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Last Wednesday, did the 11 killer Pushups thing. Easy.

Didn't do anything until today. I went lazy for a while...moving off base was hard. Paperwork, immaculate cleaning, blah blah blah.

Unpacked on Friday after a gig, but didn't sleep much the night before, so I crashed 3 times during the unpacking. Went to bed early. Saturday, woke up around 9, went down to the beach and slept on the sand until about 2. Met some of the guys downtown for drinks and dinner, then rendezvoused with Scott Dymacek, the other trumpet player from NE stationed with the Coast Guard. Small world! Good to catch up. Got home late after a scuffle with a rude bus driver and wasting money on a taxi.

Woke up this morning and decided to know out PT before anything else. Did 10 Supersets of 10s. Alternated Tri, reg, and wide pushups. Alternated sets of reg/reverse/half crunches with levers/right/left crunches. Pushups became kind of hard during the 6th set, but only because I haven't done anything for a while and the wussiness had slipped in.

Followed with 50 neck each, and 100 arm haulers. The last 10 were on fire.

Total:
Pushups 300
Situps 300
Neck 50 ea
Arm Haulers 100

Birthday

Cleared for surgery by the flight surgeon today. On my way to be a pilot!

Ran 3 today...1.5, PT, 1.5

Running, felt good. Back tight, from not running or stretching for awhile. Went kind of fast, considering. 20:38 for just under 3.
7:27, 6:17 (short), 6:53!

PT:
5x5 Pullups all variations
5x20 situps
20,15,10,5 Dips

Everything felt better than Sunday. Pullups were almost easy, situps were good, and dips felt nice.

Totals:
Pullups: 25
Situps: 100
Dips: 50

Excellent!

Nice today after all the rain yesterday! Clean air, sun shining, some clouds.
Ran 1.5, did some PT, ran 1.5
Total running time: 24:15. Felt pretty good running. Ankle still a bit stiff, but no soreness.

PT:
5x5 Pull ups, all variations
5x20 Situps
20,15,10,5 dips

The pull ups felt better than last Tuesday, since I only did half. I'll just keep at it until they're easy again. Situps piece of cake. Dips, did the split leg thing, and they felt okay. My neck always gets crazy tight though, the traps don't like dips. On the run home, I could feel the tension in the two attachments of the trapezius on the skull. Not really a good feeling.

Rain Rain Stay Today

It's been raining a lot. Cool for us, since Pearl Harbor doesn't get much of the rain during the year.
However, the windward side and north shore have been pounded. There's flooding and stuff. We've gotten a lot, but it's more pooling than flooding. It's nice though. I like rain. It makes me feel pure. I went to the movies today. Had to buy some new clothes so I wouldn't chill in my soaked clothes.

PT tonight:
4x50 Super situps and pushups
2x50 neck ea
2x100 Fire haulers

The SU and PU were easy enough. I was kind of nauseas though so soon after eating dinner. A good salmon sandwich with a salad.
The neck was okay...the sideways ones kind of hurt today. A lot of weakness leaving. Fire haulers were good. The last 20 burned on each set, but that's fine.

Totals:
200 Super situps
200 pushups
100 neck ea
200 fire haulers

I just had a thought. We have weakness leaving our bodies each time we put forth effort and impose strain on our bodies. Is there ever a point where all the weakness is gone? Would that be synonymous with enlightenment? Sages and masters seek to transcend beyond mind and body to become spirit through tremendous physical and metal trials. In our endeavors to cope with the physical and mental strain of our exercising, will we be able to constantly increase the difficulty, to reach the top of the pyramid? And if so, what happens then? Can we go beyond? Or does something break? And at this breaking point, have we then reached the ultimate point of freedom to let go of all that binds us and accept enlightenment?

Dos

I RAN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 5 WEEKS! IT WAS AWESOME! THE ANKLE FELT GREAT! STIFF, BUT NO PAIN!

I RAN TWO MILES IN THE RAIN, AT A NICE EASY PACE. FELT AWESOME TO BE OUT THERE PUTTING ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER AGAIN.

8:45, 8:04 (16:49)

Productive week so far

This week has been very productive and efficient, and I'm only two days in!
Yesterday I took care of most of the stuff I wanted to accomplish this week (dentist, flight surgeon, and college appointments, called transportation office about shipping my personal items, called recruiter about previous officer's package, memorized the rest of the tunes for tomorrow). All that in two hours. So I took the rest of the day off and went to the north shore to body board. It was nice. First time to the beach and in the waves since I sprained the ol' ankle. It performed well. However, I did jam my 4th toe on the left foot. Wave threw me at a rock. Hurts. It'll be okay.
Today, I called the apartment dude to confirm, and I have a place to live!

Had a great day of rehearsals for the concert tomorrow: looking forward to it. Tofa will be there, so that's cool. Easy to impress when you're on stage in a uniform. ;-)

Another girl was walking in front of me as we entered base this evening. She turned to spit, and then felt embarrassed and apologized. I thought it was awesome and said I was just about to cheer for her. She had a cute laugh.

To PT:
At lunch today, I went outside to do a pyramid. It ended up just being a simple inclined plane. Only made it up the one side and was too tired to go down. Pushups were good, situps were good, dips were okay (hard, but okay), but pullups were unreal! I did okay at 1, and 2, and 3. 4 started to feel weak, 5 was decent, 6 felt super weak. By 7, I was almost failing. At 8, I could only complete 7. My arms wouldn't work. So came back and did 2,4,4 for 9. Then for 10, I did like 3, then 3, then 2, then 1, then 1. I suck. It's been awhile. I think I've only done two pull up workouts since I got here. This was 3.

The dips were fun...did the running leg thing like Hannibal.

All in all, it was a productive workout because I felt a huge burn, I failed many times on the pullups, and I pushed through to attain my goal of at least half a pyramid.

Pullups: 55 ish
Pushups: 110
Situps: 165
Dips: 110

Busy weekend

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there!

Finished some noon PT before lunch:
10 super sets
50 leg lifts each
50 neck each
50 Super situps

Super sets felt good. Nice burn. Did reps of 10, alternated diamond, regular, and wide pushups each set. On alternate sets, switched between regular/reverse/half crunches, and leg levers/right/left crunches. Concentrated on perfect push ups...chest to ground, lock arms at top. Made it burn more, but felt awesome.

Leg lifts were easy. Tired more quickly on the right leg, probably due to lack of use the past month with the crutches. Sideways neck always stiffens up.
SSU easy.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are hectic for gigs! Especially the weekends. Last night, we had a short arrival ceremony for a dignitary, then our command holiday party. This morning I got up at 8 to go sing the anthem for a retirement ceremony. The command told me to be there at 9:30. The gig didn't start until 11. That sucked. I polished my shoes during the 90 minute wait. Then I came home to work out. At 5, the rock band is mustering to play at one of the admiral's holiday party. It will probably go late. Then tomorrow morning at 5:30, we muster to play concert band for Pearl Harbor Day. That will actually be cool.
Busy weekend.

Mid week

I'm lazy. I haven't done any PT since the last posting. Except for some random push ups here and there. I've been preoccupied with lots of rehearsals and gigs, learning several new songs for Christmas shows, preparing arrangements for moving off base, and looking for a new vehicle.

That's no excuse. So today, I made sure I did a little bit. Here it is. It took like 20 minutes.

11 Killer Push ups variation thingy.
Did groups of two (sets of 20) with 20 Super situps in between.
Then did 2x40 neck each, alternating with 2x50 flutters.
And ankle rehab.

Totals:
110 pushups
110 super situps
80 neck each
100 flutters

*****

It hurts to lift the arms. I read Charles's blog saying he figured I'd go for Pam Reed this week. After reading, I decided not to let him down.

250 fire haulers.

Before your jaw drops, keep in mind that after 130, my arms dropped for a second. Kept going. 168, dropped again. Kept going. 175, dropped again. Focused on sets of 5 while letting them drop on the 5th just for a split second of relaxation. At 210, I rested for about 5 seconds. Then pushed to 240 and went past just to see how far. 10 later, 250, my back and shoulders were cramping pretty badly, and I want to be able to hold up the microphone tomorrow, so I stopped. My goal is to hit 300 in a week or two. When I come home, we should do it together. Dean ran what, 351? We should aim for 351.

3

Saw two movies today: "Australia," then sneaked into "Transporter 3."
Both were great. Australia had something for everyone: rugged herding, bushland, love story, war, etc. Transporter was kick ass. Jason Statham is a bad ass. He was more ripped than usual. We should do his diet.

PT at 7:50pm.
10 Super Sets of 10 each. Alternated Diamond, Regular, and Wide Pushups each set. Alternate sets of situps went like this: Reg, Reverse, Half crunches, then Leg levers, left, and right crunches. On the 6th set, weakness began leaving the triceps.
Followed with 2 sets of: 2x40 neck ea, 50 flutters, 90 fire haulers.
Neck still tight, flutters easy, 2nd set of haulers killed! Lots of weakness leaving.

Totals:
300 Pushups
300 Situps
80 neck each
100 flutters
180 Fire haulers

Synchronzied

I find interesting symmetry in the fact that we all were injured around the same time, and have all reached a point of healing simultaneously. Cool.

As I wrote in some of the responses, my ankle is feeling awesome! There's still some scar tissue and a bump around my right lateral malleolus, a bit tender to the touch, but I can walk around without a limp. Whoopdeedoo!

Today, I woke up at 9:53, did some meditation with breathing exercises. Almost passed out on one of them: all exercises were timed to my heart beat. After initial relaxing stages, I inhaled and exhaled for 9 heart beats each way. First, expanding the diaphragm on inhalation for 9 breaths, then contracting for 9 breaths. On the last exhale, I held the "no-breath" for 70 heart beats. Remember when we used to do underwater training? When your body tingles with the decrease in blood pH? This effect occurred at 30 beats. Not even half way done, fighting for air, eyes open so I could focus on staying conscious. The whole body started "buzzing" (that's how I describe the pH feeling), and at 60 beats my vision started fading in and out. At 61, my lungs screaming for air, I exhaled even more to resist temptation to breathe. 65, another fade. 66, exhale. 68, another fade. 69, AHHHHH! 70! I think I took a big enough gulp of air to cause a negative pressure system in the room. The windows imploded and I inhaled glass.
Not really, but once the pH normalized, my mind was completely still. It was awesome! The ninja meditation pushes the body so far past the limit that the mind HAS to become stronger.

With this state of stillness and confidence, I decided to jump right into PT.
Started with the BIG Situp Workout. It was a piece of cake! I even did extra reps of 10 on some sets because it felt good and I lost track of counting.

Then, I did 4x50 pushups. Lots of weakness leaving. The first set was great. So I only rested a minute, then did it again. At about 35, my arms failed, so I took a 2 second break, then finshed out. This time, rested 2 minutes in between. Failed at 24. Kept going and failing until I hit 50. Another 2 minute break. Came back and struggled until I hit 50. Pshew!
The tough part was switching positions: In each set, first 10 were regular, then 10 diamond, 10 regular, 10 wide, 10 regular.

Followed by alternating neck and fire haulers. Did 2x40 each neck, and 2x90 fire haulers. Lots of weakness leaving again. The first set hurt, so I put on "Down with the Sickness," for the second set. This made me feel like a badass, and although I failed once at 65, I picked back up and pushed through.

Good day for PT!

Totals:
660+ situps
200 Pushups
80 ea. neck
180 Fire Haulers

******

Even though you two are the only ones who read this, I'll write out the Big Situps Workout for the off chance that someone views it and wants to try it.
40 regular situps
40 of each crunch (regular, reverse, left, right)
40 leg levers
50 "4-count" flutter kicks
40 half-situps
stretch abs for 1 minute
Repeat

Ravioli

Not being able to run sucks. I feel like shit. Like a big bag of shit. The mind and body needs the cleansing that only running can elicit. Fuck!

Anyway, I went to an Italian place last night called "Bravo!" It was fantastico! And my waitress was gorgeous! Her name is Tofa, her long black hair was pulled up into a loose bun with a couple flowers. She brought me lots of bread, is also a Saggitarius, and flirted a lot. The food was good too. I ordered Linguine with Pomodoro sauce, extra capers. Had the house Chablis (a chilled white wine). Magnifico!

Today, I sang. Then played piano. Then finished my petty officer indoctrination. It's now official (except the pay). Then I ate Subway. I had the new Chicken something thing. Tasty. With some Maui Onion chips and Root Beer. Nice little lunch. Then picked up the uniforms with new patches. Then iced the ankle. Then played piano some more. Then came home, played trumpet a bit, talked to the Madre, then did PT.

Here it is:
20x15 Pushups and Situps
2x75 Fire Haulers
2x30 Neck (60 ea.)
2x15 Dips

Pushups and Situps felt great. Did them in groups of two (15 PU, 15 SU, 15 PU, 15 SU). Took roughly 1 minute breaks in between to memorize Ave Maria. The last 4 groupings, I did super situps and alternated between triangle and wide pushups. The first 6 were regular for both.

Fire haulers hurt at 45 on the 2nd set. Lots of weakness leaving the shoulders.

Neck tired out quickly and got really stiff. I didn't take a break though, so that's probably it.

Dips. Awkward at best. Did them in the corner of the counter top, left elbow banging the fridge, right hand slipping into the sink. Gave up after two sets. Plus the Ravioli was done. Chef Boyardee. Yum.

E4

I was promoted yesterday. I guess that's cool.
Now I can move off base.

Can't wait to run...it's driving me nuts.

PM PT
5x10 Dive bombers
5x20 super situps
2x30 neck (60 ea.)
2x75 Fire haulers

Dive bombers suck. They hurt, and they're hard. But I didn't fail. Almost did, but didn't.
Super situps easy.
Neck feels good.
Fire haulers hurt today. Probably because my arms were already dead and on fire from the Dive bombers. They suck.

Misdirection and Responses

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I'm confused. Right now, I'm doing music in the military. I always go back to music when I can't decide what to do because it's fun and safe. But I can't see it as a lifetime career. Here's what I'm thinking: I kicked as at all the pilot test stuff, except the eyes. Forget them, they can be fixed. It'd be kick ass to be a pilot, because I love going fast, the air is cooler than the water, and girls dig it. I wasted some time in college switching between majors and such, but I can maybe make it up now. Since the Navy will pay for a few courses each year, and if I stay in for 20, there's a possibility that I could finish a Master's in Health Administration, and also earn degrees in Aeronautics or Aerospace Engineering. Physics was always my favorite subject, but I was dumb and naive in thinking that all I can do with that is silly research and make ice cream with Bergman. Anyway, it'd be cool to fly now, and then when I'm out, go work for NASA or Boeing or something as an engineer, pilot, or some kind of physical therapy study in zero gravity or sustained flight.

Okay, responses to worries about "THE PLAN"

Here's my 5 cents:

The plan is good, and you (Charles) have done enough running and training in the past to construct a reasonable plan. It's just harder and longer than any plan before, making it seem daunting. So I agree with Ben.

On the other hand, like Ted used to say, it's not written in stone. If you feel bad one day, don't push it, because delaying the event a day or a week is better than sustaining an injury and not even completing the goal.

Take me for example. My goal was to break 3:00 in the marathon this December. I followed a marathon training plan that I've done before, but this time I didn't have the base to build upon. Thus, my knee acted up with the quick input of running to the system, as well as the large amounts of biking. So, even before the sprain, I wasn't planning on running it, or at least striving for that goal.
So I turned my sights on the 100 miler, given more time. I waited for the knee to settle, and started the plan two weeks after you guys. It worked out better that time, but then the sprain fucked it up. So now, by the time I'm fully recovered and able to handle mileage, I'll be 6-7 weeks behind.

Here's the nickle: I'm postponing the 100 miler to a later date: perhaps May.
In February, I'll still try and do 50mi or 100k. This is the best thing for me.

As for you two: if your body is doing okay, and it's just a mental balk, keep going. You're only 25% done with the plan. If it were a mile race, we're just getting started. This first lap was the frenzy, everyone fighting for position, trying to keep your heart rate low, but turning your legs over like a madman. This next leg will decide the pace. Will you keep going? Do you need to slow down and regroup for the next race? Whatever you decide will be best. Just remember to be safe.

That said, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, the only easy day was yesterday, and to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

Back at it

After almost a week off, I felt lazy, so I woke up, did my regular morning routine (takes about 10-15 minutes), then jumped right into PT. The crutches have been working my arms and hands a bit, but I don't count it as PT. It's just an added activity of daily living.

Anyway, here's the morning exercises:
10 Supersets (10 reps of PU and SU)
100 4-count flutterkicks
2x20 neck x 2: 40 total each direction
2x50 Fire haulers

Everything felt pretty good. Triceps started burning during set 5 of the Supers, but I told them to stop being so combustible. The flutters were easy, the neck felt weird, and the Fire haulers were awesome.

It's amazing how much one takes for granted, only realizing the importance when it's gone. I didn't realize how natural being extremely active was for me (running, jumping, skipping, swimming, PTing, hiking, biking, dancing, etc.) until I couldn't do any of it due to my ankle. It absolutely sucks! It's slowly getting better, the swelling is almost non-existent, I can hobble around slowly without crutches, but it still feels weak and sometimes painful. I miss running almost as much as I'd miss breathing. When I can handle it again, I'll approach with a renewed strength and awe, and will make sure nothing else can jeopardize it so easily.

Watch out ya'll, I'm comin' back!

Wolverine

My ankle is healing faster than a scratch on Wolverine. Bring it.
I can put all my weight on it when doing yoga, and I hobbled around yesterday without it wrapped for a couple hours in the room. Nice.

This morning, I woke up around 9:00, got up for some yoga, and went right into PT. It was awesome to feel a slight burn right as I woke up. Here's what I did:

50 Super Situps
11 Killer PU workout (two at a time with the following in between)
2x20 Hip Levers each side
2x20 Neck each way
50 Super Situps
Finished up with 2x50 fire haulers

It's been a while, but the haulers felt great! My arms only got tired on the last 10 of the 2nd set.

Totals:
100 Super Situps
110 Pushups
40 Hip levers each side
40 Neck each side
100 Fire Haulers

Off to a good start for the day.

I might do something more this afternoon.

------------------

PM PT

Did some more stuff this evening:
2x25 Arm Circles of all variations for a total of 300
100 Flutter Kicks
100 Scissors
100 Good Morning Darlings
10x10 slow Pushups
2x50 Swimmers

Totals for the day:
100 Super Situps
210 Pushups
40 Hip levers each side
40 Neck each side
100 Fire Haulers
300 Arm Circles
100 Flutter Kicks
100 Scissors
100 Good Morning Darlings
100 Swimmers

I'm not sure why I consolidated all the numbers in one location. I think I was trying to copy Charles. But his are much more impressive. Mine are kind of random and silly.

The End.

The Sprain Tour

I call it, the Strain Tour. It was a rock band tour in which I sprained my ankle. We had a total of 8 gigs. I did three with the bad ankle. But it was fine...the ladies still loved it. I even got a mosh going by hopping around.

On Monday, I took the day off from the back to back weekend runs. We flew over on a Coast Guard C-130. Cool.

Tuesday and Wednesday I ran 6 each. Felt good. Big Island is nice.

Thursday was the sprain. It was stupid. I iced, wrapped, took some ibuprofen, rocked.

Friday, got some crutches, iced more, wrapped a lot, rocked some more.

Saturday I was going to rest, but then some of the guys wanted to go to the volcano. So I went. And hiked up the volcano, hiked down through some lave tubes, and hiked down a lava field to see lava. It was fun, but bad for the ankle.

Sunday I slept in, iced, went to the pool to aqua jog, tread water, did some pushups and situps.

I will return to action shortly. The bruises are cool though.

Didn't even feel like...

Had a nice rest last night as I was tired.

Woke up refreshed and ready to dominate the day. Went to a pancake house for breakfast and had a nice veggie omelet with some pancakes. It was delicious!

Then, about 2:00, I went for the run. It didn't even feel like 10! It's awesome! I'm at that point in training where some of the runs actually feel "easy" and time goes by so fast, I'm done before I know it. I wasn't even running very fast, it was just...nice.

Good weather, hydrated all day, didn't get dehydrated, wasn't really thirsty, but drank anyway just before mile 3, right after mile 5, right after mile 8, and at the end. Soaked in the tub with some cold water. Felt nice. Didn't have ice. Bob Marley had lice. I want some rice. Wanna play dice?

Anyway, time: 1:23:31
Laps: 8:28, 8:22, 8:16, 8:27, 8:23, 8:28, 8:22, 8:16, 8:27, 7:59
This is crazy...look at the splits. Exactly the same pattern for the two 5 mile halves, except the 5th and 10th mile. Weird. Some good pacing, or crop circles afoot.

Burned 1198 calories. Nifty watch.

Perfect

'Twas a good day in Hawaii, sun shining, birds chirping.
I rode to the band hall at a steady pace to warm up the body.
I arrived at 6:26am, ran around a bit, went through my whole stretching routine, then went inside to put on the PT uniform and have a crap.

At 7:00am, we did warm ups as a group, which was stupid. I refused to participate in most of them.

Then we began the PT portion. Neff, the guitarist and unit leader in the rock band (who's also one of my trainee's), asked to be my partner. I responded with a high five.
He wanted to go first, so I obliged. We started with situps. He just turned 30, and did 89. Good for him! I went next, and was surprised to find how much easier it is to have someone hold your feet, and to keep the angle of my knees closer to 90, rather than spread out more. I did well.

Then he did pushups, and did well again. 82. He was disappointed (maybe because he felt like he needed to compete with me), but I gave him some congratulations and tips for next time. He wanted to pace himself as in situps, but I countered, saying it's better to crank out as many pushups as fast as you can, then do small sets of 3-5 until times up. I went next, and did well.

Next came the run. I gave everyone high fives before the start to hopefully encourage, or maybe transfer some speed. I think it worked because many of them came up to me afterward and said they'd improved by a minute or so. That's awesome! One guy reasoned that the overall pace was faster since I took off like a bat out of hell. Usually, the lead time is in the 10 minute range, and so they base their pace off of positioning. Since I went faster, everyone else did too. Good for them! I did okay. The first half of the 1.5 miler, I was quite ahead of schedule, so I slowed down a bit. Plus, I kind of felt nauseous as I didn't eat anything for breakfast. No food in the room. :-(
Anyway, I crossed the line right at my slowest goal pace. Crazy!

So, the morning scores were like this, with goals for perfect score following:
Situps: 107 goal: 105
Pushups: 103 goal: 87
Run: 8:30 goal: 8:30

I forgot to do pullups 'cause I was trying to get people to stretch, then gave up and went to Planet Smoothie (like a juice stop) on the Airforce Base with Neff. (Brian Nefferdorf is his name). It was good. I enjoyed it very much.

So, all in all, it was a pretty decent morning. Ran a total of about 2.5 miles.

Happy Halloween

The Real Pre

So today is the real Pre-Meet. I am the real du Prefontaine. It will happen.

Yeah, I don't know what that means.

Anyway, went for an nice 3 miler today. Felt good. Did three strides. They also felt good.

Got a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sub. I'm excited.

I'm an idiot

Went to bed shortly after 10 last night to get just under 8 hours for this morning's test. Woke up at six feeling refreshed, relaxed, and energized to go kick some ass.

Got to work around 6:40 for the PFA, only to find that it's on Friday. I'm an idiot. Figured I'd go for a run anyway.
Warmed up 1 mile, did a three mile tempo, then 1 mile cool down. Felt great!
35:36 (8:19, 6:29, 6:15, 6:23, 8:08)

Then, I hesitated with Charles's input in doing a big pyramid (20, 30, 40, 50 and down Pushups, double situps). Then I stopped whining and being a pussy and just dropped down and starting pumping them out. When I was at the top, colors went down, so I had to stop and either stand at attention or go inside. Rehearsal started in 20 minutes and I still had to shower, shave, iron, etc. So I left it hanging at the peak.

At lunch, I went back to my spot and finished it my coming down. It felt okay, but the situps take so LONG! Anyway, I'm glad I did it. Thanks Charles!

Then I did 5x5 all pullups. Those sucked. I'm weak.

Totals:
280 Pushups
560 Situps
25 Pullups

I felt the "Pump" like Arnold in Pumping Iron.

Pre

Today was pre-meet. I had planned on running 5 miles, but the VOG was so bad, I cut the run to 3. VOG is volcanic fog, really hazy, supposedly bad for your health, and it was irritating my throat and nose after about 1 mile.

I still felt good though, so I guess that's the most important thing. Tossed in 3 strides in the last mile...those fell awesome!

After the run, I did 5x20 pushups and situps in prepartation for tomorrow's competition. Again, my goals are as follows:
Pushups: 87 (that's the perfect score for my age...I might do more if I feel like it, but won't get bonus points or anything.
Situps: 105 (again...the perfect score for my age)
Run: 8:30 (perfect score for my age, I'll try for faster)

For the heck of it, I'll throw in some pullups after the test. Aiming for...uh, how about 15?

Recovery

Nice and easy 5 miler today. Started Week 1 of Charles's 100 mile plan.
Left from the band hall a little after 11 and went about a mile past the Missing Man on Hickam.
Felt pretty good, quads and calves a bit tight.

Last half mile, did three long strides. Felt awesome! On the 3rd one, I got up on my toes and was going so fast that if I raised the flaps, I could have taken off.

Taking a break from PT today.

Follow through

Remember back in the day when dad was teaching us to pitch? He'd always stress the follow through. It made fastballs more accurate, helped with efficiency so we could last through all 9 innings, and made you look cool.

Today, I actually followed through on the plan I laid out yesterday. I got up a 6:30am to go to a new church with one of the singers from the Honolulu Opera, sang with him to lead the worship, and had a wonderful time chatting with the congregation. I even got paid! Unexpected.
Anyway, the point was, we had a nice lunch of this really good ramen soup at the club house, and I returned home feeling nice and relaxed. Then I thought, "You know what? What if I actually DID carry out the plan of the day? What would that feel like?"

So I dropped to my knees and started supersets. By the 5th set, my triceps were discharging an immense amount of weakness, but I showed them who's boss and kept going. 10 sets. 10 reps. 300 each. Awesome.
20 minutes. Nice. Quick. Simple. Organized. Then I tossed on my running shorts and singlet (the green ones that went through both marathons) and decided to run down to Waikiki to meet friends for dinner. I mapped it at about 11 miles. It was only 10.5. But that's okay. I felt awesome! It was overcast, kind of humid, and I had the problem of wanting to go too fast. That's a good thing compared to Thursday's 10 miler where I wanted to sit down in a small puddle and curse myself for going 10 unprepared.

I even wore my red Nike ACG backpack with a change of clothes, some sandals, a cliff bar, and a 32 oz. gatorade bottle half filled with water. It didn't hinder my movement at all, and it didn't seem to effect the pace either. Plus after the supersets, my arms looked like Rambo, so the traffic along the way was kind of intimidated to see a warrior running haphazardly along the shoulder.
Too much? Maybe. I guess this should be called "vanity" instead of "follow through." I apologize for being conceited. But I digress.

It felt awesome, and I was really surprised after Thursday's post-run stupor. Not having been running regularly, nor doing anything longer than 4 miles, these two 10 milers in 4 days have really been a confidence booster!

I think I'm ready to begin the 100 program.

Like my bag used to say:

"JUST DO IT!"

Num#ers

Took Thursday off after the long run. Stretched a lot.

Yesterday, we had weigh-ins in the morning in preparation for the PFA next week. I was 158. That's about 30 lbs under my max weight. As you can probably tell, I'm worried about going over next Wednesday.
Afterward, Taylor was going running, so I accompanied him on an easy 3 miler, 25:00. Felt great, so we did some strides afterward. That was weird...I haven't done strides forever, and I could tell. It felt good flying across the field, but my heart kept flying when my legs weren't moving. Neat.
Then, I did that Pushup variation workout Charles sent: the 10x11 thing. It's getting easier. The one arms are still the biggest challenge, and they're getting past half-assed and almost to three-quarter assed. What? I did them in groups of two, so like 10 rotationals followed immediately my 10 spidermans. Then 20 situps between sets.
Totals: 110 PU and SU

Today, I ran a steady 6 miler in the rain! NICE! Found a trail that paralles the freeway underneath, and the GPS didn't like running under the road; or the rain. Either or, it kept saying I was running at 23:00 pace, but kept clicking off mile splits at around 7:30. What a douche.

Anyway, that felt great, and the legs are fully recovered.

Then I did 2:00 max for PU and SU. Pushups, I did 100 in 1:30, then bridged the last 30 sec. Situps: 95 in 2:00. My goal is 105. It took 25 more seconds to get the final 10. I doubt I can cut that off in 4 days, but I'll give it my best shot.

Tomorrow, I'll probably do some supersets and just kill everything. Then I'll rest Monday, do some light sets on Tuesday, and test on Wednesday. The running plan, maybe do 10 again tomorrow, then stick with 6 all week. Wednesday, I'll warmup for a half mile, run the 1.5 mi in 8:30, then continue on for a 4 mile cool down.

More than planned

Went running at lunch today. Planned on an easy six, but ran into another dude on the trail and he seemed nice, so I stuck up a conversation and ended up going 10. It felt okay for the most part, but my legs started getting really tired in the last mile. Could've been the heat, or the lack of a big meal beforehand, or the absence of a long run for a while, or the long bike rides yesterday, or a mix of all. I think water would've helped, and better preparation.

Here's the funny part. We only ran about 5 miles together, but I must have made a good first impression. He approved me to date his daughter. I don't even know her. She's 18, going to school on the Leeward side. That might be too young for me, but that's awesome that I have that option. It's like I had a first date with her dad to clear me for the first date with the daughter. Random, but cool. It was because he said his policy for boyfriends is that they have to be able to outrun him. He's 40, good runner, but I'm better. ;-)

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, long run. It was nice to do something like that for a change. Sucked, but nice. Now I'm sore.

And then the Jeep. Peace of shit. Blew a gasket. It might cost more than planned to fix it. Damn.
Maybe I'll date his daughter, then have him pay for it when I marry her next week.

Reliance

This weekend I had some troubles with the Jeep. Overheating, not quite, but red-zoning. Machines are weak. It's good to be self-reliant through fitness. Even though I couldn't drive home, or to pick it up, I can still run and bike like it's nobody's business. That said, "F U Jeep!"

It's probably just a weak hose connecting the radiator and engine.

Running has been okay, but riding the bike again has brought soreness. It's just too small for me. PT has been good too. Did some random stuff over the weekend in between gigs, supersets on Saturday followed by some weak-ass pullups. Did a bunch of bridges on Monday, and yesterday I completed the massive situp workout with another band guy who used to be in the army, so he can actually handle "real" PT. If you don't know this workout, you should try it:
40 x regular situps
40 x regular crunches
40 x reverse crunches
40 x right obliques
40 x left obliques
40 x leg levers
50 x 4-count flutter kicks
40 x half situps
stretch 1 minute, repeat

Total of 660
Feels good.

Today, I led command PT again. I let Chief lead dynamic warmups (a bunch of random, almost wanna be calesthenics, but not really), then explained how to do pyramids. We left out pullups, but did 1-10-1 pushups, x2 situps. Most of them did really well! This is living proof that most of it's mental. Whenever I say "We're gonna do 100 pushups in sets of 10," they freak! But, all I said was to work from 1 to 10 and back, and they all did it for the most part! Good for them. Again, proof that PT is mental.

Possibly

Today I didn't get around to running, but went on a nice 4 mile hike.

If I get around to it, I might possibly do some PT in my room. Maybe a superset. That sounds fun. Haven't done one for a while.

I'll let you know tomorrow if it actually happens. I did 20 really slow pushups and situps earlier when I was bored, and although they were screaming when I was doing them, I didn't feel much afterwards.

I guess that's a good sign.

I might be a wuss...

It's good to read the posts of Charles and Ben. Charles continues to be a strong inspiration leading and pushing all of us, and Ben helps alleviate my doubts over struggling to keep up. I've run every day this week so far, 3-4 miles at a time. The knee feels good, and I plan to stay away from the bike until I get it fitted to my specifications. It costs around $90 though. Bastards.

I've done some sort of PT every day too, but all together they only amount to a warm up for Charles. I know the point of this is not to compare, but I can't help it. He's my little brother! ;-) But I'm immensely proud of him and his ability to exceed WAY beyond expectations, which really have no bearing anyway. He's the type of person that can accomplish anything once the mind is set. Good on ya! He serves as my continuing inspiration, and I look forward to matching him again.

With respect to Ben, we can do it too! I'm not in school, but the band is kind of my first priority. However, I'm getting better at the balancing act. I just have to keep to a regular schedule without interrupting it for ANYTHING. It's a slow climb back to the top, and sometimes there are new obstacles that we create when bouncing down the cliff, but just as before, we have to keep looking forward and upward and simply find the best route to regain control. Or if the best route is invisible, just nut up and conquer the blockade head-on.

Today I rested a bit, PT-wise. Yesterday I did the 11 Variation pushups with 10 situps between sets. The pushups continue to get easier with higher reps, and the situps feel okay for the most part. I've been overloading a bit this week, doing 150-200 a day to get a solid base. Pullups are kind of difficult, but I welcome the pain again. It's been awhile and it'd high-time for some body/mind testing.

The running is a steady, quick pace at around 7 minute miles; looking forward to increasing distance.

Rock on Charles. Rock on Ben. Rock on me.

The Resurrection

Brother Ben and Brother Charles are always there for a new endeavor. Whosoever spawns the idea, our trifecta mercilessly pursues the given task until a better one comes along. No excuses. No if's, and's or but's. No man left behind.

The idea of putting goals in the public conscience is genius. Immediately upon revealing inner thoughts, I no longer have only myself on whom to rely, nor am I the only one offering encouragement to my meager human form, struggling to battle against time in an attempt to conquer the detraining effect and to reduce the effects of deterioration associated with aging. I'm not old by any means, but it's never to early to plan for it's inevitability. With each shared expression, the ability to reach soaring heights becomes possible through networking and exponential support.

With that said, Charles is a Genius, and Ben is a Titan. The Genius perpetually conjours up new and improved ways to network, perform, exceed, excel, and experience together. The Titan takes these to heart, and blasts them to levels far beyond the initial goal. Take for example the fact that he saw Charles and I exercising regularly and wanted to get in on it. His biggest doubt was his running ability, self-expressed only being able to run one or two miles before keeling over. We took this to heart, provided guidance, and as he became comfortable with his newfound love, Ben went beyond all expectations, including his own. Within two years, Ben completed several ultra runs (longer than 26.2 miles), the longest of which I believe was 75. It took me about 6 years of training seriously before I entertained the idea of a basic marathon. To those of you out there who have the same excuse/barrier for running regularly, if Ben is not a shining inspiration, you have no hope. A Titan in shattering expectations. A Genuis in providing and guiding towards expectations. And then me. I don't know what I am. I'll let the other two decide.

The Resurrection refers to me. I hope it's not conceded saying that I had a big hand in starting the whole body forging. A big hand, as in not quite a Royal Flush, but maybe a high Full House. That'll work...full house, full body, mind and spirit. The whole connection. This commencement began with my drive to be a special forces operative. First a Green Beret, then a SEAL, with the thought of becoming a field agent for the CIA or NSA. I began pushing my body farther, harder, and longer than I'd ever imagined. I hate lifting weights in the gym, so this path was perfect for me. Mostly running, swimming, and body weight manipulation. As a runner, I had only done maybe 60 pushups in a workout. Ever. Situps, maybe 100. Pullups? Fuck those things. The transition took me way beyond what I thought was possible for me. The first SEAL workout program I started was just a workup. 2 phases. 8 weeks. Then 9 weeks. It went up to 20x20 pushups and situps, and something like 60 pullups. At first, my mind melted. "That's impossible. I'll never be able to do it."

The key: one step at a time. A steady workup. Focus on the task at hand, not on the task in the future. Without completing the present mission, the future one doesn't even exist. Why worry about failing something that doesn't even exist yet?

Anyway, got to the 20x20 week. It was a breeze! I thought, "How far can I go with this? How much more can I do?"
The Stew Smith book Charles mentioned came into play.

We both worked up to 600 pushups and situps in a workout. No sweat. I worked up to 150+ pullups in a workout. Tough, but doable. Ben came along for the ride and dominated too.

With all three pushing together, we broke physical, mental, and spiritual barriers the full body, full house was won.

I've lost alot of that fitness in the past year. It's time to get it back. But I don't want to just do the cliché and "get back in shape." I'm already in shape. I want to go beyond that. I want to go beyond what I used to be able to do. I want to exceed all expectations (from myself and everyone else). I want us to exceed together.
Now let's try for the Royal Flush. Probability of earning this hand in poker: 1 in 2,598,960. Probability of us earning this hand together: inevitable.

This is my Resurrection. This is our Trifecta.

(as a note...refer to Charles's blog "cdupreezrun.blogspot.com" for a 100 mile training plan. I'm an uncertified trainer having studied exercise science and wellness, including athletic training, kinesiology, biomechanics, nutrition, etc. If this helps earn your trust and will to resurrect with us, please feel free to ask any questions and for tips on starting or boosting your own training plan)