Numbers

As you probably know, I'm a numbers guy. I keep close tabs on mileage, times, body weight, waist measurements, resting heart rate, shoe mileage, Mariners losses...the list goes on.

Yesterday, I "celebrated" my 46th birthday by completing 4,646 pushups in the month of February. I'm currently involved in two online challenges to do 20,000 pushups in 2013. At 7,446, I'm far ahead of pace. I'll be slowing that pace since I was unable to devote much energy to other resistance exercises last month.

Another interesting number I nearly missed was passing the 3,000 mile mark for mileage run since my return to running in 2009. That includes nearly two years of down time due to an injury, so that number should be significantly higher. Still, I'm grateful for any mileage I'm able to run.

There are a couple more mileage milestones coming up that I'll share in the coming months.

The next number I want to address is my soft 5k PR, which I hope to take down in three weeks. I'm dealing with a hamstring issue (and a frustrating respiratory problem that won't go away), so we'll see how it goes.

Until then, Run Happy!

Pullups, Puppies & Pain

I'll start with some news that you may be most interested in: the well-being of my 1-yr old lab Apollo. In my previous post, I mentioned that he was having some physical problems (being barely able to walk, being very lethargic and not eating). We rushed him to the animal hospital. They could only speculate on why he was acting as he was. He had his blood drawn (which came back clean) then went on pain meds for a few days. The meds helped a little. He improved slightly, but was still sluggish. This past Saturday, he started showing signs of life, so I shut down the meds. Yesterday, he was bouncing off the walls and seemed to be his old self (miraculously), so I'm hoping we're out of the woods. We had to take him for a walk for the first time in over a week just to burn off some of his pent-up energy. I still have no idea what his problem was. I'll walk him a few more times before I take him for a short run.

Just a quick update on one of my goofy little PR quests. Three weeks ago, I set a new PR for pushups in a week (1005). Last week, I decided to try the same thing with pullups. My old PR was 273. I managed to crank out 305* last week...and "boy, are my arms tired!" I know I won't be able to set these little PR's indefinitely, but these are the sorts of things that motivate me to train.

Now, regarding the 'pain' portion of the blog post title. I ran with my running club on Saturday for the first time in ages. I managed 6 miles on a relatively hilly course. As you may know, hills don't play nice with my heel. However, this run went well. I kept up (for me, currently) a solid pace (8:07) and only had some slight heel discomfort.

Two days later...today...I ran 5 miles, with all miles easy except mile 3 (7:29). My heel was still angry about Saturday's jaunt and made it clear about halfway through the run. In hindsight, this should have been a shorter, easy day.

I'm running a local 5k this coming weekend. I don't expect a fast time (gee, I've never said THAT before), but as always, I do plan on putting forth the effort. I'll do an easy run on Wednesday, then shut it down until Saturday's race.


*Real pullups. Slow up and down. Not those cheating, kipping things the Crossfitters do.

PR's Dropping Like Flies

Natalie just wrapped up her last track meet before next Thursday's District meet. It was a HUGE success for her. She not only set two new PR's; she crushed them. She ran her best mile by 12 seconds, and her best 800m by 7 seconds. Here's how her season has looked so far:

• Date         1600m     800m
• Apr 25       6:45        3:15
• May 2        6:57        3:14
• May 9        6:43        3:13
• May 16      6:31        3:06

Needless to say, she was excited. In the 1600, she was motivated to beat a fellow teammate who out-kicked her by a second last week. Today, Natalie got her revenge by about two feet at the line. Last week, she let her teammate get too big a lead in the 4th lap. Today, when her friend took off (with about 300m to go), Natalie stayed right with her, then threw down an impressive kick. She ran very nice negative splits in the process: 3:18/3:13. She was still spent by the time the 800 rolled around, yet managed to set a new PR in that race, too.

Consequently, that deconditioned 6:42 mile I ran at the track a couple of weeks ago has been soundly crushed by my 7th grade daughter. I hope I can give her something else to shoot for when I'm able. If she keeps going through high school, my old 5:01 mile may be in jeopardy. I sincerely hope it is!