Last few days

The past week was a very good week for workouts.. I wound up working out 6 of the 7 days, a mix of running and biking.

On Sunday, I finished day 3, week 1, of the 100 pushup challenge. The week was a success. I just squeaked out the minimum on the last set, putting my total that day at 63.

We also went back to the park on Sunday for another bike ride.. We did about 4.6 miles, so we did over 10 for the two days. Nice and flat, good way to ease into biking for us.

On Monday, it was back to work. I love 3 day weekends (not as much as 4 day weekends, of course). Alas, it had come to an end. After the day was over, I was wishing it was Friday, because it was just terrible. Argh.

I debated stopping at the liquor store on the way home, but I decided I'd go for a long run when I got home. I strapped on the CamelBak and iPod and out I went.. I went into an area I never run in.. It's a bit seedy, but it was light out, and no one bothered me. My stretch goal was 8 miles, I wound up doing 7, which was the minimum I wanted to do. It was 82 and humid out. Bleh. After about 5.5 miles, my CamelBak was mostly warm, I hadn't put enough ice in it. I decided to mix in a stretch and brief walk. (The end total was 7 miles of running, though).

My ITBS seemed to be relatively OK.. I'd give it an 8.5 out of 10. After I got home from work, I popped 3 advil (normally I would take 0). I know you're not supposed to run after taking advil and such, but... oh well. So, maybe that masked some of my ITBS issues.. It seems OK this morning, though.. I'll have to go easy this week, probably.

My long route was pretty much all flat. I had debated doing some hills in the midst of the long run, but opted not to, just to keep it a bit less taxing on me. I may do a hill workout Wedesday.. Or, I might do a speed workout. I'm not sure yet. I haven't checked how fast I can run a mile in a year or so.. I thought that may be interesting. (Or disappointing)

I put in splits at about 10 minute miles for the long route. It's probably a bit fast for my long slow distances, for me, but I have a very hard time slowing it down any more than that.

After running, I did feel immensely better, stress-wise. Only 4 more work days this week. *sigh*

Well, that's all for now.. tonight is day 1 of week 2 for the pushups.. Shoulders are a bit sore from carrying around the CamelBak last night, so I hope that doesn't hinder my progress. :)

blogging from my hammock

well, i took the 4th off. no running or biking. I did do my pushups... final max was 12, if I remember right. Only a couple over.. still, not too bad. I did go for a walk.. probably 1.5 or 2 miles

We went for a bike ride today. Did 6 miles in a nearby park. The weather was beautiful today.

We're having my inlaws over in a few minutes to eat the leftovers from our 4th of july get-together.

Blog maintenance

I supposedly redirected my blogger feed to my feedburner feed, so I can get statistics. If you have any problems, please let me know.

I suspect the statistics will say something like "2 readers". :)

Wednesday night

I left work a bit early yesterday to get some stuff done.

My running buddy and I went running for a little over 2.5 miles.. The route was a series of rolling hills, so it was a decent workout. She's going away for a week and a half, so I'll be on my own after today for a bit. That's a bummer.

I also squeezed in 50 situps after the run, just for funsies.

I came home, and proceeded to do day 1 of week 1 for the 100 pushup challenge. My final 'max' attempt in the series was 12, 5 over the minimum, woot!. That put me at 46 for the day.

I then proceeded to go mow the lawn. Decent workout, as well. We've got a self-propelled mower, but I never use the propelling part of it. I just push it around for a better workout. The thing with those is that the self-propelling mechanism certainly adds to the overall weight of the mower. And, they break easier, too. My next mower is going to be some sort of $99 job, where I can do my basic maintenance, and if it breaks after a couple of years, it's not a huge investment.

All of that not being enough punishment, I decided to pull my car out and wash it... then, I decided to wax it. (Looks nice now, though.. wish I had done the armor-all on the tires and all that, but I wasn't really interested at the time).

I hosed off myself, then proceeded to sit outside and have a couple of beers. I opted for an Ithaca pale ale and a Saranac pale ale. I also found my guitar, and sat outside playing it for a bit. Hadn't played in a couple of years, but the right synapses were firing, and it sounded as good as it ever did (which doesn't say a lot, I know.. :) )

Today is the 3rd.. I'm hoping they send us home early from work today. Not much planned for the weekend. I'm hoping to do some more workouts, but the weather looks pretty iffy right now. If I don't post any time soon, have a happy (and safe) 4th of July!

Tuesday workout

Went for a run last night with my running buddy.. It was a pretty easy run, mostly flat. We ended with a moderate hill, and hit just over 3 miles.
Wound up doing some situps, too, just for good measure.

Maybe after I finish the 100 pushup challenge, I'll ratchet up the situp count to 100 as well... hrms..

Speaking of the 100 pushup challenge, I'm now linked in as a blogger taking the challenge. Woot!
Pecs are still a bit sore from the initial test I did.. That doesn't bode well, now does it? I'll give it a go tonight with day 1, and see what happens.

I didn't go see the Hulk last night.. The show times didn't match up very well with my work schedule.

Looks like it's supposed to be a nice day today. Should be able to get another run in today...

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Gettin' ripped

I was reading a recent post on a blog I read, and became intrigued by the '100 pushup challenge'.


I'm going to do it. Why not? It's something that has always intrigued me.. I've never been really physically fit, but I've been working on it this past year.

Of course, I'm not content to do what everyone else is doing. So, I'm mixing it up a bit. I've been doing pushups on and off for a while now. For Christmas, my wife got me the 'perfect pushup' exercise thingys. (I used them religiously over the winter, and slowly dropped off).
Using those perfect pushup handles, I found that it was a better workout, but I could only do about half of what I would normally. So, I'm going to do the pushup challenge using the perfect pushup gear.

I ran my initial test last night, and came out at 25 pushups. Me so studly.
errmmm. Maybe not.
That puts me in rank #3 out of 7. We'll see how this goes.


In other exercise news, I went biking last night. My running buddy got trapped in Dulles airport and had to drive home from there, so no running last night. (We may run tonight.. I may go see the new Hulk movie. We'll see what all happens).

Any way, I went biking, and of course, at the halfway mark, the sky started spitting. Oh well. It was just a passing shower. The route I took was one of my favorite running routes.. It's just under 7 miles (6.95). The first half is pretty much all uphill... (Meaning, of course, the second half is pretty much all downhill)

I made it to the top, and scooted back on down the hill. Man, my back brakes squeeeeek. Holy moly. My legs are tired today, but not sore or hurting awful, so I consider it a success.