kentcowgill.org/blog

Not much to report.

My physical therapy for Thursday was cancelled due to the therapist not feeling well.

I ran again Friday. Was pretty tired of just running circles around the park, so I mapped out a route of about 2 miles (which is the distance I should've run if I had done 10 sets of 60 seconds jogging, 90 seconds running and maintained approximately the same speeds of 6.8mph jogging, 3.5mph walking).

As it turns out, I messed up setting the intervals on my watch (BTW, it's the Timex Ironman FLIX (similar to this one) that I think my niece Ann Frances and/or Ruth bought for me a few years back for either Christmas or my Birthday). So my watch only counted out 5 sets. I got confused after my fifth set because the watch wasn't counting down any more. So I had to wing it the rest of the way (since I didn't re-start the timer/counter immediately and had no idea how long I had been walking). I maybe didn't jog the full 60 seconds for some of the later sets, but I got to about the 2 mile mark at about the appropriate time.

I also suffered from a side stitch on some of the earlier sets.

Though as a punishment to myself for the screw-up, I ran another half length of the park and walked the other half length before I slowed down for the cool-down walk home. So the total was about 2.04 miles, instead of my goal of 2.01 miles.

I'm still debating whether or not to repeat this one (maybe with 11 sets instead of 10) or just to move ahead to the next weeks plan. I'm leaning towards moving on since it's not easy to program 22 intervals (11 sets of 2) on my watch. But I guess I'll figure that out before this evening.

The route, including my usual warmup and cooldown:

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I'm a little upset with myself regarding getting out on my bike.

I didn't get a good nights rest Friday night, and Saturday morning I scheduled poorly and got all messed up with errands and such - by the time I should have been getting out the door, I wasn't feeling 100% and I was practically falling asleep. So I skipped out on Saturday. Sunday, I missed out again. I slept late (making up for the night before), and so would've gotten out late, and subsequently would've been gone too long. I also wasn't confident of my ability to ride 40-50 miles on my bike in the morning and still be able to run a few miles in the evening. And honestly, I just don't see enough of my sweet little son throughout the week to justify being gone while he's not napping.

I'l probably setup my stationary trainer downstairs and spin through a few TV shows over the next few days.

July 25:
Super tired today. Woke up very early, had a pediatrician's appointment, so a slightly fussier than normal baby. Also, I worked from home. I also had a sleepy baby, so I got more work done today than if he hadn't just been shot full of drugs. But I had to get through the push ups and chin ups today, so...

Push ups: 15 then 15 then 12 then 12 then maxed out at 20. Resting about 2 minutes between sets, for a total of 74 within about 11 minutes. The count for that last set is no typo - it's twenty. I have no idea where the gas came from, but I apparently had enough in my tank for 5 more than the goal for today. Since this is the successful completion of week 2, that means I'm due for my next exhaustion test. I'll do it Sunday. If I feel good enough, then I'll start week 3 on Monday, otherwise Tuesday. But if I do Tuesday, I don't think I'll get 2 days off in a row again for a few weeks since I'll certainly want to go back to having day one on Monday as soon as possible. So I'm really going to shoot for Monday :) As far as the exhaustion test goes, I'm almost hoping I can't do more than 25 (even though I know I'll be able to) since the amount of pushups for that level looks really daunting at this point.

Chin ups: 5 then 4 then 4 then 3 then maxed out at 5 (and a half, but again - no halfsies). Resting about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 21 within about 9 minutes or so. But even without the half chin up at the end, I've still hit the minimum for day 3 of week 1. So that means I get to move onto week 2 day 1. Which is only 19. And after 2 rest days (no exhaustion test for chin ups since I haven't made it through week 2 yet) that should be a piece of cake on Monday. Or Tuesday. Nah. I think even if I push the push ups to Tuesday, I'll still do the chin ups on Monday.

No geek updates lately.

As far as a physical update... I doubt I've lost any noticeable fat, or put on any serious pounds of muscle, but I'm pretty sure I'm noticing that the muscles I use for at least the push ups (triceps and pectorals, mostly) seem to look and feel better these days. I wish I had started measuring my body fat before I began any of this. I only estimated it around last week, right as I was finishing up the graphing program. But I'm sure my estimate was way off, as I basically pinched the skinfold sites with my fingers and thought something like "Yeah, that's about 9 millimeters". Highly inaccurate. But even with that, I was at about 24-25% body fat, which equals 40 pounds of fat out of my 180 pounds of total body weight. Given the amount of fat I see around my midsection, I'd say that's probably not too far off. I suppose maybe I'm afraid that if I take the actual measurements, I'll actually be at a fairly higher percentage. Which would be depressing.

I'm still torn with what kind of workout I want to start doing after the hundred pushups challenge. I keep reading up on kettlebells, and would like to give them a serious go. Or there's the P90X program. Or there's my old pyramid workout - though that doesn't seem to be enough of a departure from the hundred push ups challenge to keep me terribly interested. Or I could start up my boxing workouts again, assuming the sounds of me pummeling my punching bag in the basement isn't too loud to carry up to Matthew's room and bother him. Or get back on my bike. Or hey - I could do pretty much all of them :) But not much seems to really strike me as simplistic as what I'm currently doing - hardly any equipment, hardly any setup time, it doesn't last long enough to make me start sweating too much (at least prior to week 5, where instead of 5 sets there are 9(!)), and if need be I can break away and take care of Matthew if he's crying. It's also about all I can do to keep myself from running out and buying a kettlebell. Maybe I'll do that, and start getting familiar with swinging one around, so long as it doesn't interfere with what I'm doing for the hundred push ups program.

July 23:
I was really raring to go earlier in the day, but lost my motivation after dinner. However, I'm pretty sure I'll be pretty down on myself if I can't slog through this program. Best case, it's six weeks. Worst case, a few more weeks than that. But honestly, it's really just a few minutes a day. And I ought to be able to find time and energy to do it for that short amount of time. And if these six weeks pass as fast as the four months that we've had Matthew, then I'm sure they'll fly by before I know it. So without further adieu...

Push ups: 16 then 13 then 11 then 11 then maxed out at 17. 17! Two more than the minimum! Hooray! Resting about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 68 in about 9 minutes or so. Despite my feeling of lacking energy, I was still able to pull through these and even ended up doing more than I was hoping for. All I have to get on Friday is 69. Easy peasy, especially with 2 entire minutes of rest between sets.

Chin ups: 4 then 3 then 2 then 2 then maxed out at 5. 5! One more than the minimum! Resting about 90 seconds between sets, for a total of 16 in about 7 minutes. So it looks like repeating the week has so far proved that I just needed a little extra work to hit the week 1 targets. Though Friday is a bit of a large leap up to 21, so hopefully the extra rest will be enough to let my muscles recoup between sets a little and reach 21.

I just rode 55 miles this past saturday.

This week was particularly fun; I drove to Winnetka with a friend, where we joined up with a group of riders that (I think) refer to themselves as "playa del lago" or something like that - or at least that's the name of the mall where they depart from. It was a nice, rolling ride through the streets of Winnetka, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, and a few other towns that I can't recall.

My friend, Warren, and his dad, Mike, and I finally turned around about 6 miles shy of Gurnee, primarily because Mike had to get back to town. The way back was beautiful - we found a route that went through some lovely neighborhoods - it felt like we were riding through peoples' back yards. About an hour after turning around, Mike turned up the steam to get back as quickly as he could, while Warren and I meandered around a bit more. We wandered through Fort Sheridan, a cool little town that used to be an army base - with all the original buildings still intact! All the officers' quarters had been turned into homes, and we couldn't tell what the barracks had been turned into - but they were huge!

Warren and I took a few rest-stops along the way because we were really getting tired. We finally made it back about 6 hours after we set out, and boy was I sore. I could hardly move the rest of the day and most of Sunday, but I think it was well worth the effort - riding with a group seems to be a great way to keep myself motivated!