2 minutes of pullups, then took a 1 minutes break. Then 2 more minutes, and about a 1.5 minute break. Then I extended the cycle to 2 a minute. So in the next 3 minutes I did 30 pullups.

Then I took a break.

A little later I went and did the remaining 60 pullups. Since there were only 2 sets left it was a little easier than the 3 sets prior.

A good day for pullups! Hooray! I hope Sunday = sore upper back/shoulders/arms. That is what I am hoping for.

No Run, Coffee, Practice, Schedule

Hello to you.

I did not run today. It is time for the hip to get better once and for all. I am sick of having it hurt. I am sick. I vomit there on the carpet. Get down on your hands and knees and you will see it.

I drank a lot of coffee today. Probably around 6 cups. It made me really drowsy. Strange.

I have practiced 2.5 hours already today, planning on another hour in about 5 minutes. That's the way to do it. You gotta get after it.

That's the thing I never could understand about music majors at Wesleyan (or any major, come to think of it). It seems that hardly anyone is excited to do what they do. I mean, the music majors should have been practicing at least 2 hours a day. How many people did that? Maybe 1 or 2.

That's what seems to be wrong with it. People don't take things seriously enough. When you commit yourself to something, it should be entirely. For me, it is not only music that I am committed to. Running, yes, I am committed to running. Probably not as much as Ben, it seems, but yes I am committed to it.

Ben, you crazy mofo, I like the enthusiasm you have. And the dedication. You have put a lot of effort into running, and are reaping the benefits, both physical and psychological. And with school, you are studying like a mad man, making sure to get everything done. That's the kind of work ethic that most people lack. What the hell? And Anton, you are doing a lot of stuff, like signing and running and PT and you are already planning out what you are going to do for the next 20 years. Where are other peoples' goals? Why do they simply fall over and die and just let life feckin steamroll them?

That's all I will say for now. Dedication. Execution. Don't say you're going to do something, then sit around on your ass. Get down to business and be productive!

I have a schedule. I think if I schedule some races then I will have a better reason for running. I think I will run the Psycho Wyco again. That was a fun time. And I think I might do the Brew to Brew Solo 44 miler. That would be good too.

You see what I just did? I made a plan. Now I have something to work towards.

Weather.com = crack smokin' tricksters

I check the weather before my run. 36 it says. Feel like 34 with the wind. I wear a long sleeve shirt with a cut off over it. I wear pants. I wear gloves and a hat.

About four minutes into the run I realize that it is much warmer than 36. I take my hat off.

A mile into the run I turn north and am relived to have wind blowing at me. I put the hat back on.

I run for two miles into the wind before turning around.

I turn around. I walk for about 50 meters. Then I start to get really hot.

I rip off the hat. Then my hands get really hot. They are the second things to get hot. Then my upper body gets hot. Then the lowerbody.

Having run a mile with the wind at my back, I am sweating like it is in the 80s. I use profanity at everything. "Damn you, small pieces of rock on the road!" I say. I say "damn you, grass in the ditch."

•••••

I was happy to get home and take off the hot clothes. I check the weather and it says that it is 48. What the heck? What the heck, weather.com? What?

•••••

Put on shorts and cut off. Go do a workout. Was going to do pyramid 1-10-10-1 but then saw my neighbor. He was putting up a shed. The shed was on a trailer and him and another man were moving the shed from the trailer to the ground. It must have been one of those pre-assembled sheds. The kinds that would be found in a Sears catalog.

I do bigger sets so not to look like a pansy. I don't want to be seen doing 1 pullup, then quitting. I want to be seen doing 6 pullups. So I start with 6.

I do this:

6, 9, 12, 15, 15, 12, 9, 6 pullups = 84
20, 30, 40, 50, 50, 40, 30, 20 pushups = 280
40, 60, 80, 100, 100, 80, 60, 40 abs = 560.

I take a break mid-way through. I felt like crap. I decided to walk with my mom to T.O. Haas to get the car. The car had to have its oil changed. It was 1,000 miles overdue.

I get back with the car and head out to the tree again. When you get close it can be seen where I do my workouts. There, where the grass is dying away. That is where I do my workouts. Sorry, lawn. Sorry, dad. I will try to use different parts of the lawn from now on. Maybe even use the woodchips.

Later in the day I do:

2 x 90 fire haulers = 180
2 x 30 neck = 60 each
6, 9, 12, 15, 15, 12, 9, 6 dips = 84

The haulers sort of burned. I retract my comment from earlier, about how they didn't burn. They still do burn. Especially when you haven't done them for almost a week.

The neck felt good. The neck feels strong.

The dips felt easy. There was a little burning in the shoulders, but that is what is supposed to happen. There was a little burning in the shoulders. I felt strong, though. Powerful. I felt powerful and strong.

•••••

Hope you had awesome days! Mine was good. I practiced for about 3.5 hours. I ran, did PT, played guitar, had afternoon coffee and graham crackers with frosting. A good day.

•••••

The hip hurt a bit in the run. I do not know what is wrong with it. After the run and PT I iced it, then took a warm bath with epsom salt and ylang ylang. Now the hip feels good. Most likely it will hurt again when I run, but I will ice it and defeat the pain. Eventually I will defeat the pain!

I also ran in the new shoes. They are good. They feel good on the feet.

Back in the Game, Again.

Ben, you are exactly right...we can't let one bad long run scare us away from running long long long. Exactamente.

I didn't run today, either, unfortunately. In the morning I was doing a lot of college stuff, looking at conservatories and email them...I only had time to practice for about 20 minutes, but that is okay. I will just be extra productive Wed, Thurs, Fri. I don't have to work at all, so I can get like 3 hours in a day.

No PT either. I was going to do some, some low rep stuff, but then decided that since I hadn't done PT for almost a week prior to yesterday, it would be a good idea to just take it easy.

Tomorrow...tomorrow I am going to get up at 7 and be extra productive!

Also, some new shoes came today. I risked it and bought two pair (North Face Fire Road)...don't worry; they were on sale for $50 each...quite a steal! And they actually sent the right size of shoe! And they actually fit! They actually feel quite good on my feet, much more cushy then how they felt at the North Face store in KC. I guess the Rucky Chucky's are just really really soft and make the Fire Roads feel hard. This is not the case! Not!

Okay. I hope you have a good day/night/week/etc. Go forth and pimp them hoes.

No Run, Back into PT

Hello. I didn't run yesterday. I sort of ran out of time.

I did do PT, however. It was hard, probably since I had not done it since last Tuesday...man, I need to do PT more regularly! None of this slacking off!

4 x 50 pushups = 200
2 x 140 abs = 280
20, 10, 10, 8, 8 pull = 56

Week 5 in Review

I ended up doing a long run this past Saturday, but stopped at 28 instead of doing 30. Yes, I was almost there, but just wasn't feeling it. Maybe I didn't eat enough carbs the day before, or something like that. I just felt weaker than usual. The 25 miler two weeks ago was awesome, was almost effortless! But this one...hmm...not as good.

I saw a black dog that looked like a greyhound. It ran with me a little bit. That was a good time, the running with the dog and all. A great time indeed!

And I am not so sure about doing the 100 in February...I think it might be too soon. A 50 or a 100k is more realistic, so I think I am going to go for that. Also, since Anton is bumming around on crutches, it would be nice for me to sort of "wait" and delay the 100...

Also, I am not too sure about the training plan I made...maybe it needs more time before its results are known, but right now I am thinking I might need more mileage. I mean, after the 28 miler, I took off the next day, which should have been 15. So for the week I only had 46 miles. Man...I think I need to be back up around 70...how is the plan for you, if you are following it?

•••••

Week Totals:
46 miles
80 dips
200 pushup
200 situps
80 pullups
360 fire haulers
70 neck

Thursday, Week 5.....Perfect, Mud, Meshuggah, Cozy Pastel Colors

I was going to wait to write a post later, after I had done PT, but I couldn't wait. Today's run was too good, and I just had to get these thoughts down about it while I am still feeling like I am a kite flying around in the sky, not one of those fighting kites with crushed glass on the strings, but a peaceful kite, a panda bear up there in the sky.

I delayed today's run until the afternoon, and left 3o minutes later than planned, that time being 4:30. Since the time changed, the sun was on its way down, about to be tucked under its covers and awaiting to be sung a lullaby. In this case, the lullaby was Meshuggah. Yes, it was a good lullaby, sort of, at least for a run it was. I was so pumped up when I left because I had just found some headphones that weren't broken (packed in some boxes from the apartment that I haven't sorted out yet)...so I put on Meshuggah and went out into the country.

It was a perfect run! It felt effortless, and I averaged at around 7:30 the whole time without feeling like I was going faster than usual. I had to run past a burning heap of rubbish, so that sort of sucked, had to put my gloved hand over my nose and mouth so I didn't breathe in the death fumes.

Decided to run on the side of a cornfield (muddy and not level ground, made me feel like a real trail runner) to head by the leadership center and around the pond, making for a new 6 mile route. Circled back across the huge ass bridge spanning over the two foot creek and headed back for the country roads. Had to run past the burning pile again!

A truck slowed down and I thought it was the farmer who owned the field. I thought he was going to come and beat me down.

The last mile was timed...I just sort of coasted home...7:11 it was, the last mile. Did not feel like I was pushing it too hard, was just letting the legs carry me home. Swing low, sweet cheriot, betches!

After turning for the last 150m stretch, I could see the beautiful sky in the east. Soft pastel colors were brushed on a light blue sky, pinks and reds, oranges and purples, all welcoming me home from the best run in the past two weeks.

Well, I have a day off, then run 30 on Saturday. Maybe I should have taken it extra easy today...but maybe my body needed to get up and go a little. I am not too worried about it...I think today's run was a great preparation for the long runs this weekend...can't even wait for them!

•••••

Felt excited for PT and tried to do some in the evening...only ended up doing 2 x 90 fire haulers. Oh well. It is better than nothing!

Wednesday, Week 5.....Mood, Plan and Goals

Hello. I was in sort of a sour mood this morning. There was just so much to do before work. I had to run, and practice, plus just have some relaxation time.

Got up at 9:30 instead of 7:00. No problem. I could still get everything done...but in order to do so it had to be back to back to back. I ran 6 miles a little after 10, then stretched really good (yoga, mostly) to loosen the hip and the groin. Felt very relaxed and not worried about the day anymore. Ate a casual lunch and watched the squirrels, then took a nap. Now I have to get ready for work. Need to pack some food together into a lunchbox.

The squirrels are so fun to watch! Today there was an obese squirrel, probably the biggest one I had ever seen. I came lumbering across the yard to where we had thrown the nuts, and as it came the other squirrels saw it, became scared, and ran away. It was funny! Ha ha!

The run was very good, very relaxed. I thought a lot about running the 100 miles. Sure, it will be tough, but if I follow the 20 minutes of running/10 minutes of walking, it should go okay. I figure in the 20 minutes I can run 2.5 miles (8 minute per mile), then walk 0.5 miles in the 10 minutes. That means every hour I am covering 6 miles, with plenty of walking and time to take in calories and hydration.

Using this plan, it would take just under 17 hours for 100 miles. That doesn't sound too shabby at all. I know it sounds valiant to say I want to run 17 hours, but that would be a top top goal. Another goal, the mid goal, is 18 hours. The mid-low goal is 20 hours. The low goal is 24 hours. The lowest goal is just to finish.

I've never gone farther than 50, so I don't even know what it is like after that, but I feel confident in my training right now. Everything is going good so far, and I am excited to keep going longer on my long runs. I go 30 this Saturday. Should be a good time. Maybe I will run from Aurora to Cairo. That should be about 30 miles, and it would make running more enjoyable actually having a destination in mind, rather than running loops.

That is all for now...I have to get ready for to leave in 5 minutes! Hope your days are going well!

Tuesday, Week 5.....Jack, it's so cold!

Maybe you know already, but I accidently posted this on my regular blog...feck. It was supposed to go here, on the running blog, the more important one. Read on, if you would like to:

Jack, Anton, Ben, Rose, Marcy, Drake, Linus, Adrianna...it's so feckin cold!

Not really. It wasn't really that cold outside, but there was feckin rain. I like those runs in 10 degrees and snow, but when there is rain and it is 34 it is much more miserable. The rain fecks you, man, it's like a goat feckin you the whole time, the precipitation getting soaked up by the shirt, the shirt that I wear over the microfiber base layers, the shirt that is actually a turtleneck, the neck of a turtle I wear. Turtle power, feck!

I need to get an outside layer, one that repels water. Anton, you swindler, I wanted to wear the white and black Nike jacket, the one that doesn't have any lining, but it has been sent to you. Not really, you are not a swindler, you do not swindle me. You do not swindle my money, or swindle my goats.

Remember the goat? Remember when you got me with the goat those times after swimming? Yes, the image is burned in my mind. It haunts me during the night. When it is dark and I can't see, I imagine that the goat is going to attack me. Blankets as protection? No. Nothing can stop the goat.

So it was a cold run. 6 miles easy. The hip/groin/whatever-the-feck-it-is didn't hurt too much. I think maybe it is just tight. I don't know. I am not a) a psychic, b) a physical therapist, c) a genius. I am not Nostradamus. I am not a French apothecary from sixteenth century France. I am a citizen of the United States of America. I used to like The Presidents of the USA, used to listen to them often. I still know a lot of the words to their songs, songs such as Kitty, Dune Buggy, Peaches, etc.

•••••

PT today. I thought I would be an allstar and do a superset, not in 20 minutes, but in less. I planned to not take breaks, and be done in 15 minutes, but it actually, somehow, took longer, more like 30 something minutes. Feck.

Did 10 sets of 8 dips, 20 pushups, 20 situps, 8 pullups.

In the afternoon, the time after noon, but before night, I did 2x90 fire haulers (as Ben has coined them), and 2x35 neck. Actually, I have only done one set of the fire haulers so far. I plan to do the others right now. Hold on...

(time is passing; please be patient!)

...

Okay. Both sets of fire haulers done. They seemed easier than last week and weeks prior to last week. Probably the easiest they have ever felt. Maybe I am going too fast? I was hauler them like a truck hauls goods, like hoodlums haul ass when the cops are coming. Or maybe they felt good because I have had a lot of rest on the fire haulers (I haven't done them since Thursday). Maybe I am building strength.

The pullups felt awesome today! Hooray! The dips...they were sort of a struggle. The pushups, fine. The situps...well, I was afraid they were going to aggravate the hip/groin/testicles, but they didn't. Not really.

Neck time.

(hold)

...

Okay. 1st set done. I will not take breaks like this anymore. I will refrain from possibly boring you. Sure, you may be a little bored now, but I don't want to make you any more bored.

•••••

Totals today:

6 miles
80 dips
200 pushup
200 situps
80 pullups
180 fire haulers
70 neck

•••••

Another thing I'm going to talk about is my defecation patterns. In the past few days I have been defecating less. I think I am burning all the food I put into my body, thus there is little waste. I don't know why this shoudl be happening, as I haven't been overly physical the past week. And it seems that I might be losing a little bit of that extra or not extra fat plastered to my front. I don't know why this should be happening, not with me eating four bowls of cereal at 11:20 pm after I came home from work. Maybe my metabolism is going into overdrive. Sort of like how a bear hibernates, except exactly the opposite.

I will need to make sure to get the calories in my body. I should be, considering that I have been eating a lot of chocolate lately. I ate like 65% of a big bag of Raisinettes the other day. They are just so good!

Now my stomach is growling at me, making sounds like a ferocious lion. I will have to put pizza into my body.

I also haven't been eating much meat, because, since I have been driving by the meat packaging plant in Gibbon each time I go to Kearney, I keep thinking of the cows being hauled in, the fear, the fright, the confusion, the cramped conditions, the killing, the blood, the sounds, the stench, the blood, the instruments they use to kill the cows, the dead meat falling onto the floor, etc. etc. That is what I think about when there is meat.

Chicken is not too bad, but then I watched this movie called Chicken Run, made in 2000 by Dreamworks, a children's movie. But I watched the movie, and felt bad for the chickens because all they wanted to do was live and have freedom and feel green grass beneath their awkward, dry, almost scaley chicken feet, but no, they couldn't, because the farmer wanted to feck them up by chopping their heads off with an axe. I felt bad for the chickens. I don't want chickens to die, or any animal to die, unless it has to be killed, like in the case of being attacked by hornets or being chased by a rabid animal. I would feck the rabid animal up so hard that it wouldn't even look like an animal anymore; it would like like a pile of bloody rags. Yes, this is probably too much information, stuff that you probably didn't want me to say, about the nasty pile of bloody-looking-rag-once-used-to-be-a-living-animal-but-now-rabid-crazy-threatening-savage.

I think now is a good time to stop. I have seriously been writing for about 20 minutes, and my computer only has 11 minutes of life. It is a laptop. It is not plugged in to the electrical outlet.

Okay, hope this blog was fun. I hope you found humor, had some laughs, attained valuable information about my life, and maybe discovered truth. TRUTH, that philosophical idea, what is it? What the feck is it?

Do you know?

Monday, Week 5.....Inside

I was planning to do an easy 6 today, but the hip flexor decided not to. It's not like I couldn't go run...and it's not like there is a lot of pain (there is hardly any); I just want to make sure that I don't compromise Saturday's 30 miler. That is the most important run this week, and I will do anything to make sure that it is successful.

And then, looking at the program I "made," I realized that today was actually an off day. Hmm. Maybe it was supposed to be an on day, but perhaps when I made it I was struck with the premonition that when today rolled around my hip flexor would need a bit of rest.

I didn't do PT either. I just wasn't feeling in the mood. It is okay, though. It is all good. I will get in a good workout tomorrow.

Hooray!

Plus I didn't want to do any ab stuff just in case it somehow irritated the ol hip flexor. We don't want that. You don't want that (though I don't know why you don't want that), and Arnold Schwartenegger doesn't want that.

My cat doesn't want that.

And your mom. She doesn't want that either.

•••••

I have not gone outside today. It is cold and there is ice on the ground.

Saturday and Sunday, Week 4.....Cold, WInd, Horse

On both Saturday and Sunday, I went for an easy 10 miles. I thought about going 15, but I sort of ran out of time because I had to work both days from 3 to 11:30. Also, I didn't really want to go 15. Especially on Saturday, when the wind was getting me in the face and making my head really cold because my stocking cap is not that warm, although it is puffy. It is deceiving. One would think that the hat would be warm, but it was not. My ears were cold too. The pants worked good, though. They are good pants to have. Good pants to run in.

Regardless of how cold it was (windchill of 24), it was an okay run. It was a fast-ish run for me. Yes, I used to blaze by in 5:20 when running 5ks, but now my pace is 8:00 or a little slower. But, on this cold day, with a cold head, I averaged about 7:42. I was glad that it was a little quicker, the run was, glad that it was quicker and that I did not feel overly exerted. It is a good feeling, it really is.

On Sunday, I was glad that it was 30, with hardly any wind. But then the wind changed directions on me, so that every way I went, the wind was getting me in the face. I don't know how this is possible, especially since I don't think it is even possible for the wind to blow from the north for 50 minutes, then blow from the south for 16, then blow from the north again, then blow from the west. It was always getting in my face. But at least the head wasn't cold, not cold like Saturday, when my head was so cold that it felt like I had a headache.

The pace was good, relaxed. My left hip flexor, I think, it is sort of hurting today. I bet it is from the flutter kicks and leg levers on Thursday. I guess I tried to do too many. It is stupid, my hip flexor hurting from PT. I will have to be careful this week, because running is more important than PT, and if I get injured it should be from running, not PT. Not that I am planning to get injured. I have been luck thus far. I don't think I will be injured, anyway, not with the slow pace and low mileage. I think it is a plan that will bring me luck. It will bring me the luck of the Irish.

Another thing about the pace was that it made me feel like a horse. I felt like a horse pulling something heavy, or maybe a dog pulling a sled across the tundra, maybe one of the dogs who pulled all that medicine and stuff up to Nome, Alaska, when they had that disease outbreak. That is what I felt like. It was a good clip, a nice pace, a nice trot, like a horse. Or like a dog pulling a sled. That is what the pace felt like. It was funny, though, because when I tried to speed up, the legs didn't want to. They felt sluggish when I tried to run fast. But also, equally strange, when I tried to run slower, the legs did not want to run slower. They protested and tried to churn churn churn like they were making butter. This phenomenon is why my pace was even, like a good trot, like that of a horse pulling a heavy cart, or a dog pulling a sled. I am a sled dog. I am a heavy cart horse.

Thursday, Week 4.....Flurries!

Cold day to run. 36 degrees, wind chill 24, flurries, light drizzle. First "snow" that I have seen this year. Fortunately the running pants came yesterday. Fools messed up and sent me navy instead of black.

Ran a total of six miles in the country, on trail, and around the park. Face was cold a bit; glad that I am growing the beard out again for winter. I will look like a grizzly in no time, I hope.

Right before the last mile, my left calf got sort of tight and I didn't like it. I stopped to stretch a bit. Will do a PT workout later. Right now I would, but I have the hunger so I will eat now and do the workout in the afternoon.

•••••

Was going to do the same superset as I did on Tuesday, but decided to do a 1-10 pyramid with 1x pullups, 2x pushups, 3x abs...threw in 25 bodybuilder pushups, 40 neck, 70 flutter kicks, 70 leg levers, 30-25-20-15-10-5 dips, 2x90 arm haulers.

It was cold cold outside. 34 degrees, with a windchill of 24. I did the pyramid in shorts, though. And when I did the bodybuilders, I ripped off the shirt to see what it felt like. What it felt like was cold. My handsies got cold from the stone tiles of the patio.

Was going to shoot for 100 flutter kicks, but just couldn't do it. Yes, I basically quit, but I was feeling it in the abs like someone was branding me, and I didn't want to overwork the hip flexors either. Got the two 15 milers this weekend. It would be good to play it safe.

The dips were AWESOME! I love the burn! On each one, I struggled with the last 3 to 5, so each set was pretty much as hard as the last, even though the reps were less. And the arm haulers made the back feel awesome too...now I can feel it...the muscles want to lay down and have a good night's sleep.

Totals:

330 + 70 + 70 = 470 abs
220 + 25 = 245 push
110 pull
105 dips
180 arm haulers*
40 neck

A nice, good day of PT!

•••••

I found out this afternoon that Anton sprained his ankle. That is too bad! Poor little Anton, has to hobble around for a couple days (or maybe he won't; maybe he will just tough it out...I wouldn't be surprised!).

Well, set-backs are inevitable...all we can do is start over again...but it is during that next time when we want to achieve our goals even more! So even a "bad" thing may actually have some "good," because it can "breed" motivation in the culture dish we call our lives.

•••••

I hope someone else writes in their blogs soon :(

Wednesday, Week 4.....Yoga, Wind, and Fire.

Got up and felt tired, but Nacho was there all peaceful looking so my spirits were uplifted. Got out of bed and rummaged around for a while. Drank a glass of water. Took a dump. Then did some yoga. I felt refreshed.

Then I decided that it would be fun to go run. The weather was nice, sunny, and the wind was blowing, it's way of singing lullabies to us. It was beckoning for me to go outside. But when I got downstair my bed invited me to get back in. After declining this offer, the bed became more vicious. The blankets attacked me, it's cottony tentacles wrapping themselves around my neck, trying to drag me across the room.

I stabbed at the blankets with blade hands. You know the hands I make, the ones I make when I am trying to be a ninja. "Cha-ching, ching!" I say. "Cha-ching!"

•••••

The run was an easy 6 miles. I took a walking break half way through. Coming back was straight into the wind, making the effort more than I wanted it to be.

There was a combine harvesting corn. A dog, I saw, almost ran into the turbine-scissor things, but then I realized that the dog belonged to the person operating the combine. The dog knew not to run into the turbine-scissor things. It was smart dog. It had studied mathematics, the humanities, and a survival-in-the-wilderness manual.

I saw a truck. It was a truck of the electrical company. I think they were going to fix something. If I had to guess, I would say that they were going to fix a transformer or a downed power line. The electrical company fixes things like that.

•••••

Once back home, I drank a glass of water then headed outside to stretch. I actually decided to do yoga again. I would attribute my current state of relaxation to having done two sessions of yoga this morning.

Then, I ate a bowl of oatmeal. I added chocolate chips, milk, and applesauce.

Then, I realized that I am the only one who blogs anymore, and I started crying.

•••••

You wonder why I entitle this post "Yoga, Wind, and Fire?"

Well, the answer is simple: I did yoga, it was windy (15 mph from the south, specifically), and I listened to Stravinsky's "The Firebird" during the run. The piece is 50 minutes, so that's all I listened to. Hooray!

Tuesday, Week 4: Churn, New Superset, Nausea

Woke up a little after 7:00 am, planning to make this Tuesday muy productivo. Decided that I was not hungry for breakfast, so I drank a cup of coffee instead before heading out the door for an easy 6 miles at 8:10 am...since the time changed the sun was already up in the sky. Listened to the Rite of Spring again. I think if I were to compose a piece of music, it would be sort of like Stravinsky's. Churned out the miles like they were cream in a butter churn. Enjoyed the wind on my shirtless body.

Did a different kind of superset when I got back. 10 sets of 8 pull, 20 abs, 20 push, 10 dips. Did 5 different kinds of pull and abs, 3 kinds of push. Only 1 kind of dips: I guess there is only way to do them. After set 6, my arms started feeling really weak on the pullups and dips, but I did not let the fatigue defeat me. I pushed through, hanging from the branch like an ape and keeping my form.

After the workout, I felt like I was going to throw up, so I layed on the ground for about 15 seconds. That made the nausea even greater, so I forced myself to get up and walk around the yard and around the house. My mom called me over and showed me 4 cardinal nests in a bush. That distracted me and probably made me feel a little bit better! Gracias, madre!

I think maybe my workout was hard because of the poor food choices last night. Candy fucks you up, man. It makes you feel weak. Plus, I didn't eat breakfast, which was also probably a bad choice, but I simply wasn't hungry.

At least, I didn't quit. Ha, pain! Can't fuck me over!

Morning Totals:

6 miles
80 pullups
200 abs
200 pushups
80 dips (would have been 100, but I know that some of the dips didn't count...)

•••••

BONUS COMMENT!

I just bought a pair of North Face Arnuva 50s for $42 including shipping and handling. They regularly are $105. Fuck. Running is good stuff. Frugal Backpacker is the place I bought them from. Check it out for some slap-you-silly sales.

•••••

Later in the day I threw in 2x35 neck, 2x85 arm haulers, and an ab workout. It was one I had never done: 2 sets of 10 hanging knee ups, 30 regular situps, 30 oblique both side, 30 atomic, 30 crunches, and 30 reverse crunches. Each set was 190 abs for a total of 380.

•••••

Totals for today:

6 miles
580 abs
200 push
80 pull
80 dips
170 arm haulers
70 neck

Monday, Week 4.....Candy!

Week 4 began with no running, and no PT. It was a planned day off from running, and I just didn't feel like doing PT.

Instead of doing physical activity, I had to go to work. It was sort of boring the first half. The second half was better, and at break I stumbled upon some candy in a bowl. I'm talking about the little Hershey's bars, the mini Kit-Kats, and the single Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Damn, that is some good stuff, and I sort of got out of control. I ate 2 of each in about 15 minutes. Then later on I passed the bowl again and almost stopped myself, but decided that it was predestined that I was to eat 2 more.

Planning an early morning PT, and a run around 9 am. Yes. Fun. Yes. Candy is good. Great Danes are good.

•••••

Ben asked if needed new shoes, if the calf was tight, or if the plantar fascia acting up...

No, no, and no. The shoes have just under 200 miles on then, the calf is okay, and the plantar fascia is good. I think the foot was just a little sore from 40 miles of pounding over 2 days...I think it hurts less now...and I am confident that it will feel better tomorrow.

Thanks for asking, though! It's good to know that someone cares about my foot woes.

Hope your running week is full of goodness!!!!!

Cat.

Sunday, Week 3.....The "Not" Death March.

I put off running in the afternoon in order to practice clarinet for 2 hours. Right now, clarinet is more important than running (although both are activities that I "have" to get done everyday). It was a good decision to do so, because then I still could run in the evening. I can't practice after 9 pm or so because my parents get ready for bed and all that (yes, I am temporarily living with my parents...good times...just like the founder of Clif bar...what's his name?).

When it was time to go running, I really wasn't in the mood. "Damn," I thought. "I should have gone earlier..."

But, it turned out to be a pretty nice run. I expected it to be a death march of 15 miles, due to the fact that I had to run alone, around Aurora, which is basically a square mile block. I run the outskirts so I can stay on gravel and grass.

Around mile 12 the lower inner quad started hurting a bit. The feet started to hurt a bit too, which is strange, because at no point during yesterday's 25 miler was there any foot discomfort.

The total time, including a stop for water and half of a granola bar, an urination while walking sideways, and getting crap like gravel and leaves out of my shoes, was about 2:08. I was satisfied with this time. It is probably just around 8:30...a decent pace. I felt very relaxed and could see a lot of stars...I saw this cluster that I used to know what it was called, and got a glimpse of Orion's Belt low in the eastern sky.

The iPod is what got me through, I believe. I listened to these pieces:

Holst: "The Planets"
Stravinsky: "Petrouchka"
Stravinsky: "Le Chant du Rossignol"
Stravinsky: "Quatre Etudes"
Beethoven: "Piano Sonata 31"

What do you listen to while you run?

•••••

This past week was a good week for training. I got in some good long runs, an awesome PFT, and some recovery.

55 total miles
1318 abs
1028 push
222 pull
105 dips
440 haulers
140 neck

As for the vegetarian thing, I think it would be a good idea to eat mostly plant things. Meat is good twice a week or so, but only chicken, fish, and the occasional lamb. Beef...I'm not too sure that that is for dinner, after learning how the kill them at the packaging plants: spikes are driven through their skulls. Now, if it were a snake beaten senseless against a rock, Bear Grylls style, then I'm all for it. Let's go catch us an anaconda!

Hope you had excellent weeks as well! Run run run run run.

Saturday, Week 3.....The Long Run

Today was an incredible long run. It was a long run of 25 miles. I wore my watch for the first half of the run, just to see what kind of pace I was doing. The pace was a little slower than planned, but oh well. It took a little under 4 hours, probably like 3:52. When I started at 8 am it was 35 and I was in shorts, so maybe that caused the legs to move slowly for the first half hour or so...on the second half of the run, it had warmed up to the high 40s, so I ripped off the shirt and enjoyed the sun.

I took a couple walking breaks, which helped a lot, I think, with keeping the run non-taxing. I did not want to be sore tomorrow. My hip flexors got a bit sore after mile 18, but maybe that is because of the 660 abs yesterday. Regardless, the soreness was good, because it made me make an effort to not focus on the pain and just enjoy the run...

Which I did. It was an AWESOME run: nice weather, sunny, very little wind. I stayed at Lisa's in Kearney, so the new terrain was good to assuage the boredom. Her dad lives right on the outskirts of town, so if you run north for a mile you hit gravel roads.

It was very quiet, as there was no wind to carry sounds of cars and stuff like that. I passed this cow lot called "Moo Cow Lot," which I thought was a good name for a place where they lot the cows. For the entire duration of the first half, I listened to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (a strange piece to listen to first thing in the morning). Before starting the second half, my iPod decided to not have enough battery, so I left it and just listened to the sounds of nature. Carried a water bottle and half of a power bar the second time out.

I sang some songs to keep me occupied, but only 30 seconds or so at a time so I wouldn't keel over from lack of oxygen. Saw a jackrabbit, too, I think. It must have been, because it's ears where incredibly large and it sprinted like a mofo when it saw me coming. Also saw some type of hawk. I made "caw" sounds at it. There were a bunch of cows, too. I made "moo" sounds at them.

Took a nice cold soak afterwards. It probably lasted 15 minutes, or maybe a bit more. I am not sure. I sort of fell asleep during it.

Now, it is evening, and my legs feel pretty good. Ate a lot of cereal and some chips and a gyro. It was the first meat I have had since last Sunday...and it was nothing spectacular. Maybe the meat just wasn't as good as they used to make it, or maybe I am losing my desire to eat meat.

Hope that your runs and other activities went great today!

Friday, Week 3.....Ready

Today was another off from running so I can get ready to run 25 tomorrow. Hooray! This will be the first LONG RUN of training...from now on it goes up by 5 each week.

Did 22 supersets this morning, for a total of 660 abs and 660 pushups. Later in the day I did a mow workout, in which I threw in some pullups while I was mowing. Usually I would take off the bag, run quickly and dump the grass and leaves under the bushes, run over to the tree, jump up and knock out 10 pullups, then run back to the mower and continue. Was going to do more than 2 sets of 10 each, but decided not too...don't want to be sore for tomorrow.

Abs: 660
Push: 660
Pull: 100

Very anxious to see how the long run goes since I have not been eating meat since Monday or Sunday...maybe it will go completely awesome...who knows? I will let you know tomorrow...

Run, run, bitches!

Thursday, Week 3...Rest & Such

I took a day of rest today. I took it a little too far, and did absolutely nothing...well, not really, I guess...I started writing again...Tristan and I are going to write some profane collection of stories or a novel type thing, so I wrote for about an hour or so.

I also realized that I haven't exactly been following the plan I made for the 100 mile training. Evidently, I should be doing 6 miles instead of 5 on the easy days. Oh well. A couple miles less during the second and third weeks won't cause failure or anything.

Wednesday, Week 3.....Depressing Pile & Mountain Lion.

Feezy today. Decided to run to the old farm house, where I used to live when I was about one years of age. The house was no longer there. What was there was a bunch of dead pine trees, parts of the house, and the dilapidated silo all shoved into a heaping pile. It was depressing.

Other than that, the run was okay. There was a nice, gradual hill. It probably took two minutes to run up it. The sun was really nice and felt good on my naked body. Wait...my shirtless body. Although, I did want to run naked. I haven't done that for a while now.

On the way back I was pretty sure that a mountain lion was stalking me through the cornfield. I could hear it about fifteen yards in, running along side me. The cunning thing was probably waiting until we got close to a group of trees so it could capture me and take me to its young.

Then I realized that it was just the wind blowing through the dry corn.

•••••

Ate a quesadilla and made some more of that Irish dish for lunch today. The quesadilla was mmm mmm good, and I was pretty sure that my cat Nacho was asking me in her strange meows if I was eating Campbell's.

Practiced the clarinet a lot today. 2.5 hours so far. I am planning on another hour tonight.

I plan to enjoy some Hennessy also. It quenches the thirst. It is a thirst quencher.

•••••

Now it is later. I just finished practicing for the third time today. Total time today was 3.5 hours! That's what I need to do! Really worked the Poulenc this evening...diminished returns on Rossini, sort of. It went better this afternoon. Tonguing is going really well...had some pretty sweet stacatto runs at 138 bpm.

My mom and I had drinks (she had some kind of Czech beer, I had some Hennessy) and chocolate after a supper of salad, home-made "garden burgers," and delicious green beans. I will try to get the recipe written down for you sometime...they are definately good.

•••••

I decided to take a rest day from PT. I mean, I have been doing at least 3 workouts a week for the past month or so...my plan from now is to do three weeks of regular, and then on the fourth, do a max out on Monday, rest on Wednesday, and supersets Friday. This should keep me fresh and ready for action.

Tuesday, Week 3.....Basset Hound & Snake

Today turned out to be a good run. I didn't really want to go, but then drank coffee and got excited.

My handsies were cold, so I had to draw them into the shirt.

On the way back, a crazy pack of dogs started barking and running after me. Fortunately, one was a basset hound, and it's stubby legs couldn't keep up with my swift pace. The other two dogs were little mutt things, little whippet mixed with cat looking things. One got too close, and I "accidently" clipped its chin with my foot. Oops.

Bitches.

About three fourths of a mile later, there was this innocent little snake sprawled out in the middle of the road. I didn't want it to be run over by any trucks or combines, so I kicked gravel at it to try to get it to move off the road. Fortunately, it was scared of me and it ran off into the ditch. I have a soft heart. I don't want things to die.

I made some pizza today. I used these things:

1. Home-made crust
2. Cheese
3. Tomatoes
4. Garlic
5. Onion
6. Olives
7. Peas

Yes, you are like what place in hell do peas have on pizza? Well, they are good...I found a recipe in the vegetarian cookbook that used those little green things.

If you want to make home-made pizza, try using this crust:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup water
Salt
Italian Seasoning
Oil

Add that stuff together...add A LITTLE more oil if you need to. Roll the ball of dough out with a rolling pin...now put some crap on it and put it in the oven. Voila. There it is. That yummy looking thing. It is pizza. You just made it.

Monday, Week 3.....PFT Spectacular

Today I did a PFT, minus the timed run. I did not plan on doing one, but I felt really motivated or something in the afternoon and decided that I needed to see how much improvement I have made since last time I tested. Here is how I did last year compared today:

July 10, 2007:

Pushups: 69
Situps: 84
Pullups: 8


October 27, 2008:

Pushups: 108
Situps: 98
Pullups: 22


39 more pushups = (57 % more)
14 more situps = (17 % more)
14 more pullups = (175 % more)

I am very surprised how much the scores went up in the past 15 months! Here is how much I improved:

Pushups: 2.6 a month, 0.65 a week
Situps: 0.93 a month, 0.25 a week
Pullups: 0.93 a month, 0.25 a week

As you can see, I improved very slowly...but it added up...so DON'T GET DISCOURAGED WITH YOUR GOALS! Over time you will improve greatly if you just keep at it...consider my pullups: I didn't even improve by ONE a month, but over a 15 month period I was able to build the strength to do 14 more!

So today was a pretty good day for PT. I am very satisfied and glad that I have somehow found motivation to keep doing it even though my main focus is running. Thanks to Anton for getting me hooked!

During the PFT, the pushups felt pretty good until the last five seconds, and then my arms pretty much collapsed on what would have been 109. Situps felt okay until about 70, then it was a struggle to keep the pace going. Pullups felt hard, but did better than I thought I would. Next time I will shoot for 110, 105, 24...situps will probably be the hardest.

Other stuff:

30-25-20-15-10-5 dips = 105
2 x 85 arm haulers = 170
2 x 30 all abs = 540
2 x 35 neck = 70
2 x all pullups = 100 (1 minute between each, 10 minute break between sets)

Pullups were sort of hard. In the last two sets I had to drop down so my arms would actually have strength to pull me up. Nice...that's they way it should be...pain and exhaustion...bring it.

Totals for today:

Ab = 658
Pushups = 368
Pullup = 122
Dips = 105
Arm Hauler = 170
Neck = 70

•••••

Later on I went feezy (five easy)...it was sort of cold, and I had to put my hands in my shirt. I wasn't about to wear gloves because only pansies do that (just kidding...it wasn't cold enough for a hat, so I figured it wasn't cold enough for gloves). During the run I threw in 50 pushups at each mile...twice I was able to finish all 50 without taking a break. That is good news. Good stuff, that's what it is. Plus, to make things even better, my left hip didn't bother me at all! The large amounts of stretching last night and the pre-run warming of the hip definately helped...I stretched a lot after the run, also...I need to make sure to stretch regularly...maybe get back into doing some yoga...that's good for the body AND the mind. It makes things more relaxed and seems to make the day slow down...

Today I decided that maybe I will try to eat no meat this week to see how it affects me. Ben is a stud, and he doesn't eat meat (I don't think). It's not like I am going to go vegetarian or anything, but I just want to see if a vegetarian diet would be more kind to the body. So for lunch I made some kind of Irish dish made from cabbage, potato, onion, garlic, and milk. It was pretty filling, even though I didn't eat that much. For supper my mom and I made udon noodles, and made a peanut butter sauce for it. Here are the recipes:

Irish Dish

1. Boil some potatoes to make them softish.
2. Sautee equal amount of cabbage in a large skillet with olive oil.
3. Add some onion and garlic to the cabbage.
4. Mash the potatoes, but not too much. Keep some chunks in there.
5. Add the potatoes to the cabbage and other stuff.
6. Turn the burner up to Medium High.
7. Put some milk in there.
8. Add some spices.
9. Let it sit there and get all brown and crispy on the bottom.
10. Eat.

Noodles and Peanut Butter Sauce

1. Cut up some veggies and throw them in a skillet with some oil.
2. Boil some noodles. Udon noodles are really good, so maybe get some of these.
3. Put a glob of peanut butter in a small bowl.
4. Throw some hoi son sauce in there. Use some soy sauce and honey if you don't have hoi son.
5. Mince some garlic and ginger and put it with the peanut butter and hoi son and mix it up.
6. Add a little water to make the sauce more saucier and liquidy.
7. Drain noodles and throw them in the veggies.
8. Throw the sauce with the noodles and veggies.
9. Mix it all up.
10. Eat.

I hope you like these recipes. There are both good sources of carbohydrates, and the noodle dish has good protein in there. Eat it sometime. I guarantee you will like them!

100 Mile Training: Week 2 of 19

• Week 2: 45 miles, 1885 abs, 1310 pushups, 261 pullups, 305 dips, 680 arm hauler, 180 neck, 20 lower body •

• Sunday: 15 miles •

Early PM Long Run

Long run again...it started off pretty good, at least for the first two minutes, then I was in the country and the wind was frickin 41 mph. I went out 1.5 then turned back...then ran 9 in town (Jennifer Road, Park, Golf Course)...then 1.5 again in the country. The last 3 was crazed, with gusts up to 52 mph! I had to stop and catch my breath behind a row of trees!

Left hip started bothering me a bit around mile 7, then was focusing on it instead of trying to ignore it, which probably made the pain more evident. Considered quitting at 10, but nutted up and did the full 15.

Stretch A LOT later in the evening, and will ice/heat tomorrow...



• Saturday: 15 miles •

Early PM Long Run

First longer run in a while...felt pretty good. Just took it out at a relaxed pace, listened to music, and got in the miles. Was lagging at the end...I guess Cookie Crisp and Special K do not fuel you for a long run. Hips were sort of sore...maybe because of the lower body PT yesterday...well, time to rest up and get ready for another 15 tomorrow!



• Friday: 630 abs, 630 pushups, 100 pullups, 75 dips, 170 arm haulers, 70 neck •

Early AM PT Superset

• 21 supersets = 630 pushups, 630 abs
• 2 x 10 lower body = 20 each total
• 2 x 35 neck = 70 each total
• 2 x 85 arm haulers = 170 total

Did one more superset than last week...maybe I will increase by one every one or two weeks. Mentally broke them down into 7 groups of 3 sets, so it was more manageable...2nd and 3rd sets of the 4th group burned a lot, then 5th group felt better, then burned a bit on the 1st set of the 6th group...overall was very satisfied with this workout.

Threw in some lower body PT, but not too much (long runs this weekend)...neck exercises were nothing spectacular...arm haulers BURNED something good...only rested about a minute between sets...a lot of weakness leaving the body with the arm haulers!

Noon-ish PT

25-20-15-10-5 dips = 75 total
5 x 2, 4, 6, 8 pullups all kinds = 100 total



• Thursday: Unplanned Day Off •

I woke up at 7 and was going to go about my day, but was extremely tired...so I went back to sleep until 9...then I ate some cereal and hung out with Nacho for about 10 minutes before going back to bed until 11:30...man, my body must have been tired! Am ready for some good supersets tomorrow...the left hamstring was a little tight...oh no! Need to stretch more.



• Wednesday: 5 miles, 760 abs, 340 pushups, 60 pullups, 100 dips, 240 arm haulers, 70 neck •

Mid AM PT

4 x 25 dips = 100 total
4 x 40 flutter kicks = 160 total
2 x 35 neck = 70 total
4 x 60 arm haulers = 240 total
4 x 10 bodybuilder pushups = 40 total

Everything felt pretty good...the dips made the left forearm sort of tired, and the flutter kicks got pretty hard the last set. Need to start doing flutter kicks more often...they will help with running, too, I think...excited for the run and pyramid workout today! Rain, snow flurries, and 40 degrees? Eff it...nothing can hold me back.

Mid PM Run

Man, the wind from the north was cold! I ran in shorts anyway, though. Most of the time the wind was blocked, as I ran on the train and through the park. Had I ran in the country, the wind would have surely dominated me (the windchill was 25)...need to buy some running pants soon! Running on the trail was cool because there was flooding from the creek and I had to run where the ground was steep and where there were some nice hills (only for about a half mile, though). I'm glad I didn't puss out on this run...it turned out to be quite good!

Mid PM PT Big Pyramid

Big pyramid workout in 37 degrees, rain, and wind. That's real PT right there! It makes you feel SO ALIVE!

2-4-6-8-10-10-8-6-4-2 pullup = 60 total
10-20-30-40-50-50-40-30-20-10 pushup = 300 total
20-40-60-80-100-100-80-60-40-20 situp = 600 total.

Pullups felt GREAT! Probably the easiest pyramid so far for pullups. Pushups were okay...took five second breaks about half way through the set near the top of the pyramid. Abs burned, which was good. Hip flexor tried to cramp up on me at the top, but I said "no way," relaxed, and everything worked out.

I said yesterday that I was going to have the biggest day ever, but I don't know if it was. I was going to go up another level on the pyramid, but wanted to be successful and have perfect execution on every set...so, I didn't go all out today, but it was still a REALLY good workout!

I hope you enjoyed your runs and workouts today...



• Tuesday: 5 miles, 200 abs, 100 pushups, 40 pullups, 45 dips, 100 arm haulers, 40 neck •

Mid PM Run

Got up to run this morning, but it was dreary and cold...took a long bath instead, which was awesome because I had not taken a long bath for a long time (probably about eight months or so).

Took the legs out later in the day...was really motivated, and wore an old Pizza Hut cap. It kept the water out of my eyes and made me feel like Scott Jurek, except that I did not recover with vegan foods. I recovered with no foods, actually...my appetite has been depressed the past few days...maybe I am battling some kind of sickness. Who knows?

Anyway, the run was incredible...there was mud and puddles and all that fun stuff. Plus, it was like a cold soak the whole way. My quads turned a little red because of the cold. That's the way I like it.

I'm liking the cadence right now. It is quick and short, like a dude swinging a machete or something incredible like that. My legs just sort of churn and churn like a butter churn from 1745 that makes the greatest butter ever. Yes, that's what it is like. My cadence. Yes.

I also saw a flock of deer. There were probably seven of them. One got scared and ran back into the trees, while the rest of its family sprinted across the road. I hope that young one found its way back to its flock! It is so sad for the little guy...

Late PM PT

2 x 50 arm hauler = 100 total arm haulers
1 x 40 neck both sides = 40 both sides
3 x 15 dips = 45 total dips
10 x 10 pushup variations = 100 total
10 x 20 abs = 200 total
4 x 10 pullups = 40 total

Today was kept low intensity and low reps...tomorrow is going to be a big pyramid day plus extras...it will probably be the most intense day of PT ever for me...bring it on!



• Monday: 5 miles, 450 abs, 240 pushups, 61 pullups, 75 dips, 170 arm haulers •

Early AM Run

About ten seconds into the run, I ditched the shirt because it was hot. But then in the country, the wind was blowing like crazy...plus most of the corn is harvested...so much of the run was quite chilly! Kept a fast cadence and just relaxed. Did some pushups before, half way, and after the run.

Early AM PT

• 3 x 80 pushups = 240
• 30 x all abs = 270, then 20 x all abs = 180...450 total
• 2 x 85 arm haulers = 170 total

The first set of abs burned a lot, so I cut back to 20 the second set...actually, they felt better the second time around...maybe I should have just done the full 30 of each. The pushups made the shoulders burn...its strange how I can do 600 in one workout and not feel a thing, but doing 80 in a set makes my shoulders feel like they are on fire. Arm haulers went really good...REALLY good...only felt like I did 2 x 40.

Late AM PT

• 5 x 15 dips = 75 total

Late PM PT

• 5 sets max pullups: 25, 10, 8, 8, 10 = 61 total. Would have called it a pullup PR, but the form was questionable on about three pullups...will have proper execution next week and will call it a PR then!

100 Mile Training: Week 1 of 19

• Week 1 = 40 miles, 1600 abs, 1280 pushups, 270 pullups, 120 dips, 300 arm haulers, 190 neck •

• Sunday: 10 miles •

Early AM Long Run

Good day to run...felt really good and just enjoyed the morning. Didn't eat soon enough after eating, so now my legs feel sort of blech. Good first week back!

Now it is 11 PM and the quads are not feeling the best. They are not tired, just feel a little sore...I think it is because I did not fuel properly for the first part of day...only ate half a banana before the run, and didn't eat until about two hours after the run...the muscles did not receive what they deserved! Poor things.

Things are going well, I think, and I am getting more excited to run everyday...it is good to have the motivation come back...the reasons for the uplift in spirit come from having made a couple goals:

1) Run long: like as far as I can go before medical personnel force me to stop.

2) Run slow: fast running, once so enjoyable and rewarding to me, is now something that I will only do to get away from rabid pandas...slow is where it's at.

3) Stay injury free: easy runs allow the body to not be stressed too much...it's mostly about eating right and knowing when to take a day off.

4) Experience new things: new places, new people, new strategies to cope with anything thrown at me.

5) Have fun: this is the whole point of running now, just to have a good time.

I hope your plans are going well also...



•Saturday: 10 miles, 600 abs, 600 pushups, 80 pullups, 70 neck •

Early AM PT Supersets

• 20 supersets! = 600 pushups, 600 abs
• 2 x 35 neck both sides = 70 total each side

Was going to do 15 supersets, but felt good so I did a couple more. Haven't done 20 supersets since the spring (and even then I only did 8 or 9 pushups instead of 10). Neck exercises had minimum recover and were back to back, so the last few felt pretty tiring. Will do pullups, dips, and arm haulers throughout the day...

Mid AM Long Run

Nice easy run today...the farthest I've gone in a while. It felt good, too, except that I started feeling weak towards the end. This probably happened because I didn't eat enough food for breakfast...excited for another easy 10 tomorrow.

Late PM PT

• 8 x 10 pullups = 80 total

Did not do dips or arm haulers...I am using the excuse that my stomach wasn't feeling too good...I must have a touch of some kind of sickness.



• Friday: Day off •

Today was a day off from running and pt...although I felt like doing pt...my upper body is not sore at all from yesterday! Planning to do 10 miles Saturday and 10 miles on Sunday, along with a superset on Saturday...

I am glad that I no longer have to go 8:30 to 5:00, Monday to Friday for work. That stuff is pretty rough. I am cutting back to 24 hours a week...just finished training today! The book says it is supposed to be 3 weeks, but I chose to give the extra effort and try to get through it as quickly as possible. Actually, I have been taking calls on my own since Tuesday, so my training pretty much ended on Monday. It took 6 days, compared to the 15 in the book. That's the way to do it. Always exceed the standards...and that's what I always plan to do.

Another thing about today is that I got some new face wash and other stuff for keeping the blemishes under control. Sure, maybe you think I am a pansy for discussing face wash here, but seriously, no one cares if you think I am. I haven't used face wash in probably two years, but then, starting in probably early August, I wanted nice, smooth, and clear skin. So I got some supplies. And now my face is going to be soft. You can caress it if you want, but please, only one at a time.



• Thursday: 5 miles, 550 abs, 330 pushups, 110 pullups, 60 dips, 150 arm haulers, 60 neck •

Mid PM Run

Today's run was nothing spectacular...went out two then turned right for a half mile.

The good news is that yesterday night I was rolling my IT band against a foam roller, and although it was painful, I think it loosened up the muscles a lot...five minutes later when I was moving around, there was a slight *pop* and then I realized that the hip didn't hurt anymore...and during today's run, it felt the best it has in the past two weeks or so...good stuff!

Late PM PT Pyramid

Did not want to do a workout at all, but pushed myself to go outside...glad that I did, too! It's these kinds of days that are most important...it teaches us to push through until we achieve our goal.

Did pyramid 1-10-10-1 1x pullup, 3x pushup, 5x ab

110 pullups
330 pushups
550 abs

Did not feel as though I did 330 pushups...I feel like I could do a lot lot more. Good stuff.

Threw in 2 x 75 arm haulers, which hurt like hell after all the pullups and pushups.

Also did 2 x 30 neck both sides.

And 3 x 20 dips.



• Wednesday: 5 miles •

Late PM Run

Today's run was alright, but not really fun. Half the time I thought some kind of rabid animal would jump out and attack. A rabid panda, perhaps.

Wore some gloves but then my hands became hot. I will save the gloves for when it gets under 40.

Wearing shorts is good. I will wait until it gets below freezing to wear running pants (I will have to wait, because I do not have money to buy any!)

Was going to do PT, but ran out of time...went to work at 8:30 am, then there was a meeting at 5 that lasted until 6:30! I was cooped up in the building for 10 hours! Aarrrgh!



• Tuesday: 5 miles •

Mid PM Run

Good run today...just listened to music and enjoyed the rain!



•Monday: 5 miles, 450 abs, 350 pushups, 80 pullups, 60 dips, 150 arm haulers, 60 neck •

Mid PM Run

Good easy run in the country. Did some pushups every mile. Hip tried to hurt a bit, so I backed off. Need to stretch it out or something.

Mid PM PT

• 2 sets of 30 x all abs = 450 total
• 7 x 50 pushups = 350 total

Abs were challenging, but good. It is good to have it burn.

Late PM PT

• 8 x 10 pullups (2 sets of each) = 80 total
• 3 x 20 dips = 60 total
• 2 x 75 arm haulers = 150 total
• 2 x 30 neck both sides = 60 each

Arm haulers burned...it was awesome. It was good. Pullups did not burn...they just hurt a bit. Took mini breaks after five. It was 43 outside when I did the pullups, and I could see my breath. So magical, it was, hanging from the tree with the moon shining down on me. Dips were okay...arms were just weak. Neck...felt pretty good.

Looking forward to pyramids on Wednesday...bring it on!

Update!

I haven't blogged in a long time, so I thought I would write now. Also, I read somewhere that you should publicize your goals, so then you will be more likely to succeed. So my goals are:

Run a 100 mile or 50 mile on February 21, 2009. This will be the best way to celebrate my 24th birthday! I will do long runs ever other week, starting at 25, and building to 55. On the weekdays, I will just do easy runs of 5-8 miles. For the actual 100 or 50 miler, I plan to do a run/walk method. Maybe I will run for 20 minutes, then walk for 10, and just do that 40 times. 20 hours would be AWESOME and I think it is do-able.

I want to get sweet scores on a pseudo-Navy SEAL PFT. I want to get to 100 pushups and 115 situps in 2 minutes. For pullups I want to do 26 (two weeks ago I did 23, but maybe the branch helped out...maybe doing them on a bar would be more challenging).

So, those are my goals. I know they are lofty (all of them) but now I am motivated and have something to work towards. Even if I don't completely reach them, it will be worth it just to try.

Below is a training plan I made based on Tim Twietmeyer's low milage, but successful plan (he did win Western States multiple times in the 90s!). Maybe you could use this or adapt it to how you want it to be. The low mileage during the week allows you to train without sacrificing a lot of time...and I'm sure every other weekend you can get out for a long run. Fuck ass!

Also, fuck that shit which is coaches trying to gyp you by charging $150 a month for their advice. Anton became a bad-ass, PFT dominating son of a gun by just relying on his own knowledge and by following a Stew Smith's book. Ben ran 75 miles after running for only a little over a year. Fuck coaches...let's just share our knowledge with each other...and let's make it public...we will offer advice and tips to everyone (plus once we do some sweet things we will have more street credit). Okay that is all for now.

I hope my first installment helps you a bit in your training goals:

April 28-May 4

Monday
PM: 8 easy (0:64) w/ Ben after a 500m swim. PT pyramids afterwards. Felt strong!

Tuesday
PM: 7 medium (0:54) w/ Tristan and Ben. 6 miles in 46:15.

Wednesday
PM: 10 workout (1:15). 3x1.5 in 9:41, 9:39, 9:31. Felt alright the first two, awesome the last. Relaxed into the faster pace.

Thursday
AM: 5 easy (0:40)
PM: 5 easy (0:40)

Update

I haven't blogged in a while, but I need to get back into it. So here it is.

This past week was good for running...I am pretty much back in the game after taking some time off to recover from some tendonitis that developed after a 50 mile run.

Monday: day off

Tuesday: easy five miles

Wednesday: 9 total miles, 2.5@7:00, 2@6:45, 1@5:50...glad to get some fast ones in...good for building back the confidence.

Thursday: 15 miles easy in the morning with Ben...down 48th to Highway 2, then to Rock Island and back. Felt pretty good...except for feeling like crap 10 miles in...the last mile sort of sucked because I was hungry for pancakes and thirsty for gatorade.

Friday: day off. My right hamstring is a bit sore...maybe the 15 miles a day after a workout was not such a good idea. Hopefully tomorrow it will feel better!

Saturday: the weather sucks, so I am going to take today off too...plus, my hamstring is still a bit sore...need massage and a lot of stretching.