I have been updating this blog almost everyday for 4 years and I am taking a break. Don’t know for how long but my need to record my activities is no longer driving me to keep this up. Taking a break. Maybe a week, maybe a year, maybe forever.
Be sure to check out the progress of people on the 100 Days of Push Ups Challenge. Click on the little guy below for the current status.
Yesterday (Saturday) I was at SPC at 7:15 AM. Crawled out of there at 10:45 AM.
Worked on stretching and on Snatches (which did not work) and then Over Head Squats for what seemed to be hours. I am still only able to get 45-55 or maybe 65 pounds up over my head so I just do low weights over and over and over. Shifted to front squats.
After that lifting Will and I did a WOD that consisted of the following:
Dead Lifts at 225 lbs
Pull Ups
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps
This took me almost 30 minutes and worked me hard.
That was it for working out on Saturday.
The long run was this morning. It was only Will and I and we were at the Cascade Valley North parking lot at about 7:15 AM. When we got there the parking lot had several vehicles and about 10 people in a group.
They fired up the flashlights on their heads and started out on the trail. Will and I did not have any flashlights, not that we would have used them. We waited until just 7:30 AM when it became light enough to see….a little bit.
Apparently there was some concern about me starting too soon since I have proven that I can have a pocket full of maps and a bright sun overhead and still get lost. How far would I get in the dark?
I was familiar with the route we were taking so we were off. I was feeling pretty good starting off and did well for about the first 3 miles and then things started to go down hill. Not the trail, it was straight up hill it seemed.
I did do a cheat and went up Sand Run Parkway to Meriman Roda on the way back, avoiding running the Parcor trail again. Even with that I came in at around 8.50 miles.
On the way back, near the end, I realized why I did so well starting off. The start of this run is downhill for a long way. Since life sucks that means it was strait up hill to finish. I was about ready to just start crawling a couple of times.
I survived and had a nice breakfast at Valley Cafe.
Connor had his final Cross Country Meet at 1 PM in a park within walking distance from home so I walked over to watch that. My legs were about to fall off but I made it, watched him do a great job coming in second and hobbled back home. It was a long walk.
In honor of Connor’s birthday JP at SPC did some magic with photoshop:
Ready for SPC in the morning. Not sure if I will do the scheduled WOD or do a rest day routine that Will and I discussed. Either one will be hard.
It’s been a week of completely clean eating and I can feel and see the results of avoiding the doughnut.
Early morning run starting at 8 AM at Lock 29 on the Towpath in Peninsula.
Kristen and Heidi started running with me as we headed for the Boston Store.
I needed to do run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute. I wore my Brooks, not the new Inov-8 195′s. I am going to have to figure out how to break those in for long runs.
Kristen stuck with me and Heidi went ahead. It was interesting again to see that we could still stay in sight of Heidi even with the 1 minute walk, at least for awhile.
It was really cold this morning and that did not help me get loosened up. This was one of the hardest runs I can remember.
Kristen and I made it to Boston Store and Heidi was heading back toward us. Heidi’s electronics said she had gone 2.6 miles so I am giving myself about 2.3. We tried finding the Buckeye Trail which was our original plan but were not successful so we headed back the same way we came. This all work out for the best.
We all three stayed together for a bit and I saw a figure in a bright green shirt headed our way. I suddenly recognized it was Jerry.
I did not know he was coming so we had taken off a few minutes early so Jerry was playing catch up. He joined us and we continued on, headed south back to Lock 29.
I had determined that if I got back to Lock 29 in one piece I was going to have to stop with just 5 miles for this morning. When I slowed for a minute walk, Kristen stayed with me and Heidi and Jerry went on.
That was the last we saw of them.
Kristen and I made it back to Lock 29 and the parking lot. Kristen decided to continue on and see if she would run into Heidi and Jerry on their way back in, assuming they just ran on south past Lock 29.
That was the last I saw of Kristen.
I changed into some dry clothes and headed on home.
I feel like I am running into a wall on my runs recently. As usual, not sure what is going on but I imagine it will all work itself out.
I will keep running. I would rather look the fool trying to run than look the fool in this modified hoverround I saw this afternoon.
