The day started slowly. Charmaine and I took back a telephoto lens she rented for the weekend, then went shopping for scuba equipment (our trip will be here very soon), and then to Ikea. Suddenly it was 3:00 and I was close to convincing myself that running this late in the day would be too close to our big ski trip on Wednesday. But eventually I realized that was a sad excuse, so I got on the treadmill and ran 4 miles, then walked another one. I started walking 2 minutes at 4 mph, then 2 minutes at 6.5, then another 2 minutes at 4, then 4 minutes at 6.5, then another 2 at 4, then 6 minutes at 6.5. Then I dropped into my familiar 2 minutes running and 2 minutes walking until I hit 4 miles. Then I walked the last mile, but for some reason I kept feeling like I wanted to run a little during that last mile.

Time at mile 4.0: 43:54
Push-ups: 100
Jumping jacks: 50

Actually, the jumping jacks have been bothering my right shoulder, so I adjusted them to “half-jacks”.

Despite saying I wouldn’t, and despite repeatedly telling myself not to, I pushed hard through my first mile to see how fast I could go. I was still going fast when I crossed the mile marker, but I paused the treadmill to see my time. After that I couldn’t get back into that fast pace again. In fact, after just two miles, I switched to walking and never ran again. That’s pretty sad. I did cross mile 1 at 8:40 and mile 2 just under 20 minutes, but everything after that was slow and painful. I was surprised how much I was hurting, but I had to get my five miles done, no matter how slow. I did manage to cross the 4 mile mark at 48:25, which is only slightly slower than a 5.0 mph average, but it’s still pretty pathetic compared to what I should be doing.

The push-ups were not as bad today. I thought I might switch it up at do one set of 30 then a set of 40 and finish with another set of 30, but when I hit the first 30 I was feeling good and didn’t have much trouble getting to 40. That’s progress.

When I went outside today, it was beautiful and warm. I realized I should have done my running (or at least most of it) outside. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow, if it doesn’t turn cold again. I’ll at least check outside before hopping on the treadmill.

The jumping jacks are still a great warm-up, but that first set of 40 push-ups continue to be really difficult. I wonder why they’re so much harder this week than they were last week. Hopefully if I soldier on they’ll ease up after a few weeks. The run started off great. I pushed through the first 2 miles, crossing mile 2 just under 20 minutes. I walked most of miles 3 and 4, but ran a little at the end to make sure I came in faster than 5.0 mph. I crossed the line at 46:02, which put me at a 5.2 mph average. I walked another mile to make it another 5 mile day.

Totals so far this week:
150 Jumping Jacks (50, 50, 50)
300 Push-ups (100, 100, 100)
14.0 miles (4.0, 5.0, 5.0)

I’ve decided it’s not worth much to keep track of time to mile 1. Instead I’m going to keep track of either distance by 40 minutes, or time to mile 4. Today I crossed mile 4 at 45:51. That’s not super fast, but it may be the fastest I’ve ever done it. I was happy with it. I walked another mile at 4 mph to get my heart rate back down to a normal level. That put me just under 5 mph for my 5 miles (1:00:38 at mile 5.0). I’ll take it.

Push-ups were hard again today. The first 30 are easy every time, but those ten from 30 to 40 get interesting. Maybe I’ll be stronger next week. I still got my 100 push-ups done: 40, 30, 30.

I forgot to add yesterday, I’ve started doing 50 jumping jacks as a warm-up before I run. So far I like it.

I’m not sure why I didn’t just run my 3 miles and be done with it. For some reason I decided to mess around with different ladders of intensity. I started off at 4 mph for 2 minutes, then 5 mph for 2 minutes, then 6 mph for 2 minutes, then 7 mph for 2 minutes, then back down to 6 for 2, 5 for 2, and 4 for 2. That took me to 1.2 miles, but not extremely quickly, and it was fairly taxing on me. For my second mile I started at 8 mph for 2 minutes, then 7 mph for 2, 6 for 2, 5 for 2, and then 4 mph for the final 2 minutes, giving me an average speed of 6 mph for 10 minutes or exactly 1 mile. Again, it was harder than it should have been. After that I just set it to 4.0 mph and walked for 30 minutes (another 2 miles).

The push-ups were difficult today. That actually surprised me. I had planned on increasing my output from last week, but after feeling the pain today, I decided to keep it to 100 per day.

Today was brutal. I couldn’t run at all. I did walk 50 minutes at 4.0 mph, but it felt like somewhat like cheating. Hopefully next week won’t be as rough. Even the push-ups were rough today. I barely finished that first set of 40. The sets of 30 were still pretty easy.

Time at mile 1.0: 15:05
Time at mile 3.0: 45:05

Push-ups: 40, 30, 30

Weekly Totals:
17.5 miles
500 push-ups

Today was significantly more difficult to run than the past few days. I barely made it through the first mile, and even that wasn’t fast. I walked at 4.0 mph until I crossed 4.0 miles, but felt pretty crappy the whole way.

The time has come for me to get some new shoes. My right foot has started falling asleep during my longer runs. The shoes I have are at least 10 years old now, which is just crazy. It’s not that I’m too cheap to spend the money on some new shoes, I’m just too lazy to go waste time trying on all the different creations that have come out in the past 10 years. If I ever do make it to a shoe store, I’m going to buy 3 or 4 pair so I don’t have to go back for a long time.

So I was content thinking my shoes were the big reason I had such a hard time today, until I logged my progress and realized I had skipped a very important step this morning. I normally drink a Red Bull about 10 minutes before I start my run and I completely forgot to do that this morning. I think that played into the poor performance more than I’d like to admit. I’ll make sure to drink one before running tomorrow.

Time at mile 1.0: 9:12
Time at mile 4.0: 54:12

Push-ups were easy again today, so I mixed it up a little and moved my hands closer together on the final set. That certainly changes which muscles are doing the work. I’ll have to play with that some more in the next few weeks.

Push-ups: 40, 30, 30

I pushed a lot harder through my first mile today, but only managed to go a very small amount faster. I guess that’s the way it goes. I crossed the 1.0 mark at 8:41. I was happy with that outcome, but I was expecting to be faster than that. There’s always tomorrow. After that I got into a nice rhythm of 2 minutes each at 4.0 and 6.5 mph. After crossing 3.0 I walked for another 20 minutes, so my final distance was over 4.0 miles, but I’ll just count it as 4.0.

Time at mile 1.0: 8:41
Time at mile 3.0: 31:34
Total distance: 4.0 miles

Push-ups were easier today than yesterday. I may need to increase my goal sooner than later.

Push-ups: 40, 30, 30.

Day two of this round. I sent a fairly inflammatory email right before leaving for lunch today. I was pretty upset and tried to turn that into a good run. It sort of worked. I ran my first mile under 9:00, but my phone was ringing off the hook, so I paused my running to see what all the fuss was about. It was about the email I sent, so I turned the ringer off and got back on the treadmill. I had a hard time getting back up to speed, but eventually started alternating 2 minutes at 4 mph, 2 minutes at 6.5 mph. I crossed the 3.0 mile mark around 32 minutes, which is much better than yesterday. At that point I decided I wasn’t ready to go back to work yet, so I walked another 10 or 12 minutes at 4.0 mph. I forgot to look at the final distance, so I’m going to be conservative and just count it at 3.5 miles, but I think it was probably closer to 3.8.

The push-ups were more of a challenge today, but not much more. 40, 30, 30.