Wow, I've improved

We skipped two days last week, because of illness. Did manage to run about 2 miles, and do some sit ups. While doing the sit ups, I hurt my tail bone. The zippered pocket on my shorts poked and chaffed me. Now i have this sore red spot on my tail bone and I've been trying to baby it so it heals quickly. So much for taking care not to hurt it because last night was another assessment.

I honestly have lost track of the number of weeks and days we've been doing this, but I don't think this assessment was evenly spaced. Anyway, I did improve over the last assessment we did. Here are the details

Sit ups: went from 25 to 27
Push ups: from 29 to 31
Mile run: from 8:08 to 8:00

Taking into account the fact that my ass actually hurt while doing the sit ups (and yes my tail bone is all jacked up again) I'm pleased that I beat it by two. I was also pleased with my form during the push ups; all 31 were high quality push ups. I took the first half of the mile rather easy because I didn't want to burn out so quick. I actually had a little too much left for my kick. Next time I'll push just a little more during the mile, so that my kick uses up every bit of energy I have. i should be able to break the eight minute mark, and who knows, I could dip well into the 7s.

Bootcamp, week...uhhh six?

I know i haven't posted about bootcamp in a bit. I think we're into week six but I'm not really sure. All i know is Monday was hell. We ran around the Diversy Harbor and then had to do, get this, 100 push ups. We could do them however we had to in order to get them done. I did sets of ten, then dropped to sets of five. I managed ot get yelled at by the Major (it's only because I talked back...lesson learned). Once the push ups were done, we got to run around the harbor again. Once back we did 150 squats, and 20 pull ups. The pull ups were weak, we were encouraged to jump a little in order to get our chin past the bar. But the squats, well my thighs still hurt two days later.

Today was a little different. We ran a good mile, and ended at the Lincoln Park Zoo entrance. From there it was a rough routine. Do ten of an exercise, run to a fountain and back, then do the exercise again, followed by a new exercise, run to the fountain, come back and do the first two plus a new exercise...rinse and repeat. I managed to do a lot, others managed many more. I ended with a final set of push ups, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, donkey kicks, wide push ups, squat thrusts, flutter kicks, tricep push ups, and squats. I did not get to the sets that included crunches, lunges, and some other painful exercise called butt biters.

If you do the math, I did 90 push ups, 80 mountain climbers, 70 jumping jacks, and so forth. Which brings me to today's realization: I have boobs. Not moobs, and not boobies, but boobs like pecs. All these push ups have really worked my chest. If it keeps up at this rate I'll be homeless in 2 months because I'll have lost my job, from staying home all day playing with my boobs. So, km be prepared for my call.

Bootcamp week 5 day 2

First off, yes i skipped day 3, so i'm posting about day 2.

Today was a workout designed to build speed. this isn't really my cup of tea, i'm more of a distance guy. did i mention i saw my sports med doc and he said i have shin splints? yeah, so the nagging injury coupled with speed work really didn't please me.

at any rate, it was an interval workout. run about 2/3 of a lap, sprint the straightaway, then run to cool down, then sprint. each bit was timed, with strength training in between each.

tc took a tumble. i wasnt too worried, she's vocal and would have shouted if she needed me...besides, she had patrick to help her out. still, it sucks tc is hurt.

maybe all these workouts will do something to my butt.

Not running related

This past weekend we held a home brew throwdown (Bobby Flay style).
The picture above is of the three "competition brews". From left to right they are:
tw's Hefeweizen, sg's Amber Rye, and my own Honey Brown Porter.

tw won. it may have been that his german wheat beer was refreshing and well brewed, or it may be (and this is the explanation that saves my psyche) that we had a lot of non-beer drinkers in attendance and his was the easiest to drink.

In case you're curious, there were five additional brews consumed that day.

Bootcamp, week 5 day 1

This was an assessment day. We've officially been in bootcamp for a month now. Having been working out for a month, we had to see how we (hopefully) improved. Hence, the assessment day. Here's my rundown:
Sit ups, went from 21 to 25.
Push ups, from 23 to 29.
Mile, 8:51 to 8:08.
Overall I am pleased. A quick crunch of the numbers shows like a 20-25% improvement and in just a month...not bad at all. Let's just see if I plateau or not.

On a separate and sad note. I saw the best ever Sports Medicine Doctor today. He confirmed, I have shin splints. It's goes back to the fact that i broke my ankle last year. My left side is far weaker than my right, so it works harder. That combined with the sudden intense effort brought on by bootcamp equals shin splints (left side only for now). He prescribed orthopedic inserts and physical therapy twice a week.