1.5 weeks away....

from the tough mudder. My team started out as 4 people. One has a tear in his medial collateral ligament so he is out of the event, but he's still going down to cheerlead. The second one is now 50/50 on it because he's got some other stuff that he's involved with, and he can't afford to get hurt. And the third no longer works here, says that he was back on for running it two weeks ago, but I haven't heard from him after sending an email a couple of days ago. So it's possible that it just might be me running it, which is ok. I'll hook up with people as I need to to get through anything.

On the workout front, I have found a kid out of California on youtube, thef0rtress (Pavel), who has some really good videos on body weight workouts. Specifically related around bar workouts. I soooooo want to be able to do a muscle up that I am looking at every "How To" video i can find. I went through one of Pavel's workouts the other night and didn't do too bad even though I had to substitute a thing or two.

Original workout:

5 muscle ups

45 dips

25 pull ups

55 push ups

5 muscle ups

I had to change the muscle ups to jumping muscle ups since I can't do them yet, and he uses parallel bars for the dips. I had to use a low balance beam type thing with my feet on the ground. His time was a little under 6 minutes. I finished in 12 minutes 15 seconds. The longest part of it by far for me was the pull ups. 

Back on the Wagon

Last week I started running again. 3 times for a total of 8.3 miles. I'm also doing 250 push-ups a day in blocks of 50. A couple of times a week I will do pull-ups or just try an overhand pull-up hold with my chin above the bar. Last week I was able to get 8 pull-ups in one set, and did a 34 second hold. We are 3 months out from the tough mudder in Austin, and one of my team has had to drop due to some nerve and neck issues.

sub 10 minute

I had my first longer distance run last night, and it was the first one that I had been under a 10 minute mile for the whole run. I wasn't meaning to run any faster than normal, but it was a nice cool/cold night. Things just worked out that way. 2.52 miles at a 9 minute 55 second per mile pace.

If my wife happens to be reading this, let me say: I did not run faster than normal to see if I could run faster than you. I'm not in any kind of competition to see who can run further or faster. Love you!

back to the grind

So for the past week and a half I have been off from work. I have not worried about my caloric intake nor exercised during this time period. The last run I had was just before we had our white christmas in Dallas. It was a nice 60 or 70 on that day, and then dropped into the high 20's on Christmas night.

Many presents were opened, ice cream was eaten, helicopter flown, and the wife and I made our way north to Oklahoma to a spa at the Choctaw casino in Durant. We had a couple of massages and a mud wrap. Needless to say I am feeling very much relaxed now, but I need to get back to moving.

The kids and I spent a couple of hours at a newly opened jumpstreet location in Allen playing on various trampolines. It never ceases to amaze me how tiring it is to jump on a trampoline. Then last night I ran through only one set for an abdominal workout that I found online. The video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8dWv0M1nNg&list=UUP8wqLAt5qYMmOwMB7-mvTQ&index=9

GOAL!

I hit my 6 mile run goal on Sunday night. It was supposed to be a 5.75 mile run, but I was feeling good and decided to just finish it off. I am going to continue running three times a week, but I'm going to have two short runs (2 miles-ish) and then one longer run (4-6 miles).

The pull-ups are still continuing at work. I've gotten up to 7 for a max. During the day I max out the first one and then go back throughout the day taking off one pull-up every time until I get down to 1. Today should have 28 pull-ups total. Next week I will work on the push-ups again since I won't be up at work.

Back to the grind

I ran for the first time in a week last night. I was shooting for 5.25 miles since I last did a little over 5. Before I walked out the door, I was thinking that I would be happy if I made it 3 miles before walking. I was pretty sure that my lungs would give out somewhere in there.

So I stepped out the door in the 37 degree night with Live at Wembley by Queen in my ears and proceeded to run my 5.25 miles in about an hour and 4 minutes. It went much better than I had expected, and the cold didn't bother me all that much. It was 35 when I got home. I jumped in the shower with some lukewarm water that really stung my hands and was feeling nice and warm after about 10 minutes.

One of the guys at work padded the cable ladder at work so we can do pull-ups on it. I have managed to do 20 on Monday and Tuesday and then about 10 today.

The flu, the flu....

You are a bitch. You made my throat a little bit sore this past Tuesday and then came for a full on visit on Wednesday. I headed to the doctor, was diagnosed, and got my tamiflu that afternoon. I have to say that stuff is pretty amazing. Yesterday I was back to feeling pretty normal, and today is even better.

I'm pretty sure this has knocked me back quite a bit on running though. I was so close to the 6 mile goal, and I probably won't be able to run until Monday or Tuesday of next week. I have high hopes of picking up where I left off, but I'm sure that reality will bite me in the butt during that run.