Posts in Category: Cross Training
Back on top of the world
One of my favorite places of all time is the summit of Sharp Top mountain in Bedford. To get there, it’s a 1.5-mile hike with about 1,300 feet of elevation gain.
Needless to say, it’s not easy, but it is a lot of fun getting there. It’s a continuous climb over mixed trails — gravel, dirt, boulders, tree roots, rock steps, and a very small amount of pavement. Once you get there, though, the view is just breathtaking …
Yesterday, I headed there with my dog, Duke. It was the first time I’ve been there since May 2010 when I went there with a group for a long run/hike.
Duke took to the trail like a pro. It’s amazing to me the instincts that animals have in an environment they’re not used to. While we’ve been on trails before, we had never been on anything like this.
Whenever we came to a point where we needed to go up rocks, he spotted an easier route. Duke, who has never even jumped in the back of my Ford Escape, had no problems jumping up or down over rocks.
As for me, it felt good to have this extra time on my feet without it being a run. After Saturday’s race I felt pretty good, and this just felt like extra bonus time in a higher elevation to help prepare me for Blue Ridge.
More importantly, though, I was just happy to be back on top of a mountain. I certainly hope that another two years don’t pass before I get back.
Week 5: I want it
“I’ve never made it past week 4 …”
I wrote that in May 2011 when I was doing the 100 push-ups program for the 1,934th time. Back on attempt No. 1 in 2009, I wrote a post titled Stuck in Week 4.
Now that I’m on attempt No. 2,121, I find myself in familiar territory — the end of week 4. I think I’ve done the week 4 max test one time only to redo week 4. And then, with multiple excuses, I’ve never seen the light of week 5.
Here I am though. More confident than ever. Tomorrow I do an exhaustion test — simply put, I just do a bunch of push-ups until I collapse. If I can do 31, I go to week 5. Anything lower than that … well, I’m not redoing week 4. I’ll do at least 31.
I’ve been writing about this program on and off for more than 2 years and not once has anyone held me accountable. Not once has anyone left a comment on here, Facebook, Twitter or Daily Mile to say, “Hey, I see you haven’t logged a push-ups workout in a while …”
So just like with training for a marathon, I realize that it’s up to me to get this done. I haven’t written about my voyage this time very much because of my previous failed attempts.
All those times I’ve slacked off, though, I’ve learned something. Now I just have to do it.
Time to dust off the bike
It’s funny how I don’t have much to say about running right now. Maybe it’s because training for the Shamrock Half is off to a good start and I don’t want to jinx anything.
I do feel, though, that I need to continue to mix things up. My core streak has started off well and I have no doubts that will only improve my running; my 100 push-ups effort is also continuing — last night I did a total of 80 push-ups with a redo of week 3, day 2. When I look at what I’m doing, though, something is still missing. I’ve felt like that for a long time.
I have a fairly cheap mountain bike that I bought about 4 years ago that has very few miles on it. It sits in a storage building gaining new cobwebs every day. When I see it, I wipe off the seat, check the tires and say the same thing - “I need to start riding my bike again.”
For those of you who haven’t followed me for years, you probably don’t know about my tail bone injury from summer 2008. That injury pretty much ended my biking outside.
When I joined a gym in 2009, I did some spinning on the various bikes in there, but my tail bone didn’t feel right for a long time.
That feeling of pain when sitting lingered with me for a long time. I know that’s only an excuse now, but I wanted to provide some context as to why I haven’t been on a bike in a while.
Today I took an important step to getting back on the bike — I purchased a bike helmet. It’s actually the first one I’ve ever owned.
Now that I’ve made that $20 investment, it’s time to take the next step to hopping on the bike and seeing what happens …
Core streak anyone?
First off, this is not intentionally the next thing to spread on Twitter or a challenge in which I’m encourage others to jump all over, but if you want to join in the fun, come on.
In yesterday’s randomness post, I mentioned that I was thinking about doing a “core streak” in February. Well, here it is in official terms: I’m doing a core streak in February. I’ll label it on Twitter as #corestreak. If I can do a run streak, I can do a core streak.
The guidelines — NOT RULES — are simple. Do an exercise each day that engages the core. This can be: sit-ups, planks, push-ups, things on this website, or anything in a Google search of core workouts. This can be of any number of sets or reps or intensity.
My main goal is to set a routine of core work from this point forward. Sure I’ve done a variety of core over the years, but I’ve always lacked consistency. A core streak can only help.
Ah, push up
The title is meant to be a reference to the Salt-n-Pepa song from the 1980s, which popped up in my head tonight while doing push-ups. Lame, I know, but doing push-ups I really have to push it to get through them.
I continue to tell myself that I’m not doing enough of these. I restarted the 100 push-ups program at the beginning of the month, but I should be doing a test getting ready for week 5, or even be on the first day of week 5. Instead I’m on the second day of week 4. That’s OK though — by restarting this program, I have done more than 500 push-ups for the month. I’ve never made it past week 4 either, so it’s important to me to do it slowly, even if it is just on level 1.
I have a major lack of confidence doing this program. I have no idea why or why I’ve never stuck with it, but this time around feels a lot better.
I’m kind of rambling about this and repeating some things I’ve said before, but I just want to keep going. I want this to be a key part of my workouts moving forward this summer to help me avoid the trap of “just running” once my mileage gets higher. Make sense?
Push-ups, here I come
April’s non-running goal: 50 consecutive good form push-ups.
This isn’t about how many times I have tried and not completed the 100 push-ups program. This is about setting what I think is a reasonable non-running goal to kick things off in the second quarter of the year.
Tonight I did 28 pretty good push-ups for my initial test, so getting to 50 is a good goal I think. I’ve been doing push-ups once or twice a week for a while now and have a good base for this.
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