Today was the funeral for my grandmother. I had this idea that everything would be wrapped up by 1:30 and I would be able to get in a nice afternoon run. I was wrong. Family gatherings always take longer than you anticipate, and that’s usually because you’re having a good time. Today was no exception. After the funeral and graveside service, we all went out to lunch. I ate way too much. There seemed to be a contest between my brothers and me to see who could eat the most rolls. Nobody wins in a contest like that, but it sure was fun. I must have eaten 6 rolls before my “turf & turf” came out. That’s right, I had two 8-ounce sirloins. I was drinking water, but I figured I must have had well over 3000 calories at lunch. That’s not normal for me, especially at lunch… and then we didn’t get home until after 3:30. I wasn’t sure I would have time to run, but I decided I didn’t have a choice.

I jumped on the treadmill and started running. I walked a bit here and there, but kept up a decent pace. Suddenly I was closing in on 5 miles and realized I still had a lot of gas in the tank. Normally I’m running on empty by the time I hit 5 miles and if I go on to 6 it’s because I’m walking. Today I thought I may be able to run most of that last mile… and I knew if I did, I’d set a new personal best.

That’s exactly what I did.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100
Time at mile 1: 0:09:20
Time at mile 3: 0:31:40
Time at mile 6: 1:02:23

I’m not sure if I am any better or any worse than yesterday, but I’m definitely still very sore. That’s no excuse, of course, but I did try to take it a little easier today as I auditioned a few more songs for my running playlist. Songs that made the cut: Complicated – Avril Lavigne, Fishin’ in the Dark – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Any Man of Mine – Shania Twain, Sixteen – No Doubt, Whip It – Devo, In Bloom – Nirvana, Losing Grip – Avril Lavigne, Happy Now – No Doubt. I still need more if I’m ever going to finish a 10k without walking.

I had a hard time keeping a consistent cadence as I jumped from song to song trying to find the right rhythm. Sometimes I ran a few minutes at 7.2, 6.5, 6.2, 6.0, 5.5, and way too much walking at 4.0 mph. Amazingly, I managed to stay on for 6 miles without pausing anything.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100
Time at mile 1: 0:09:44
Time at mile 3: 0:31:21
Time at mile 6: 1:07:35

It has clearly been way too long since I’ve done any squats or lunges. I know this because I did some yesterday, and today I can barely stand up from a sitting position. I seem to be fine when I’m upright, but getting up or going down demonstrates just how sore I am. Of course, part of my soreness may be from what I did yesterday afternoon. I dug up a large maple tree that had died and replaced it with a new younger one. All that shoveling and pulling on the old tree probably contributed to my soreness.

I finally found a real website for finding the songs for running: jog.fm. So far it’s been great. I can find songs that have the same BPM to match my cadence while running. I can also search for songs I like to find out their BPM. I’m very impressed.

Today I set the treadmill to 6.5 mph and cranked through the first 2 miles, but then I hit some faster songs, had a hard time keeping my cadence, and broke down into a walk for a bit. I managed to finish all 3 miles under 30 minutes, but after that I could only walk the 4th mile. I still don’t like walking in my new shoes… I probably never will. So I only walked one mile and then called it good.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100
Time at mile 1: 9:17
Time at mile 2: 18:30
Time at mile 3: 29:34
Time at mile 4: 44:38

Now Charmaine wants to go ride bikes. I guess my pattern of over doing it will continue at least one more day.

After my miserable showing yesterday, I was determined to do better today. I started off by doubling my jumping jacks to 100. I was a little surprised how much more intense numbers 90 to 100 were than any of the others. I guess that was a good change. I did all 100 of my push-ups, and I tossed in 10 squats and 10 lunges on each leg while holding two 15-pound dumbbells.

I meant to try out a few new songs again today, but my phone found itself on repeat-one and actually repeated the same song 4 times. Sightsee M.C. got me through the first 2.5 miles at 6.2 mph, but then I was pretty wasted (not to mention sick of hearing the same song over and over). I walked for a couple minutes, then ran the last 1/4 mile at 6.5 mph. It wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t even as good as I had hoped for, but at least it was a slight improvement over yesterday. And somehow it seemed pretty good in my head, considering today is normally a walking day.

Jumping jacks: 100
Push-ups: 100
Time to mile 1: 9:44
Time to mile 2: 19:24
Time to mile 3: 30:38

I’ve been in the San Diego area for the past week, looking at new jobs and new places to live. Of course, I took the opportunity to not workout in any way whatsoever. No running. No walking. No push-ups. I’m not exactly proud about that. It was a nice week off, but the time off wasn’t good for me. I wasn’t able (mentally, I’m sure) to finish 100 push-ups this morning. I let myself stop at 30 on the first set, then I only did one more set of 30. That’s pretty weak.

My back has been bothering me ever since the scuba trip to Roatán. My working theory is that I pulled something while hauling my diving equipment back and forth from the boat one of those days. It was mostly feeling better until this trip, but I had a few times when I almost couldn’t walk at all without ibuprofen. I think I must have re-agitated it when packing up the car for the trip. It’s slowly starting to feel better again now, but I’m still taking it sort of easy to make sure it actually gets better this time.

I’ve been trying to find some other songs with a similar beat to Sightsee M.C. Today I tried a whole list of songs and found a couple that are pretty close. Mr. Brightside from The Killers is pretty close, but possibly a little slow. Paint It Black from The Rolling Stones is another great option. I’m going to try those 3 again today and see how it goes.

I set the treadmill for 6.5 and ran the first mile, then bumped it down to 6.2 and ran another mile, but then I just walked the last mile and called it good.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 60
Time at Mile 1: 9:14
Time at Mile 2: 18:58
Time at Mile 3: 34:02

It’s a good thing we got out and rode our bikes last week, because it may not happen again for a while. It started snowing Friday night and didn’t really stop until a couple hours ago. If this year is anything like last year, we’re going to see a lot more snow between now and summer.

Since I wasn’t going to be running my usual 5k loop around the neighborhood, I decided to run a mile under 8 minutes. It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve done that, so I set the treadmill for 7.6 mph and let it ride. It got pretty hard by the end, but I made it.

After that I set it to 6.2 mph and ran another mile, but then I broke down and walked a couple minutes during mile 3. That’s sad, because when I started running at 6.2 mph again after that I just kept running until 5 miles had come and gone. I decided to try listening to music while I ran today and I randomly hit upon a song that made it really easy for me to run. Big Audio Dynamite’s Sightsee M.C.! I’ll have to find a few other songs like that and put them all into a nice playlist and see what happens.

Jumping jacks: 50
Push-ups: 100
Time at mile 1: 7:56
Time at mile 2: 17:40
Time at mile 3: 28:25
Time at mile 5: 47:53