Catch up

Hey there!

Been crazy busy with work, so haven't had time to post. Here's a quick catch up. After treading water on Saturday, my legs were still tight, so I did it again on Sunday. Still didn't loosen up. I figured the best thing to shake them out was good old fashioned running.
On Monday, I was up at Kaneohe Bay (the Marine Base on the other side of the Island) to gather medical records and decided to run at the beach there. Nice area! Felt horrible, but at least the cobwebs were out by the time I finished. 3 miles in 26:34. Nice and slow.

Tuesday, felt better, so I ran 5 at lunch. 35:50. Ran the middle three at a nice tempo. 7:38, 7:04, 7:00, 6:29, 7:27. It's always nice when even splits are somewhat successful. The last up tempo mile, there were other runners on the trail, and some cute girls watching, so I had to be "that guy" and burn everyone. As I was nearing the band room, my plan was to do some pullups, but all of a sudden, "Number 2" became number one on my list of priorities. I think I forgot to go before the run, so that made it worse.

Wednesday, the annoying kid decided to grow up and seriously wanted to work out with us. It just so happened that all the other guys had duties to take care of, so that gave me some 1-on-1 time with Steve to coach him on running. We stayed on the track and did 3X800m near 8:00min/mi pace. I was extremely proud of him! Here's a guy who complains about running nearly as much as I grin, and he's trying his darndest to keep up with the pace I set for him. (That puts him at a 12:00 1.5mi run for the PFA, well above his current score).

After the run, Karl and Bryan showed up, so we did super sets. Karl and Steve did 10 sets of 7s, and Bryan and I did 10s. They were all kind of nervous when I was briefing them on the workout to come as Karl hadn't done it before, Steve was pushing his body beyond limit for the first time, and Bryan had a bad experience the first time we did it. (Remember the story? Sometime in late January we did the same workout and were failing on set 5.) Bryan kicked ass this time, and Karl and Steve did very well. Although there were many strange grunts and groans, and sometimes primal yells, they both pushed through the pain with a bit of encouragement from yours truly. Since Karl has done a few of the workouts with me, he faired a bit better than Steve-o, but Steve gave it his all.

Next, to pullups. If we're not doing a specific pullup workout or pyramids, the trend has been to swaggar over to the pullup bars after our workout and max out, then do 2/3 of the max, then 1/3. Improvement is slow, but noticeable. I did 13, then 8 and 4. Bryan, never wanting to be outdone by much (if at all), shined himself with 12, then 8 and 4. Karl is still new to the pullup realm, so 2.5 is about his max. But that's awesome! The effort he puts into it doubles the amount I exhibit. After failing on the second try, I introduced him to negatives: starting in the up position, and working against gravity to lower oneself as slow as possible. He did phenomenally!
I don't believe Steve-o has ever done pullups, so after much struggling, he wasn't able to do one. But no worries, negatives for him too. Those were still a bit difficult for him, partly due to his massive frame, and partly due to the lack of strength in this area. But, he tried his best and mustered all the power he could to resist gravity.

Karl and Steve and Bryan all tie for MVP of the day with marked improvements and tremendous effort from all relative parties.

Today, I sadly didn't have enough time to workout, but will make it up tomorrow.

I'm thinking it'd be cool to get t-shirts for those that join in the lunch hour beat down. A blank shirt with 5 letters. BAMFs.