Friday, November 22, 2013

Afghanistan, Week 1

Well hello there. I've been meaning to write for a few days but couldn't quite find the time. It's becoming clear to me that this isn't going to be a daily blog but I'll try to post weekly updates at a minimum. Soon it'll be monthly, and then yearly, and then never. We all know how it goes.

We've been busy so far, working on replacing the Medevac company that's here now, learning how things operate over here, getting into a routine. I'm getting into a good workout regimen and eating healthy but haven't been studying much or flying at all. I'm excited for the dust to settle and get in a really good and productive routine.

There's a pretty cool running club here on Bagram that runs a lot of their own races and also shadows a lot of the bigger marathons worldwide. My commander, XO, and a few other people are planning on running the Boston Marathon shadow run in April and I think it's just the motivation I need to get in a lot of miles here. An 18-week training schedule starts on December 16th so I have about a month to get better acclimatized to the elevation. We're at around 5000' and my treadmill running has been pretty slow and short thus far.

Anyway, that's about all for now. It's amazing how healthy and productive I feel without alcohol dragging me down. Hopefully I'll be flying soon and have some fun stories. As the most junior pilot in the entire company, it may be a while but I'm hoping they didn't send me here just to get in shape and learn Japanese.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Lazy Days

I didn't do much today other than write this blog and create a two-day streak. I can't remember how many times you have to do something for it to become a habit but 2 is closer to that number than 1. We had a bit of work at the hangar from 9 to 11 then went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a retirement luncheon. Then I went to my buddy Austin's house and played Catan with his wife and Tony, ate pizza for dinner, and roughhoused with his kids until it was their bedtime. Whenever I get too emotional about this deployment, I just need to realize how much worse Austin has it than I do. He has a 5 year-old, a 3 year-old and a pregnant wife that he's leaving behind. I've gotten to know the kids pretty well and it's killing ME to leave them behind. I can only imagine what he's going through. I've known this for a while but his family has really made me realize that I need to make something like that a priority in my life. Even if the only reason is that my body can't take much more single-life punishment. I have plenty of time to think about making this lifestyle change while I'm overseas bettering myself. Tomorrow I have to finish moving out of my Clarksville home, run a load of laundey, and pack for war. I'd hate to show up to war without clean underwear.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Going to War

I like to put it as bluntly as possible. I'm going to war. I'm going to try to blog as much of my experience as I can while being careful not to add details that would compromise operational security. Really, I'm viewing this as a life-altering event and I want to chronicle the ways that my life will be altered over the next 9 months. I hope to come home the same person, just smarter and in better physical condition. Is that too much to ask?

I have some very specific goals that I want to achieve and I think blogging will help me stay on track. Obviously the pushup bet was a failure but I credit the blog for keeping it going as long as it did. It's really my shoulder's fault that I wasn't able to complete the challenge. I don't really anticipate many of my goals failing because of physical reasons(knock on wood) so we're blogging to keep the motivation up. Here is a short list of things I would like to do over the next 9 months:

Learn decent Japanese
Play a few songs on the guitar
Be able to run a 3:29:36 marathon in September 2014
Lift weights/circuit train 6 days a week
Be ready for a Pilot in Command check ride in August 2014

The last one is the most important because it's the key to my main, unwritten goal, of coming home in one piece. We're probably going to have a lot of down time and learning more about safe flying is the number one goal. But you can only read so much about helicopters so I'm going to use the other goals to balance my deployed life.

For now, I'm just going to keep this small. Dookie and Jimmy will probably be the only readers. But I'm hoping that I'll make enough progress over the next few months to advertise the blog a little more and show people how much you can accomplish even in shitty situations. How you can find silver linings in everything. How you can go to war and come home stronger.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Welp

So my previous total was 32895 and I have 650 more blogged. I probably did more but I can't remember. All I remember is 210 the day I went to Vegas and 150 on each of the next two days. When I came home from Vegas, my left arm was tingling like I pinched a nerve and the outer part of my pec hurt like a bitch whenever I did pushups. That's still true today despite giving it plenty of rest. I did random sets throughout the month and did 77 on my PT test two weeks ago. I'm going to call it 300 for the month, a number that I know is low. so 650+210+150+150+300 = 1460 + 32895 = 34355 for an unofficial count. This means I need more than 5k/month for the last 3 months and my shoulders and chest are still sore. I'm going to make one last ditch effort and I've done 200 tonight while on 24-hour staff duty. I'm watching the 2013 WSOP on YouTube and doing random little sets. My sets tonight were 40-25-25-30-30-25-25. It's pretty embarrassing but even that many makes it feel like I'm straining my chest muscles. We'll see how I feel tomorrow but I'm going to try to do another 200. It's just going to be an ultra grind if I can only do sets of 25-30. I'm pretty sure the dream is done though.

I'm also supposed to run a marathon on Sunday and I haven't run in 3 weeks, other than the 2-mile PT Test 2 weeks ago. I was still drunk and ran a 14:31 while all of my organs screamed at me. That's the other thing...it's not just that I haven't been running, I've been eating like crap and drinking my face off. All I do these days is work, eat, booze, and sleep. And sleep is definitely last on that list. I blame pre-deployment stress and I actually don't feel horribly guilty about it. I'm going to be gone for 9 months without pizza or beer so why not eat and drink as much as I can while I can. Anyway, I want to bail on the run but I'll probably do it just to see how much pain I can put myself through. I already have my tickets to MSP, may as well do something while I'm there.

Anyway, I'm going on some pretty sweet travels over the next few weeks and I'm hoping to have some good pics and photos for the blog. Let's hope my tendons magically repair themselves but I'm not holding my breath.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Tired

Doing some great Army training here. I have some sweet pics and video that I'll post when I get home. Unfortunately I only did 270 pushups today and it felt like a million. 60 in the AM and 60 before bed and then a few sets of 50 during the day. I really need to use some card games or ripdeck to get the numbers up there.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

I suck at life

Mostly I just suck at doing a lot of pushups. I did 210 on Monday, 60 on Tuesday, and 110 on Wednesday. The days have been busier than expected and I've been lazier than expected. I have 110 done this morning but I need more than 400/day to get my 2k. Let's try to start with 400 for one day, shall we?

Sunday, August 18, 2013

DC Weekend

Had a great weekend with the family. Knocked out 300 on Friday and 210 on Saturday but only managed 110 today. Should have been higher, just got lazy and now I'm too tired. I'm getting back to the point where each morning set is 60 and each set after that should be 60 soon. Those extra couple of pushups help a lot in the long run.

This week 8 of the pilots in my company are flying 2 Blackhawks down to Texas for some training. It should be fun and I should get a lot of pushups done. Making 2k my goal, really no reason not to get there.


Weekend: 620 Total-32895

Friday, August 16, 2013

Busy

Ended up getting super busy at work and only managed 50 on Wednesday morning. Yesterday I flew up to DC and got 210 done throughout the day. Today, big number, promise!!

W/T: 260 Total-32275

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

70 straight

Today I knocked out 70 straight before breakfast and then didn't do any more for the rest of the day. 70 straight is better than I've been doing so I'm pleased with that. Tomorrow I will go for 250. I was going to say 500 but I'm going to take baby steps to getting more. My right shoulder is still taking to me and I don't want to go too nutso. I've been eating pretty healthy and running a bit and I can tell the difference in only 10 days. I'm taking progress selfies every Sunday and if the ladies are lucky, I'll post them all (I think there will be 4 pics total) when I'm done detoxing, right before Labor Day weekend.

M/T: 120 Total-32015

Sunday, August 11, 2013

HUNGOVER

Yesterday was awesome. An old friend was in Nashville for a bachelorette party and they were kind enough to let me party down with them. Pure insanity.

Only got 50 done today, right before bed. I'll do a lot this week, promise.

Week- 810 Total-31895

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Consistency

I've been pretty consistent since Wednesday and can feel myself getting into a flow. Thursday night I knocked out two sets of 50 at work and didn't get made fun of too badly. Friday morning I did my 50-40-30-20-10 pyramid and it kinda sucked but I made it without having to rest too much. Today I've done 210 and we're about to hit the bar so that'll probably be it. Here are the numbers but I won't have the sum since I'm blogging from my phone. Sum tomorrow. And maybe some day soon some bigger numbers.

Wednesday-150
Thursday-200
Friday-200
Saturday-210

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

I guess I'm doing alright

Had another drunk weekend but focused on getting at least 150 in per day and can't be too disappointed with the numbers I got. On Monday, I was at work from 2 PM until 4 AM and spent 7 hours in the air. It was really exhausting and I haven't been doing as hot during the week but once my schedule returns to normal and I combine it with my no-drinking clause, I should be fine. I've pumped out 100 this morning already and I'm going to start doing more at work. Once I get past the guys making fun of me, it'll be a great step toward doing more overall.

As the weekend creeps up, I find myself considering cheating and boozing it up but this 24-day detox cost some money and I think that'll be my saving grace; not wanting to waste money.

Thursday, 1 AUG: 200
Friday, 2 AUG: 150
Saturday, 3 AUG: 150
Sunday, 4 AUG: 250
Monday, 5 AUG: 60
Tuesday, 6 AUG: 50

Week-860 Total-31085

Thursday, August 01, 2013

August?

My God how time flies. Happy August 1st. I just finished a 24-hour staff duty shift and it sucked. I did 4 sets of 50 pushups and felt pretty good. My shoulder still hurts but I can definitely suck it up. I'd like to get back into the card games soon.

And yes, Dave, I wanted to add the 500 miles but my competition refused. But I'll definitely get there anyway. I just need to focus on pushups for a minute and get back on track. Even with these two horrible months, I'm happy that I'm ahead of pace and feel like the goal should still be easy to achieve.

Now goodnight. Hope I wake up before 2 PM.

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-30225

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Day One

Well it's not earth-shattering but I got 200 done today. 50 in the morning and then forced myself to do 150 tonight in sets of 50 and 25 randomly. Tomorrow I have a 24-hour shift at Staff Duty from 9 AM to 9 AM and I'll try to do pushups to stay awake during that time. Maybe I'll do a whopping 200 more!!
Next week I'm flying for 4 days in a row which I'm pretty excited about. I'm also going to start a 24-day detox on Sunday and I'm pumped about that as well. I've been living way too crazy and am looking forward to 24 sweet alcohol-free days.
Pushups: Today-200 YTD-30025

Hello

It's just getting worse and worse. The lack of Internet at my new place, the transition to a new workplace, my alcoholism; all add up to one horrible blogger. Well the end of another month is near and that gives us another chance to make a monthly goal that we'll probably fail at achieving. My fitness has been pretty damn lackadaisical so I'm going to make the simple goal of hitting 150/day for the next month.

On July 2nd I had 28450 and then my month has looked like this:
 
7/3: 100
7/4: 50
7/5: 50
7/6: 50
7/7: 50
7/8: 100
7/9: 50
7/10: 200
7/11: 50
7/12: 50
7/13: 250
7/14: 150
7/15: 200
7/16: 200
7/17: 100
7/18: 150
7/19: 75
7/20: 50
7/21: 50
7/22: 50
7/23: 100
7/24: 100
7/25: 50
7/26: 50
7/27: 50
7/28: 0
7/29: 0

That's only 1375 if I can count and that's a big zero the past two days. Super gross. I'll do more than that today and try to pull my life together. On a positive note, I have been flying a lot and it's really fun. This weekend is going to be another party weekend but I'm planning on 3-4 weeks of detox afterwards. August is the month we get momentum back, we promise.

Pushups: mostofJuly-1375 YTD-29825
I'm going to quit tracking the other things since I don't have money riding on their outcome. I'm going to do some quick math to see how much wiggle room I still have. Obviously I'm still slightly ahead of pace because 25k was pace at 6 months and I'm almost 5k more than that at 7 months. But pace is actually 50/12 = 4,167/monthx7months = 29,167. So I'm 658 ahead of pace if I didn't do any pushups the next two days. Kind of amazing how big of a cushion I had built up. I know if I still lived with James I wouldn't have fallen off so bad or if I lived with Dookie I'd probably have done even more but I really just need to find my own motivation and get this fucking ball rolling again. Baby steps = 150 minimum/day. Let's dooo it.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Army Physical Training is blah

So I have to wake up at 5 AM to get to PT and it's pretty lame. I prefer running and doing pushups on my own and I also prefer sleeping in late. Anyway, we did a bunch of squats and lunges and crap that hurts real bad tonight. I did 50 pushups this morning, 50 before dinner, then I did my favorite workout interspersing pushups and pullups 25-5-25-5-25-5-25. I'm feeling decidedly less sore and can tell that I'm on my way back to 500pushupville, TN. Unfortunately, I'm heading to Denver for 4 days and I'll probably visit 0pushupville, CO while I'm there. Tomorrow we're running 60-120s in the morning and then I'm going to run this in the evening. At least there'll be beer afterwards. And maybe tomorrow I'll update my totals.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Improving

Went for a slow 3-mile run with my platoon today. It's amazing how out of shape so many people are. After the run we had to do 50 pushups and 50 situps and I finished, watched everyone struggle for a bit, then decided to do 50 more pushups. I did 100 more tonight for 200 on the day. It'd be so much easier to put up big numbers if I wasn't at the hangar all day sweating my balls off. I think tomorrow I'll try to get another 200+ and finally add up my total for the year. Hope I haven't fallen too far off pace.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Relaxed

This was one of the most relaxing weekends I've had in a while. It feels great. Still don't really feel like writing a long blog post. I wonder if I'll ever feel like doing one again. Blah.

Thursday - 50
Friday - 50/3.6
Saturday - 250
Sunday - 150

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Getting Better

Still not motivated to make a legit entry. Knocked out 200 this morning in sets of 40-30-20-30-30-25-25 with 5 pull-ups in between each set. Then tonight I did another 100 and felt sore as hell. Hopefully these 300 will get some momentum building.

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Still Tired

Ran 10 sets of 60-120s today because my Platoon leader made us. A conservative estimate is 320m each time so I'll take 3200m or 2 miles. Then I went to this West Nashville running group and ran 3 more miles. So I'll take 5 for the day. Sadly I only did 50 pushups tonight and I don't feel like adding everything up. It was a long day and the drive to Nashville only makes things longer. I had a good time seeing some running buddies but I don't think I'm going to do it very often if I have to keep getting up at 5 for PT. Blah.

Monday, July 08, 2013

Work

Had a 13-hour work day today. Learning all the local flying rules is hard! Ran 3 miles on the treadmill this morning and did 100 pushups tonight. I think tomorrow I'm going to focus on pushups in the morning because there's another running club in Nashville on Tuesday afternoons and supposedly this one has more females. One of these days I'll have more energy and give you a good blog entry with updates fitness totals. One of these days.

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Roughest weekend in a long time

Well, totally failed on posting every day. Also failed on working out very much. Literally did one set of 50 every single day, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. And ran zero miles. Will have a better post tomorrow but I'm exhausted and I have to wake up early. xoxo

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Drunk

Got 100 done this morning and no more. I'm drunk. But 3-3!!

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Struggle Bus

Welp, I almost missed day #2 but I just snuck it in there. 2 for 2 baby!
Yesterday I only managed 100 and today I only managed 150. The major problem is that I'm not doing any in the morning and then in the afternoon I never have any energy. I'll work on knocking out 100 each morning and the numbers will blow up from there. It's just really felt like a chore for  long time now and I need to figure something out to get out of this funk.
I did some 400m sprints with my new roommates and it was pretty fun to do some hard running for a change. I've been running longer distances so I've been jogging it out more than sprinting. My legs were heavy and I know I need to incorporate some more track time. Tomorrow, East Nasty is running 6 miles so I'm going to take it slow again. It's funny to listen to Dave bitch about 80ish degrees when it's 95 here all the time and the humidity is about the same. Southern ain't nothing to fuck with.
This weekend is going to be nuts. I have no less than 7 friends coming up from Alabama to party for the 4th of July. If I make it to Sunday with 7 blog posts I'll consider it a success.
Pushups: Today-250 YTD-28450
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414 
Running: Today-1.5mi YTD-371.95m

Monday, July 01, 2013

Halfway Home

I don't have Internet at my condo in Nashville so it's hard to make consistent updates. I'd really like to be more consistent and the 1st of the month is a good time to set goals. I'd like to get one post up, at a minimum, every day of July even if it's just a few words on my phone. Here's my post for the 1st, 1 for 1 Baby!!
Friday I did 260 pushups, Saturday 150, and Sunday 100. I'm glad that I managed to make it more than halfway in the first six months but I know I can do a lot better. I'm going to shoot for 5K in July and build from there. The running is going to take care of itself due to the marathon training but I really need to get motivated for the pushups. I haven't done any yet today but I'm planning on doing a couple hundred tonight, 200 minimum.
July is my favorite month of the year, I can't wait to make it huge in a lot of ways.
Pushups: Today-510 YTD-28200
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-6mi YTD-370.45m

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Nashville

Nashville, the show, is awesome. I'm addicted and I've been blowing through episodes like crazy. Hayden is obviously super hot and it's cool seeing them highlight certain places in my new hometown. The music on the show is incredible as well and I'm just in love with it. Sadly, I only have a few more episodes left before the end of the season.

I ran 3.3 miles and did 100 pushups today. Sadly, the 300 yesterday made my chest sore today and I could definitely feel it during the run. I used to do 300/day and not be fazed but these two lazy months have really set me back. The heat and humidity don't help either but I think I'm getting a little better at dealing with the fact that my clothes are going to be drenched after every simple 3-mile run. And I'm sure that the boobs will bounce back in no time.

Pushups: Today-100 YTD-27690
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-3.3mi YTD-364.45mi

Spirit of the Blog

Soooo this whole taking a week off thing is against the spirit of the blog I'm really really really going to try blogging more often, even if I do it twice or three times a day. I've noticed that I have more energy to blog in the afternoons and rarely feel like banging something out right before bed. If I give mid-day updates or whatever, maybe I'll get better at this. We'll see.

The past week was kind of shitty but I'm planning on picking it up as we reach the mid-point of the year. I've only done 50 today and still need to go for a 3-mile run. I think I'm going to make a conservative goal and go for 28K by the end of the month. Still ahead of track, despite the horrendous two months. Let's get my friend momentum rolling into my birthday month.

W: 150, 3.1miles
R: 150, 4miles
F: 100
S: 66
S: 50, 5miles
M: 0
T: 150
W: 300, 3.7
R: ???

Total: 966, 15.8miles

Pushups: Today-966 YTD-27590
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-15.8mi YTD-361.15mi

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Chillin like Bob Dylan

Today I ran 2.8 miles in the morning and did 3 random sets of 50 pushups throughout the day. I'm currently inprocessing to Fort Campbell which means I sit around and do nothing all day so I should be able to do more than that. Tomorrow I'll try to do more pushups and I'm heading into Nashville to run with this group called East Nasty. They seem like a pretty fun group to run with, you can read all about it here: http://eastnastyforlife.com/
Damn NBA Finals just went to OT so I'm gonna have to stay up a little late. I love seeing Lebron choke but also love seeing Ray Allen succeed so I'm not super miserable but I'd still like to see the Spurs win. If for no other reason than the fact that I won't have to watch game 7 on Thursday, haha. Go Spurs!
Pushups: Today-150 YTD-26624
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-2.8mi YTD-345.35mi

Monday, June 17, 2013

Inertia

Momentum and Inertia, such amazingly powerful forces. Unfortunately I've been on the wrong side for a looooong time now but here's the first step in the other direction. Gotta start somewhere.
My back ended up being a much bigger issue than I could have imagined. For about 2 weeks I was hobbling around like an invalid and it really affected my mood and fitness and the like. For pushups, I did 250 in Nashville that I never added up and then I did random sets of 50, 40, 40, 50 over the span of about a million years before slowly getting going over the past week or so. As soon as I got to Minneapolis last Sunday I started doing 100/day to just get the blood flowing again. Then, on Saturday, I did 200, Sunday 100, and today 200 again. So that's 1530 over the span of almost a month. Just really not gonna cut it. I did my 50-40...-10 pyramid today and it felt really painful. Still better than I did before joining the Army but nowhere near where I was a month ago. Obviously. Anyway, pushups are boring. I'm hopefully getting back on the horse and my back is feeling good enough to start putting up bigger numbers. Despite all the slacking and whatnot I'll be fine.
No pullups in this period of time either. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to do a few.
Running is going to be a little difficult to calculate but I've done most of it with my Nike+ app on my phone so it might not be too bad. I did 5.7 in Nashville before my back tightened up like woah. Then I moped around for a while until I had had enough and went on a short run, 2.4, with James which he linked on FB here. That was June 1st. Then on June 4th I ran exactly 3.0 with my Nike+ app. Then I flew home to Seattle and ran 3.6 with him on June 5th and then ran once around Greenlake with Marcus on Friday morning for 3.2. Then Dave and I ran a 12k on Saturday for 7.47. Then I ran 3.03 in Nashville on Wednesday and then slacked off until Sunday when I ran 7.0 horrible miles. That's the sum of it...35.4? I just added it twice in my head and it seems right.
Anyway, I don't have a lot to say but I wanted to get out of my slump. This isn't the prettiest blog in the world but sometimes you have to hook up with an ugly chick to bust out of a slump. One thing I wanted to mention is how horrible my run was on Sunday. I attribute it to running in the late afternoon after driving 6 hours home from Alabama and not being hydrated enough and the Southern heat. Also, I only ran once during the week and that's just not gonna cut it. Things I will do from now on:
(1) Run in the morning
(2) Hydrate better. I'm probably going to order a hydration belt or something because I was absolutely dying in the head on Sunday afternoon.
(3) Take midweek runs more seriously.
If I stick to those three rules, I'll be fine. Next weekend the training schedule only calls for 5 miles but the following weekend calls for 10 so I need to be better prepared for marathon training in the southern heat. I will defeat it, I just need to do it smarter. More tomorrow, it feels good to get one off my chest no matter how much it sucks.
Pushups: Hiatus-1530 YTD-26474
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Hiatus-35.4mi YTD-342.55mi

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Old Man

Well the weekend has been as awesome as advertised and I've made a lot of new friends. Faith and Chris have a cool little crew and I'm really going to enjoy my time here. Their best friends are a couple named Ellen and Nekos and they're some of the coolest people I've ever met. Ellen keeps a blog here and I'm almost embarrassed to link it because it's so much better than this blog. But there it is.

I'm titling this old man because my lower back has been absolutely killing me. It was a little stiff after the PT test on Monday but nothing really came of that. Then I ran 5.7 miles on Friday morning and felt really good but throughout the day, my back really stiffened up and it almost felt unbearable. We went to a sweet house party and then a cool little bar with live music but I was miserable the whole time and probably not a lot of fun to hang out with. Yesterday, it started to loosen up a bit throughout the day and I was optimistic that the bad times were behind me. I drank a lot of tequila at dinner and I was feeling pretty good. Then this morning I woke up and it was worse than ever. I'm hobbling around real bad and while I can sit without pain, as soon as I do anything even remotely stressful to my back, sharp pains shoot up and down my body. It really sucks. I was planning on going for a short run this morning and trying to stretch it out but it's just not feasible. It's just so sore. Fuck getting old.

I did 100 pushups on Friday morning and then was in too much pain for the rest of the day to do any more. Yesterday I was feeling better and managed 150 before heading out to the park to listen to music and getting a little tipsy. Today I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do any. We're going to a BBQ at Ellen and Niko's house and I'm going to get shitfaced and self-medicate that way.

Tomorrow I drive back to Bama for my last week at Fort Rucker. It's still a bittersweet feeling but this trip Nashville has made it feel much more sweet. There's just so much more going on here and I love hanging out with Chris and Faith. Life is good...as long as my back decides to loosen up at some point.

Oh, I forgot, I bought a condo. Haha. It isn't perfect in every sense but it'll be really great for my purposes. The 2nd bedroom is tiny and wouldn't really be feasible to host a second roommate but it has its own full bathroom and will be fine for hosting guests. The master bedroom is huge so I'm going to keep my Queen bed up in Clarksville and buy a new King size bed. Faith has agreed to be my interior decorator and I'm pumped for her to turn my condo into a home...or whatever. She's done a great job decorating their house here and she knows me pretty well and will be a lot of help. The location is really great, 1.5 blocks from 5 Points which is a local hotspot with a bunch of bars and whatnot and then I'm 1.5 miles from downtown which is where I'll take all my guests when they come to town. I'm also 1.5 miles from Chris and Faith and we'll be hanging out a lot this summer. Can't effing wait.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Nashville

Finished my lame class today and headed up to Nashville. It's a bit of a drive, almost 6 hours, but Chris and Faith always make it worthwhile. They made a delicious salmon, quinoa, and brussel sprout dinner for me and we drank a bunch of Coronas. They have a lot of BBQs and parties planned for the weekend and I can't wait. I didn't run or do pushups today but I did 9-9-6 pullups with 2 minutes of rest between sets. I'll add the numbers tomorrow, goodnight for now.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Bored Bored Bored

I'm going a little crazy waiting for graduation. This class we're getting is extremely boring and it's a pain in the butt driving all over post trying to get clearing papers signed. Thankfully, we have a 4-day weekend coming up and I'm heading to Nashville to hang out with the Bendts and buy a condo so life should get more interesting this weekend.

For now, this is what I'm doing at night:


This afternoon, James and I had a special guest on our run, Mr. Brian Roche. He's back in town for two weeks and wanted to run with us. James and I put a bit of a hurting on him but we managed to do 3.69 miles at ~7:30 pace which felt decent in the heat. We were all sweating like madmen by the end of the run. I thought James uploaded the run but I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, 3.69.

This morning I woke up and did a 50-40-30-20-10 pyramid with 1 minute in-between sets. It's a great workout and doesn't take much time. I did two random sets of 50 this afternoon and did one set of 50 after dinner and my boobs hurt so much that I was ready to call it a day at 300. Then Marina started talking trash so I agreed to do 50 for every set of 10 she did, up to 4 sets. Well, she's kind of a beast and started doing sets of 20 but thankfully didn't make me double my ante. We're up to 3 sets and will be doing #4 shortly. Thanks to Marina, I'm going to hit my goal of 500. God bless shit talkers.

Speaking of shit talkers, I just signed up for a 12k run with my main man Dookie on June 8th. It's a hilly course and we've agreed not to leave each other but I have a feeling that may go out the window for the last km or two. He's quite the beast of an athlete and it's going to be fun to be able to run with him a bit. I'm trying to get him to come out for one of the halfs that I'm doing but he's got two young children and a lot on his plate.

Just realized that today's pushups pushed me over the halfway point to 50,000. May 22nd is the 142nd day of the year(I think) and if I can finish on day 284(October 10th?), I will be a happy camper. I actually feel better than I have in a long time, the pain is almost purely muscle soreness with just a touch of shoulder pain mixed in. Pullups tomorrow morning, driving to Nashville in the afternoon. Can't wait.

Pushups: Today-500 YTD-25344
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-3.69mi YTD-307.15mi

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Lazy Days

It's strange being done with flight school. We have a lame class from 0730-noon but other than that my only responsibilities lie in getting some paperwork signed and not getting a DUI. I get to spend a lot of time hanging out with Dominic so I can't complain too much.


My old roommate, Brian, is back in town and we were supposed to go running today but it was just too damn hot. It was 90 degrees with high humidity and we both kind of bitched out. My ass and legs hurt quite a bit, probably from pushing my drunken legs too hard on those two miles, but I definitely could have gone out and done something. We've agreed to go tomorrow and have made a pact not to bitch out. We'll see. I did do my little 8-8-8 pullup session and then just did 11 more for a total of 35 today. I'm gonna go for 9-9-9 on Thursday, wish me luck! I'll leave you with a pic of Brian and me from his graduation. Why does he look like a midget?


Pushups: Today-0 YTD-24844
Pullups: Today-35 YTD-449
Running: Today-0mi YTD-303.46mi

Monday, May 20, 2013

PT stud

It's not my term, it's just what they call people who max their PT Test! I did 91 pushups, 87 situps, and ran 13:15 which combines for my best result ever. I'd really like to get faster so that I don't hate my life during the third event. That 13:15 was pure heart and "want-to" because it sucked for about 1.9 miles. The last 0.1 mile I could see the clock ticking down and couldn't think about how much it hurt to breathe because I had to get across before it got to 13:19.

I think this is proof that cramming for this type of test doesn't work. I did the anti-cram and tried to destroy my fitness for a week and was unable to do so. If I had been lazy for the past two months and tried to build my fitness over a week, obviously that wouldn't have worked out too well. So the moral is, live healthy for the most part but don't be afraid to let your hair down every once in a while. Going crazy from time to time is what keeps me sane.


I did two random sets of 50 around lunch and then did the pushup game with James right before dinner.  I was planning on doing extra pushups after the game to make it to 500 for the day but the card gods blessed me with 349 in the game, rounding my number out at 540 for the day. Not too bad! I'm going to take tomorrow off, work on some pullups, and try to bang out another 500 on Wednesday. I don't think I'll be able to make it to 27.5k and stay on my 5.5k/month pace but there's still time to make sure that May isn't a huge disaster.

It's really hitting me that I'm moving in 10 days. It symbolizes the closing of a huge chapter of my life and it's feeling really bittersweet. I had a great time down here, learned a lot, and made a lot of great friends. My roommates are the best people in the world and I get to hang out with this guy every day. How could I not feel a little emotional about leaving this?



Pushups: Today-540 YTD-24844
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-414
Running: Today-2mi YTD-303.46mi

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Wasting Away

Damn, it's been a whole week since checking in. I traveled out to Wyoming and Denver and was pretty worthless throughout. Did one set of 60 pushups on both Monday and Tuesday, 300 on Wednesday, 200 on Thursday, 60 on Friday, 50 on Saturday, and 25 today. Looks like 755 to me. That's how many home runs Hank Aaron hit. Cool. I ran 2.34 miles on Monday and 3 miles on Thursday. This was a pretty horrible time to go on a huge bender because my PT test is tomorrow but this one is basically pass/fail and doesn't really play a role in determining anything. We'll see how it goes.

Last night I wasn't even that drunk but started wrestling with my stick buddy and smashed my eye on the corner of a couch. Afterwards, I got real drunk. Sigh.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to do 500 pushups and get to 500 every other day until the end of the month. It just must be done.


Pushups: Week-755 YTD-24304
Pullups: Week-0 YTD-414
Running: Week-5.43mi YTD-301.46mi

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Lazy Weekend

Argh. My laptop won't turn on and I'm pretty sure I finally broke it. Typing on the iPad is painful and I just spent about 2 minutes trying to get left alignment set up. I guess all my paragraphs will be centered. 

This weekend was pretty lazy because the week was so draining. Tomorrow is my last flight of flight school so I did a lot of studying and sleeping. And a little drinking on Saturday. Ran 4 miles on Friday and 3 miles today. Only did 330 push-ups all weekend. And 24 pull-ups. Such a bum, I am.

These pics are all interesting to me but maybe no one else. Deal with it. 

Pushups: Today-330 YTD-23549
Pullups: Today-24 YTD-414
Running: Today-7mi YTD-296.03mi


Thursday, May 09, 2013

Nights are Killing me

The night shift is crushing my soul. It's pretty brutal getting home at 1:30 in the morning and having to unwind from flying a crazy beast of a machine for 1.5-2 hours. And you have to sit in the back while your stick buddy flies so really you're using these night vision goggles for 3-4 hours a night and my eyes are constantly watering at the end of the flight. We missed a lot of days last week so we're flying extra this week and our final check ride still got pushed back to Monday. Totally sucks, way to ruin a perfectly good weekend.

This morning I was a bit of a zombie but I managed to complete one of the 50-10 pushup pyramids with 1 minute between sets. I am going to try 55-5 on Saturday. It's only 30 more pushups total but I have a feeling that it'll be a lot harder. I was planning on doing a situp pyramid but didn't feel like it so I just did 80 as fast as I could and got them in 1:57. I have 2 minutes to do 77 and it's always easier with someone holding my legs so I think I'll be fine there. Didn't run at all today, gonna try to run fast with James tomorrow morning.

Here's a better picture of my beautiful office. My God it's fun.


Pushups: Today-150 YTD-23219
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-390
Running: Today-0mi YTD-289.03mi

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Felix Day!

The Mariners had a day game today and I got to watch Felix for the second time this year. He's the man, obviously, and the M's won 2-1. I've never been so glad to be on the night shift.

Real quick blog entry before I run to the flight line to plan tonight's flight. I did 3 random sets this morning of 70, 70, and 60 pushups for 200 on the day. I also did 8-8-8 pullups with 2 minutes in-between. I think I'm going to stick with the 2-minutes for now and get up to 10-10-10 then start doing pullups with my boots on and whatnot. No running today but I did buy a crazy altitude mask for training. Not sure how I'm going to run in this thing and not get arrested but we'll see.


Pushups: Today-200 YTD-23069
Pullups: Today-24 YTD-390
Running: Today-0mi YTD-289.03mi

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Running

Today I did some speedwork with my roommate. It's a good thing they allow gays in the military!


The plan was to warmup for 15 minutes, run 400m, rest 1 minute, run 800m, rest 2 minutes, run 1200m, rest 3 minutes, run 800, rest 2 minutes, then run a final 400m at the same pace as your first one, then run a 15 minute cooldown.

I think we ran a little too hard from the house to the track, running1.5 miles in 11:07. We rested for 3 minutes and then ran the first 400 in 1:25. I was really hating life because I haven't run hard since I tore my hammy. Also, this night schedule is really fucking with my eating schedule and I feel like I have less energy than I usually do. I weighed in at 197.4 lbs today which I think is a little too skinny. Instead of resting for 1 minute, I made us rest for 2 minutes and then we ran the 800m in 3:04. Instead of resting 2 minutes, I made us rest for 3 minutes and then ran the 1200m in 4:53. Struuuuugling. We rested for the proscribed 3 minutes and then ran the 800m in 3:14. We rested for 3 minutes(instead of 2) and I ran the final 400m in 1:21.

James kicked my ass in the 1200m and second 800m but I out kicked him for the final 400m. He was a 3-year letterman Defensive Back at the same high school that Matt Leinart went to so he's definitely fast. We drank some water, walked around, then ran 1.18 miles home, slowly, in 9:27. I can't figure out how exactly to take out the little bit of walking that we did so I'm just going to count the entire 5.34 miles.


Next time I'll try to stick to the 400m-1 minute-800m-2 minute-1200m-3 minute-800m-2 minute-400m timeline a little better. I only have 2 weeks to improve quite a bit and don't really feel like it's gonna happen. I think I'm going to try the workout again on Friday and then again next Tuesday.

I definitely feel like this is going to evolve into a running blog with pushups as the side story. I think running is a little more interesting anyway and I'm excited to see how the marathon training goes after the PT test. Speaking of pushups, I've done 3 sets of 60 today and I'm planning on another 60 before going to fly so I'm just gonna call it 240. My shoulder still feels like shit so I'm taking it easy. Oh, and I did one set of 70 yesterday morning.

One of the best things about this blog is that it inspired my buddy Dookie to get back into shape. He's always been a beast but with two kids and a full time job and various other projects he had slipped into worse shape than he wanted. He's already putting up bigger pushup numbers than me and I feel like he's going to do this running workout and shit on my times. Here is a link to his blog, check it out!

Pushups: Today-310 YTD-22869
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-366
Running: Today-5.34mi YTD-289.03mi

Monday, May 06, 2013

Springfest

Springfest is an annual huge college party at the University of North Dakota. I have some friends in flight school who went to school there and they convinced me to go up there for the weekend. It was a hell of a time and definitely lived up to the hype. Here are some random pics I had on my phone.


I was true to my word and did zero pushups this weekend. I did manage to get a 4.91 mile run in on Sunday, fueled by eggs and beer. Here's a map of that:


I accidentally left my watch on so it shows me going all the way to Minneapolis before the battery died. The first part in what matters. I still feel kind of slow but I'm not in pain so hopefully the speed will come back.

Pushups: Today-0 YTD-22559
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-366
Running: Today-4.91mi YTD-283.69mi

Friday, May 03, 2013

No Fly again!

The weather was shitty again so we didn't fly. The thing that sucks is that the weather doesn't have to be thaaat bad to make flying with Night Vision Goggles unsafe and night time is when the most fog and other visible moisture forms. So apparently this is pretty normal for Night Flying but it still sucks. I came home and started drinking wine with my buddy Jack but the wine sucked so I moved on to Rum and Coconut Water. The coconut water is kind of an addiction of mine and even though Jack went home around 10 and James went to bed at 10:30, I stayed up until 12:30 drinking. I didn't really realize what was happening until it was 12:30 and I was drunk. I think that may be the first time I've ever gotten drunk all by myself. This is when you know you have a problem. I think my main problem is that I love coconuts too much.

If you take nothing else from this blog ever, take this: DO NOT BUY CHOCOLATE SHOP WINE. EVER. Super gross.


Last night our dogs started fighting really bad and I jacked my shoulder up trying to separate them. It seems like I always have a new excuse...getting old really sucks. Anyway, my right shoulder is in a lot of pain so I'm going to limit myself to the 50 I did this morning. I don't know how many I'll get done this weekend because I'm going to be partying too much but that rest could be a good thing.

James and I went for a 3.23 mile run this morning that was pretty slow. My legs were weak but didn't feel much pain which is a good sign I think. One good thing about the run is that we had negative splits...7:34 first mile, 7:20 second mile, 7:15 third mile. I love it when that happens. Anyway, he linked it here:

Pushups: Today-50 YTD-22559
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-366
Running: Today-3.23mi YTD-278.78mi

Thursday, May 02, 2013

No Fly No Bueno

Yesterday we didn't fly because of shitty weather. I have 6 flights left and then I'm done with flight school so I hate to see days go by wasted. Here's a pic from my desk and a pic of my broken face. Good times.


Yesterday I did pullups 2 minutes apart, 8-8-7. My last one on the second set and my last two on the last set were a bit of a struggle and I had to kick my way up a bit but I still got there. Once I get to 10-10-10 I'll start to do them with my shoes on then my boots then figure out other ways to add weight. 10-10-10 with 45 lbs should be right around the corner!

I ran 2.62 yesterday which is coincidentally 1/10 of a marathon. I only ran a 7:11 pace so if I ran that 10 times in a row, I still wouldn't qualify for Boston. How ridiculous. To protest, I signed up for 3 half marathons last night; two in Kentucky and one in Indiana. Here are the links:


I'm also considering these:






I feel like a bit of an addict. I ran another 5.01 today and felt like crap. Night flight line is a bitch because I don't eat a good dinner ever and I think my running is affected negatively. Once positive note is that my hamstring feels pretty good. It only gives me issues when I don't run for a day and let it get stiff. Once I'm done with school, I should have a pretty regular schedule and be able to get into a better running groove. Anyway, here are the maps:


I did zero pushups yesterday but did a 50-40-30-20-10 pyramid this morning with a 1 minute break between sets and just finished a card game with Jack, logging 277. The morning pyramid is something I did to get ready for the Army and is one of the reasons why I've always been ahead of my peers in the pushup game. It was a lot easier than it ever was two years ago(obviously) and I'm thinking about ramping it up to 60-50-...-10. I did a 60-...-10 pyramid with situps right afterwards and that might be part of the reason why my run felt shitty. Regardless, I feel like I'm starting to get some good forward momentum going, feeling good.

Pushups: Today-427 YTD-22509
Pullups: Today-23 YTD-366
Running: Today-7.63mi YTD-275.55mi

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Visitors are Awesome

Matt and Jamie came to visit for a few days and it's always nice to have people from the outside world invade Alabama. I get pretty homesick and it's nice to have them here to remind me of Seattle. Here's a pic of them at the museum and a pic of the Blackhawk that I was supposed to fly last night before it got too cloudy.


Yesterday I ran 4 miles with James and Matt (James and I made Matt hate life obviously) and did 3 sets of pullups with 90 seconds rest in between, 11-7-5. I was pretty proud of my 11 pullups but the goal is do be able to do 3 sets of 10 with a 45 lb vest on. I'll let you know when that happens...

Today I did 50 pushups when I rolled out of bed and 299 during the card game with James this afternoon. That puts me at 22082 for the first 4 months, I'll take it! I also managed to make it the whole month without any refined sugar(alcoholic beverages excluded) so I think I'll treat myself to some cookies tomorrow. My mom sent me a huge box and I've been giving them all away. I wanted to go for a run today but I got a little busy showing Matt and Jamie around so I'll  get something done tomorrow morning.

Pushups: Today-349 YTD-22082
Pullups: Today-23 YTD-343
Running: Today-4mi YTD-267.92mi

Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Fri, 01Mar - 203.4
Mon, 01Apr - 203.6