3/19/2019 2.18 miles/3.51 kilometers Well look what we have here! YTD: 198.75 miles 2 days in a row, but who’s counting?

Look what we have here, some sort of LONG DISTANCE runner, running a WHOLE ENTIRE TWO POINT ONE EIGHT MILES!

Wore my slightly-too-small Altra Provisions again. This time I remembered to attach my footpod. I probably could’ve gone longer, just didn’t want to. My foot was mostly OK, but my toes were not. Probably because the shoes are a bit too small. Maybe I should do something about that...

Got back to taekwondo. Thankfully we didn’t do any jumping jacks - my foot was sore after I got home from work, so was glad I didn’t have to pound it into the mat too much. Kicking + static hold drills the long way down the dojang, planks for ages, and forms.

Day 3 of nSuns is overhead press and incline bench. Since my current numbers are so small thanks to my hand, this was just a lot of reps of fairly light weights. Incline bench I’ve only tried once or twice with my equipment - my bench is terrible and I’d have to move my squat/bench stands to have a place to rack the barbell, so I may substitute these once they get too heavy for the setup I used tonight. Accessory exercises were lateral raise and some more dumbbell flies. A bit more Beat Saber than last night. Mainly working ‘expert’ mode on a few of the new songs, and more work on ‘expert +’ for $100 bills.

Spent a little time in my leg stretched with my Hypervolt, but had to end it a little early.

3/09/2019 11.90 miles/19.15 kilometers Always better with a friend! YTD: 193.50 miles 3 days in a row

Rene had 12 on his schedule, I had 12 on mine, and we both felt like meeting in the middle. The start of the path nearest my house (that I always run on) was a little too far for Rene so he suggested a spot more in the middle. Which was the start of another trail system, but we could wind our way over to my usual stomping grounds by traversing some streets and sidewalks. But I suggested we avoid all that and just stay on the trail we started on, which meant heading north.

So away we went! Part of the path was under construction so after about a mile and a half we were diverted (by actual detour signs) onto some streets and sidewalks. My toes started bothering me at around mile 4.5 or 5 and I had trouble getting them to the point where I could alleviate the pain by strategic toe scrunching. We turned around at mile 6 and I ended up having to insist on some walk breaks since that helped my toes feel temporarily better. We strategically altered the last bit of our out-and-back to arrive by my car (we had ended up each parking a bit away from our meeting/starting point) so that he could briefly use my Hypervolt and I’d drive him to his car.

And oh yes, I strapped on my new vest to see how it felt with one water bottle loaded into it. Not so bad, but I think I need to bleed out ALL the air before running - I felt like Sloshy McSlosherson until I finally drank some and got the air out. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to even drink from it. I knew it was a bite valve but it took me a bit to figure out I also had to pull the top out :/

3/20/2019 3.10 miles/4.99 kilometers Man I’m beat YTD: 201.85 miles 3 days in a row... for now

First run in new shoes. Verdict: not too bad. Gonna try a longer run tomorrow, I hope. My cardio seems like it’s still recovering from my cold (which admittedly I’m not fully over yet *sniff* *snuffle* *snort*).

I was super sore all day from I assume the squats and sumo deadlifts the other day. So what was on the schedule for today? Deadlifts. And front squats, which I have a hate/hate relationship with. I hate doing them, I’m bad at doing them (my arms don’t fit (and I wasn’t even about to try with my hand still hurting)). So I just did my best - kept my upper arms pretty parallel to the floor in my estimation, but just crossed my arms at the wrist. It worked well enough, and thank goodness the prescribed weight was light; these were hard and I’m going to be sore from them. Threw in some more barbell rows for the accessory. Totally skipping and “ab” work since I got TONS of plank time at taekwondo.

No Beat Saber or heaven forbid Creed tonight. I’m spent. I’m not even sure I’ve got it in me to sit on my leg stretched and use my Hypervolt, even though I know it’ll do me a world of good.

3/08/2019 2.55 miles/4.10 kilometers Hrm... YTD: 181.60 miles 2 days in a row

So if the ‘4′ on my schedule were for kilometers I’d be all set! Sadly, it was not. The filing/shaving of the callus on the ball of my foot seemed to be super effective for alleviating the ball of foot pain, but maybe possibly seemed to make the “my toes feel like they’re breaking” worse if anything. Most of the pain seemed like my toes were jamming up inside the front of my shoes, but that doesn’t make much sense since they’re very flexible shoes and my right shoe doesn’t seem substantially different from my left foot. So, who knows. But I know I need to figure this out.

3/11/2019 2.07 miles/3.33 kilometers Dear Dr. Google... YTD: 195.57 miles

5 on the schedule. Toe pain. Called it. Taekwondo with a new instructor. Much different warmup/stretching, then straight to “real world” self-defense. Class went late. Beat Saber later on. Attempted a Hard one saber song via campaign mode - with my right hand. Ouch.

3/07/2019 2.09 miles/3.36 kilometers Lookie here, I found Mike! YTD: 179.05 miles *sigh* 1 day in a row

So, 2 mile run. 3 were on the schedule, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Mike happened to be there. He was obviously aware the picture was being taken, so I’m accepting that as a model release form. For the record, Mike is an Ironman.

After the kids went to bed, I lifted. 3x5 this time around. Increased squat and deadlift, kept bench press the same (since it still hurts unless I hold the bar JUST right, and even then there still parts of the movement that hurt).

Creed: Rise to Glory after that. Campaign mode. So while there were only 4 fights that I can recall, there were some intermediary ‘training’ sessions - dodge the rebound ball, pummel the B.O.B. or heavy bag, hit Rocky’s targets in a specific order, ‘run’ on the treadmill, etc. Thus the nice HIITish HR graph. Completely soaked my T-shirt by the end.

After THAT, sat in my compression boots while reading the next few chapters from a mindfulness book, then sat in my stretcher while hammering my quads, IT bands, and adductors with my Hypervolt.

12/30/2018 3.18 miles/5.12 kilometers New winter shoes? Maybe. YTD: 1,037.73 miles

At least it’s not zero!

All totaled I ran three times, went to taekwondo three times, and lifted twice.

In thinking about my schedule it’s hard to figure out something that’s going to really work for me for the next handful of weeks thanks to having an interview day tomorrow*, my black belt test on Saturday, and the holidays coming up. I think instead of having a rigid plan in place (which would cause me stress if I didn’t follow it) I’m just going to do the best I can and work towards what I’ll eventually settle into. I need to get back to a place where I’m lifting at least 3x/week**, going to taekwondo 3x/week, and running every day***. One of these weekends I’ll have to actually run outside - something I just haven’t been able to muster up the motivation to do in a while.

Since I’m shoe-horned**** into going to taekwondo on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays I don’t think I can 100% get a schedule that makes perfect sense, again I’ll just do my best. I’ll have my lifting days be Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday with a mile warmup on the weekdays. Run longer at lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Get back outside on the weekends. And maybe get back into stretching in the evenings on the days I don’t go to taekwondo.

* About once a year we interview the graduates from a software development bootcamp called Code Platoon - a non-profit organization that puts veterans through an intense coding school to set them on a new career path after their service to our country. We’ve ended up taking three interns over the past few years (one per round of interviews) and managed to turn two of them into full-time employees. We’re interviewing 8 applicants tomorrow which will consume the entire day - and I’m not sure I’ll be able to steal away to the gym for lunch.

** I’ve been toying with the idea of following a “squat every day” program to finally bring my squats up to par with my other lifts. Which is mildly humorous to me at this point since I’m yet again at a “just getting re-acquainted” stage. But I know that soon enough my squats will lag behind my other lifts. This may or may not jive well with my next bullet point, so we’ll see.

*** I really feel best about my running when I run every day.