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Second workout in a row where I'm relegated to the treadmill due to weather. This time I bumped the elevation up to 2% to give it a bit more of a challenge.  Worked out well. I did 2.03 miles over the 30 minutes, a total of at least 9 minutes of which was running.

The alternating days back and forth of pushups and running seems to be going good, and not taking to much of a toll on my muscles, which was what I was afraid might happen.

Now I need to figure out where and when I'll get a run in around my parents' house in Michigan this weekend, to complete Week 2 of Couch to 5K.

Posted by Phil Randolph at 10:48:00 AM, in  CouchTo5K  | Permalink - Couch to 5K - Week 2 Workout 2 | Comments (0)

Felt good today for the most part, however my triceps really flared up near the end...haven't noticed a lot of stuff back there, but this time they really made themselves known...

20/20/23/23/20/20/18/18/53 (35, break30sec, 18)

Had a good set of music come my way while just shuffling my "All Time Favorites" playlist:

• Y.M.C.A. - The Village People
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds
• California Dreamin' - The Mamas and The Papas
• I've Got You Under My Skin - James Darren
• Linus & Lucy - (From Peanuts)
• Amish Paradise - Weird Al Yankovic (this last one was great for keeping a steady beat on the last maximum set)

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:11:00 AM, in  100 Pushups  | Permalink - 100 Pushups - Week 6 Column 2 Day 2 (Take 8) Report | Comments (0)

Well that was...different...

Running outside was a no-go today as it has been raining cats and dogs in the Cleveland area this morning since I was on the bus on the way downtown. This meant I was relegated to using a treadmill in the workout room upstairs for my walk/run.  I definitely could tell my pace was much more steady both walking and running, but I certainly missed the (mostly) fresh air outside and the scenery.  One good thing is that there are multiple fans in the room that can be turned on, oh..and that building controlled temperature thing...that was good too. No humid 90+ degree run for me today.

So this week's workouts entail this: 'Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.' I then tack on an extra five minute cool down period so everything gets done in very close to 30 minutes.  I ended up going 2.02 miles all told in that 30 minutes. Nothing earth shattering, but continuing on in the process.  I think next week will be even more fun with the extra time fluctuations, and longer run times...

Also not feeling too bad having done a run day, a pushups day and another run day (not to mention moving alot of furniture into and around my daughter's room last night) all in succession.

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:02:00 AM, in  CouchTo5K  | Permalink - Couch to 5K - Week 2 Workout 1 | Comments (2)

Today begins the era of attempting to intermingle my pushups workouts with my new Couch to 5K running workouts.

By the end of the 4th set today I was feeling extremely tight, but the lower rep numbers in sets 5 through 8 helped take the edge off the pressure and I was able to get to 40 before stopping for a brief break on the last set.

20/20/25/25/13/13/12/12/50 (40, break30sec, 10)

Genius for today:

• Casper Cha Cha Slide - DJ Casper
• Pump Up The Jam - Technotronic
• Everybody Dance Now - C+C Music Factory
• Let The Music Play - Shannon
• Wild Thing - Tone Loc
• Two of Hearts - Stacey Q

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:52:00 AM, in  100 Pushups  | Permalink - 100 Pushups - Week 6 Column 2 Day 1 (Take 8) Report | Comments (0)

Decided to try out my first run while at home on the weekend for Workout 3 of Week 1.  Mapped out a route on RunningAhead.com which would suffice, turned out to be approx 1.92 miles. 

I showed my son that route and asked if he wanted to get on his bike and follow me/keep coming back to me as I made my way around.  He got out a piece of paper and started drawing out the route I had on screen.  What he failed to do though, is understand which direction we'd be starting in.  So I took off, and was expecting him to catch me fairly quickly, as I'm still only running 2/5 of the workout time.  Got down the first street all the way - nothing...down the next 1/2 mile...no Zach...  Made it all the way around the route, including cool down...still no boy.  Hmm...look in the garage, his bike's not there.  I began re-tracing the route down to the first corner and as I got there, I saw him rounding one of the other corners near the end of the route.  He came up to me and said he'd finished drawing the route, but wasn't sure which way to leave our house to begin.  He probably ended up going farther than I did, but definitely got in some good exercise.

Today's run went well, and it definitely wasn't as hot and humid, which was nice...still sweating like crazy though...shower-time here I come!  What's that workout going to be next week?  I'll look at it on Tuesday maybe...back-to-back days will likely not be a good idea for a while.

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:04:00 AM, in  CouchTo5K  | Permalink - Couch to 5K - Week 1 Workout 3 | Comments (0)

Yeah, I came back to do it for a second day...were you doubting?

Not a whole lot to report about today's run.  It was a bit more overcast and there was a bit of a breeze when I was down closer to the waterfront and not in between all the downtown buildings, so I think that helped a bit with the heat.

This time my route and timing lined up nearly perfectly, so I think I've found my route for a little while, at least before it begins to expand to greater distances.

Taking advise from Kathy Brown and others, I've setup a profile on RunningAHEAD.  I think I have setup the readership rights correctly so you can view my workout information to some extent.  Nothing earth-shattering right now, but it will be good to go back and look at the historical information as I move along.

Looks like if I want to keep with the program I'll need to scout out a good spot (maybe in the Cleveland Metroparks) to do my run over the weekend...not sure where/when I'll squeeze that in, but I'm going to make the effort.

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:37:00 AM, in  CouchTo5K  | Permalink - Couch to 5K - Week 1 Workout 2 | Comments (2)

Just finished with the first workout of the Couch to 5K program

Decided to get started with this after several people (you know who you are) requested/urged/asked/challenged me to try it.  I figured it can't hurt to diversify how I exercise after doing just about solely the 100 Pushups workout stuff for the last 9+ months.

This first workout felt pretty good, and I'm currently not feeling too bad.  I'm thinking that might change in the ensuing hours but we will see.

Since this was my first time out and I'm doing this in a downtown setting, I miscalculated how far I journeyed from my "home-base" on the way out, so my 'warm-down' period to get back was 8 1/2 minutes instead of 5 minutes.  Also had failed to factor in busy intersections and crosswalks...and oh, yeah, the hill that I forgot was there which I apparently ran/walked down on the way out was an incline on the way back, imagine that.

One other thing, my iphone, regardless of the fact that I have the new OS 3.0 feature to shake to shuffle the iPod app off, was advancing songs in my selected playlist at random intervals, so I must have been putting some kind of body heat pressure on the interface while I was going along. Anyone else have an issue like that?

Will we see a loooooong string of blog posts now about these new Couch to 5K runs?  Who knows, but I do like a challenge and do like to stick to them! 

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:54:00 AM, in  CouchTo5K  | Permalink - Couch to 5K - Week 1 Workout 1 | Comments (5)

Ouch! and Ouch over there too...

By the 4th set of my pushups workout today (one of the longer ones - 30), I had a large twinge under my left shoulderblade and a smaller but still annoying twinge under my right shoulderblade. They actually hurt more when I stood up and was stretching than when I was doing the actual pushups, so I just kept on going.  I thought I was going to make it through the final set all the way to 55, but the sharpness on the left really got to me in that last set...so...

22/22/30/30/25/25/18/18/55(46, break30sec, 9)

Today I just threw the iPhone (now OS 3.0 endowed) on shuffle in the all songs list just to see what it would generate...yeah...all over the place!

• Wierd Science - Oingo Boingo
• Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
• Cindy, Oh Cindy - The Beach Boys
• Jeopardy - Greg Kihn
• Chantilly Lace - Big Bopper
• Sweet Sixteen - Al Jolson
• Jolly Holiday - From Mary Poppins
• Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In - 5th Dimension
• Living In Danger - Ace of Base
• Waiting For A Girl Like You - Foreigner

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:37:00 AM, in  100 Pushups  | Permalink - 100 Pushups - Week 6 Column 2 Day 3 (Take 7) Report | Comments (0)

Not quite as much strength in the arms today, but I made it all the way through...

20/20/23/23/20/20/18/18/53 (30, break30sec, 23)

I've been putting it off, and putting it off, but today I bit the bullet and started listening to the Puck Podcast for 6/13/09 on the way in to work today.  This is the one they recorded right after game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.  Obviously I didn't like the outcome of the series, but not listening to the podcast certainly wasn't going to change anything.  So to get it over with I finished the last part of it during my workout.  Thought my frustration with the outcome might turn into some extra adrenaline for the pushups.

Go Wings in '09-'10!  Could we see a rubber match between the Wings and Pens? Only time will tell!

Posted by Phil Randolph at 11:41:00 AM, in  100 Pushups  | Permalink - 100 Pushups - Week 6 Column 2 Day 2 (Take 7) Report | Comments (0)

After a couple days hiatus, I'm back at it again...

Pushed all the way through the final set and even tacked on 5 more at the end, felt great...even if I was a sweaty mess for the next 20 minutes or so...sorry there co-workers!

20/20/25/25/13/13/12/15/55!

Today's genius findings:

• Only Wanna Be With You - Hootie & The Blowfish
• Only The Good Die Young - Billy Joel
• When I Come Around - Green Day
• Centerfold - J. Geils Band
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
• Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel
• Kokomo - The Beach Boys

Posted by Phil Randolph at 01:48:00 PM, in  100 Pushups  | Permalink - 100 Pushups - Week 6 Column 2 Day 1 (Take 7) Report | Comments (0)