Running is Fun?

Last night I went to see Broken City. I definitely recommend checking it out. Russel Crowe and Mark Wahlberg are great and the plot is pretty good. There are a lot of little plot twists and things that I would normally consider corny but they're really well done in this film. I ate a ton of Mexican Food before the movie so that's probably why I weighed so much in the morning. I ate a bunch of Ribs tonight so I'll probably weigh a lot tomorrow as well. I think keeping track daily is good just to identify trends before they become habits.

Assuming we were running at 9 AM, I woke up at 8 AM today ready to make breakfast and relax. However, I had a text from James saying that he wanted to go running at 8 so I ate a banana and slammed some coconut water and went for our 12-mile run. He picked a pretty brutal course so our time isn't great but I actually enjoyed myself out on the roads today. This half marathon training has me seriously thinking about running a full marathon this summer/fall with my brother. If you have a running partner, it's great to spend 2 hours or so just bullshitting about life and whatnot. My feet are getting all blistered up but they're a lot tougher than they've ever been. Anyway, here's a link that he posted:

http://tinyurl.com/axfwpjm

I did two sets of 50 pushups tonight and called it a day. My shoulders hurt and hopefully I'll get back to 300 a day tomorrow. Supposedly we're due for some thunderstorms which would prevent us from flying and I'll have more energy for pushups. Holla!

Pushups: Today-100 YTD-7500
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-54
Running: Today-12mi YTD-101.75mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Fri, 08Feb - 203.8
Sat, 09Feb - 202.2
Sun, 10Feb - 204.0

Healthy Weekend

Today I decided to round off my number and did 5 extra pushups in one of my sets. I also did one pullup pyramid from 6-1. I would like to start having more intense workout sessions but right now I'm enjoying my light sets around meal time. I think I'll go crazy one of these afternoons and knock out 500-600 in a pop but I'm not quite ready for that yet. I have my Contact Check Ride on Wednesday and I have Thursday off so maybe Thursday I'll try to blow out my shoulders and tear my pecs.

I didn't mean to go running today but it was so nice outside that it felt criminal not to. I'm planning on doing 12 miles tomorrow and I'm feeling a little too sore for that but I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning. And I'll take it slow and loosen my legs up as I go. I'm going to take my GPS watch so maybe I'll have a sweet map on here tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I have no idea why I'm tracking my weight. I think 205 is pretty damn good and I just want to make sure I don't get lax and balloon back up to 215 or so. I went to Montgomery a few weekends ago and was right around 209-210 and decided that I wanted to get back down a bit. Apparently one of the best ways to lose weight is to simply keep track and write it down every day. That way, you're constantly thinking about what you're eating or how much you're exercising and these little decisions add up. I had a pretty good weekend as far as eating goes. I usually eat real well during the week and let myself go on Friday and Saturday but I've been a good boy. Obviously I just want to look sexy on the beach. SPRING BREAK WOOOOO!!!

Pushups: Today-185 YTD-7400
Pullups: Today-21 YTD-54
Running: Today-4mi YTD-89.75mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Fri, 08Feb - 203.8
Sat, 09Feb - 202.2

I am so weak

So, when I do pullups it feels like my pecs are going to tear. I don't think this feels very good so I did 3 sets of 6 and quit. I also managed 3 sets of pushups for 180 today. I can't believe that Dave did 300 in sets of 25. I would want to kill myself. I also got a good run on the treadmill because of the bad weather. I set my time to 42:00 randomly and started out with 8-minute miles, planning on running 2 and speeding up if I felt good. Well I felt good so after 1/2 a mile I bumped it to 7:30 miles for 1/2 a mile then toggled between 8 mph and 8.6 mph for the rest of the run. When the clock hit 42 minutes, I had run 5.75 miles which felt pretty good. Tomorrow I'll focus on pullups again if my pecs aren't torn.

Pushups: Today-180 YTD-7215
Pullups: Today-18 YTD-33
Running: Today-5.75mi YTD-85.75mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4
Mon, 04Feb - 204.4
Tue, 05Feb - 202.6
Wed, 06Feb - 203.6
Thr, 07Feb - 203.8
Fri, 08Feb - 203.8

Better

I got 300 pushups done today and went on a 4-mile ruck march with a 50-lb rucksack. It doesn't count towards running but it still helps me work up a sweat and build leg/back strength. It's so easy to hit a biggish pushup number when I start out with 120 at breakfast. There's no excuse for not doing that every day, just pure laziness. Tomorrow I'm going to focus on pull ups and running. Promise.

Pushups: Today-300 YTD-7035
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-15
Running: Today-0mi YTD-80mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4
Mon, 04Feb - 204.4
Tue, 05Feb - 202.6
Wed, 06Feb - 203.6
Thr, 07Feb - 203.8

And Again

Still feeling sore and blah. I'd say I was getting sick but I don't like to say those things. Went running but my calf was really tight and never loosened up so I stopped after a mile and ran back home. Stretched for a while but it's still tight right now. My arms have also been real sore and have a really weird ache to them. I've only done 3 sets of 50 today and I think that's going to be it. No pullups. I'm going to blame it on the carrot cake and lasagne from yesterday. This old man needs his beans and spinach and egg whites for optimum performance. I made a huge pot of lentils tonight and I'm pumped to eat them for breakfast. I sure hope this general soreness goes away in my sleep tonight.

Pushups: Today-150 YTD-6735
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-15
Running: Today-2mi YTD-80mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4
Mon, 04Feb - 204.4
Tue, 05Feb - 202.6
Wed, 06Feb - 203.6

Bleh

Not real motivated today. Flew like crap and my shoulders hurt. Got 180 pushups done and nothing else. I ran out of eggs this morning so I'm blaming it on my lack of breakfast. Most important meal of the day. I also ate a bunch of lasagne and carrot cake for dinner which I never do on weekdays so I need to do a lot tomorrow to make up for today. Tomorrow I will eat a big breakfast and have some results. Maybe.

Pushups: Today-180 YTD-6585
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-15
Running: Today-0mi YTD-78mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4
Mon, 04Feb - 204.4
Tue, 05Feb - 202.6

Case of the Mondays

0350 came pretty dang early this morning. I've spent most of the day in a sort of daze, the kind of Superbowl hangover that I hope the 49ers suffer from next year. I had a pretty good flight this morning, considering my tired state, and I'll be better tomorrow on 8 hours of sleep.

My first set of 60 pushups was scary awesome, I really felt like I could have kept going to 80 or 90. I was just a machine and felt bionic. Then I ate breakfast and took a shower and did another 60 and din't feel quite as strong. But whatever was in those brownie/cookie/reeses/icecream combo desserts really worked and I need to eat some before my next PT Test. I managed to get 300 total today and I'm pretty happy with how February is starting out. My lats were pretty sore (pathetic) so I skipped pullups. I'll try a 6 pyramid tomorrow to feel better about myself.

I was sitting around dreading my daily run when my roommate walked by on his way to the gym. I decided to get off my butt and hit the treadmill while he did the elliptical and got 5 miles done. I was planning on just running 8-minute miles but I started feeling pretty good and I bumped it up to 7.5-minute miles for miles 3 and 4 and then ran a 6:58 mile for mile 5. All told, it was 5 miles in 37:58 and then I got to cool down during the extra 2 minutes. Treadmills feel like cheating sometimes but I don't think there's a better way to keep a consistent pace. If I were running on the street, I would have slowed down to catch my breath multiple times.

Anyway, I'm really tired and planning on going to bed at 1930. Homework's done and I have some laundry to fold before turning in. Life is really thrilling here in Southern Alabama.

Pushups: Today-300 YTD-6405
Pullups: Today-0 YTD-15
Running: Today-5mi YTD-78mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4
Mon, 04Feb - 204.4

Super Sunday

I didn't get much accomplished today. Too hungover and lazy during the morning and obviously watched a lot of TV in the late afternoon. Very happy to see the Niners lose. Jim Harbaugh is my least favorite person in the NFL, love seeing him mad.

The one thing I did do in the morning was a small pullup pyramid, 5-4-3-2-1 with 30 seconds in between sets. I'm going to try to do those every day until I can go 10-9-8-etc and then try to add a weight belt or vest or something. Pullups are pretty awesome and I suck at them currently.

I ate a ton of bad food at our little Super Bowl soiree but I made myself do pushups before each brownie/chocolatechipcookie/resses/icecream concoction that my buddy's wife baked. I ended up with 300 on a day that I felt crappy so I consider that a huge win. I'll probably weigh a lot tomorrow morning but that's what I do on my weekends. I'm pretty sure that my weight will always be at its lowest on Friday or Saturday and at its highest on Monday morning.

Pushups: Today-300 YTD-6105
Pullups: Today-15 YTD-15
Running: Today-0mi YTD-73mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4

Yeahhh Buddy!!

I'm pretty pumped that my buddy Dave is joining me in my random quest for fitness. He's quite the competitor and physical beast so hopefully his addition will provide me with extra motivation. Beyond thrilled to have him along for the ride. He'll be posting his daily totals in the comments section of each post. If nothing else, now I have a responsibility to someone other than myself to make a blog post every day. Thanks, Dave!!

I got extremely drunk last night and was only able to do 100 pushups before the drunkenness took over. I did run 12 miles in the morning so the day wasn't a total waste. They were 12 slowww miles with my friend's wife (9:45 miles) but I don't really care. Training for this half marathon is really just about putting the miles in for me. I'm considering running another one in the nearish future and I'll run that one harder. This morning I weigh 1.8 lbs less than I did yesterday morning, probably because of dehydration from the alcohol.

Pushups: Saturday-100 YTD-5805
Running: Saturday-12mi YTD-73mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3
Sat, 02Feb - 204.2
Sun, 03Feb - 202.4

February Goals

Today was slow, 180 pushups and no running. I'm running 12 miles at 7 AM tomorrow so I figured I could take a day off to rest up. I did a set of 60 after every meal and my arms and chest are feeling sore but it's a good sore that means I'm pushing myself to do more.

I talked to my buddy Dave today and he said that only doing pushups is going to leave my body in an imbalanced state and that I should start incorporating pull ups. My boobs are looking pretty good but my back and biceps are wasting away. I had been thinking about pull ups before our talk but I didn't want to be too sore to accomplish my pushup bet. I'm feeling good with respect to the pushups and I think I can handle doing a few pull ups every other day so I'm going to start those up. Maybe I'll start a log beneath my other running totals.

As far as running goals go, I think I just want to run 5 times a week, culminating in the half marathon on February 24th. I don't really care how many miles I run, if I get out there 5 times a week the numbers will take care of themselves. I'd also like to get to 10k pushups by the end of the month, anything else will be gravy.

I weighed myself and I was 204.3 this morning which is up from the 200.2 that I weighed after Christmas break but down from the 209.0 that I weighed in Montgomery last weekend. My weight fluctuates like crazy but I'm going to track it just to see the trends. Maybe I'll record it daily for the week and then delete the daily steps once I get to next Friday. We'll see how it flows. If the blog starts to get too cluttered, I'll stop.

Pushups: Today-180 YTD-5705
Running: Today-0mi YTD-61mi
Fri, 01Feb - 204.3

January = success!!

I ran 4 miles today but only did 100 pushups. I felt pretty sore and decided not to push things. That still puts me at 5525 for the month with 61 miles. I'd say that's a success after my ultra-lazy month of December. I still put on weight this month because I eat like a madman when I work out but I'm running better and doing more pushups than I was on January 1st and that's what matters. Weight be damned. It is almost beach season so I might spend February eating better and drinking less. But I doubt it :)

Pushups: today-100 ytd-5525
Running: today-4mi ytd-61mi

No Fly

Today was a no-fly day because of weather. Winds were gusting up to 40 knots and there were thunderstorms in the area. Both of those things make flying a helicopter very dangerous. We still had about 4 hours in class going over some Systems stuff but it's certainly less tiring than flying.

I managed to get 6 miles in on the treadmill(running in a storm isn't exactly my cup of tea) and 400 pushups. I'm running too many miles and have developed a pretty gross blood blister on the front pad of my right foot. I'm going to run about 3-4 miles on Thursday and Saturday and then try to knock out another long one on Sunday. We'll see how the blister develops but I'm hopeful that it starts healing and not spreading.

As far as pushups go, I started doing 60 per set this morning since I was on to my next 5k, and it worked out pretty well. I was a little tired after the run so I only did sets of 50 before and after dinner. But I did get 5 sets of 60 and 2 sets of 50 for that 400 total. Pretty pumped, I think it's my new high for a day. I could probably do more but I like being fresh(ish) in the morning and knocking out 60 on either side of breakfast. I love this bet because I'm not super motivated to do pushups on my own. Honestly, the hardest pushup to do it #1 of each set because I have to mentally tell myself to get down and knock em out. Once I'm down and knocking em out, it's no problem at all to get up to 50 and, hopefully from now on, 60. I'm hoping by the time I reach 10k, I'll be knocking out sets of 60 with ease and I can bump it up to sets of 70. Maxing the Army Physical Fitness test is only 76 pushups for someone my age so if I can get 70 in one shot, I'm doing pretty well.

Anyway, class and hopefully flying tomorrow at 5 AM so it's bedtime for bonzo. It's raining right now and I love the sound at night. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna sleep like a baby.

Pushups: Today-400 YTD-5425
Running: Today-6mi YTD-57mi

5K!!

Just finished my 200 for the day. My bicep still hurts and I'm being lazy. It feels good to hit the milestone though...I'll definitely try for 5k/month and finish the bet by October. I do feel like I should start doing more per day, we'll see once my bicep feels better. Flight school is just so draining and I don't feel like doing many outside of meal times. Maybe I'll start doing 150 per meal or something like that. We'll see. Anyway 5k/month is a fine pace, I'm not too worried about it.

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-5025
Running: Today-0mi YTD-51mi

Frisbee Elbow

My Bicep and Elbow hurt really bad yesterday and I realized it was because of some frisbee throwing that I did on Saturday. It's pretty sad that a little disc could have such an effect on my arm. Anyway, I didn't do any pushups in the morning and struggled to knock out 50 on either side of dinner for a measly 100. I did, however, run 9 miles in the early afternoon so the frisbee session didn't totally cripple me. And the arm feels better now, I'm about to do 100 and get the day started right. Will definitely have 5k after today, holla.

Pushups: Monday-100 YTD-4825
Running: Monday-9mi YTD-51mi

Montgomery

Had an awesome weekend in Montgomery. In the future, I think I'm going to choose one night as my go big night and relax/DD on the other one. The second night of heavy drinking is always pretty painful and I can only take so much in my old age. I got 200 pushups done on Saturday and then we went to a house party where the host challenged me to do clapping pushups with him. He was able to do 10 and I did 25. Boom. It felt weird doing pushups in the middle of a party but the 50k pushup bet is an intriguing thing and everyone wants to take shots at me. Today I only knocked out 100 because my body just isn't feeling great. Tomorrow I'll get 100 at breakfast and hopefully roll from there. I'll shoot for 275 to get 5k out of the way. 5k/month gets me done by November, sounds great to me. It's bedtime for bonzo, alarm starts ringing in 7.5 hours.

Pushups: Sat/Sun-325 YTD-4725
Running: Sat-3mi YTD-42mi

Alcohol!!

Managed to get 200 done before getting hammered last night. I'm in Montgomery for the weekend to visit an old friend. It's sad when Montgomery qualifies as a big city but I'm enjoying my time away from Rucker regardless. Gonna run the booze out of my system and hopefully have the energy for some pushups then get right back to boozing it up tonight. God bless America.

Pushups: Friday-200 YTD-4400
Running: Friday-0mi YTD-39mi

Rolling

Got another 350 done today and ran 5 miles. My feet are pretty sore so I'm going to take tomorrow off, run a short 3-4 miles on Saturday, and then try to knock out 8-10 miles on Sunday. Should be fun. It's nice to get back in the swing of things. Inertia and Momentum are so powerful both physically and mentally. Love being on the right side for now.

Pushups: Today-350 YTD-4200
Running: Today-5mi YTD-39mi

Army Life is my style

I really think the Army has added a ton of years to my life. When I'm away from the Army, I binge eat, drink, etc., and I refuse to work out. Once I'm back on post, I study hard, go to school, and work out. It's so refreshing after all the years of trying to kill my body. I still try to kill my body but it's on a 2 day per week basis now instead of 365 days a year. Anyway, flying was awesome today and I did 250 pushups and ran 4 miles. I felt really good running even though I had taken 10 days off and I'm going to try to run 9-10 miles on Sunday. We'll see how that goes. I could have done more pushups too but I feel good and I'm hoping to feel good tomorrow as well. Instead of killing myself for 350, I'll stick with 250 and hope that tomorrow I can get into the 250-300 range again. If I get to 5k by January 31st I'll be a happy camper. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to demolish my PT test in May. Can't wait to knock out 120 in the 2 minutes that we're allotted.

Pushups: Today-250 YTD-3850
Running: Today-4mi YTD-34mi

Threeee-Fiddy!!

Just did pushups 301-350 and now it's time for bed. The key is the morning. If I eat a good breakfast and do 100 before flight line, it's all gravy from there on out. If I do 50 or zero in the morning and eat a shitty breakfast, everything seems like a chore throughout the day. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Now, if I could only get back on the running train...

See you at 0350, cruel world.

Pushups: Today-350 YTD-3600
Running: Today-0mi YTD-30mi

Traveling

I got 150 done on the day I traveled back to Bama. Not bad for a travel day. I feel decent this morning, will hit a couple hundred I think. I should also get back on the running train, probably 4 miles. We'll see.

Pushups: Today-150 YTD-3250
Running: Today-0mi YTD-30mi

Beer is bad

Did 250 on Friday, was feeling great. Then got to my brother's house and got hammered, only did 50 on Saturday, got hammered again on Saturday night, and labored to do 100 today. Beer really is a pretty crushing thing. We're gonna try to avoid it for the next month or so. I have a half marathon to run on Feb 24 and I haven't run in over a week. More veggies and protein, less beer and carbs. Yes we can.

Pushups: weekend-400 ytd-3100
Running: weekend-0mi ytd-30mi

Standard

Did a standard 150 today. Boobs hurt from yesterday. My competition does 500 in a session, I definitely am not there yet. I'm going to DC for MLK weekend and hopefully my bro will motivate me to knock out a bunch.

Got a 95% on my 2nd Blackhawk Systems exam and I still don't feel like I know what's going on. Army tests are such a joke. Tomorrow I get to fly if the weather cooperates. Can't wait.

Pushups: today-150 ytd-2700
Running: today-0mi ytd-30mi

Encouraging

Today I did 150 pushups at breakfast and it felt great. When I tried to do 251-300, I felt a clicking in my left arm and stopped at 260. I was pretty worried but managed to do two more sets of 50 around dinner and had no issues with the arm. Not sure what happened but hopefully it was just odd positioning or something. I haven't run in a week and that needs to change. Inertia is a bitch.

Pushups: Today-360 YTD-2550
Running: Today-0mi YTD-30mi

Hmmmm

Just did 50 before bed, I'm officially worried about my motivation and it's 2 weeks in. Waking up at 03:50 every morning is rather exhausting. Blahhhhhhhhh.

Pushups: Today-50 YTD-2190
Running: Today-0mi YTD-30mi

Oy Vey

The weekend was quite a disaster. I took Friday off and hoped to do a ton on Saturday and Sunday but only managed to get 200 done while drinking and binging and watching football. 200 on a 3-day weekend is not acceptable. I got 150 done today but I'm no longer supremely confident that I can make 50K. It's feeling like more of a chore and my shoulders still don't feel great. Blahhhhh. And I haven't run since Thursday. Perhaps the Seahawks loss is a blessing in disguise...I can now focus on working out and flight school instead of spending infinite money traveling around the US to watch them play.

Pushups: Weekend-350 YTD-2140
Running: Weekend-0mi YTD-30mi

Like Clockwork

Another 4 miles and 150 pushups. I'm a machine. Running always saps my energy, I think I need to get most of my pushups done before going running because they are a real chore after a run. My competition, Ryan, is taking a different route to 50k pushups, taking multiple days off and then knocking out 500 in a day. I don't think I could do it that way and will keep plugging along at my pace. It's working so far and I really hope I start seeing strength gains soon. For now, I just feel a general soreness at all times. The running can't help. Tomorrow is an off-day for running but I will be driving to ATL so I won't have a ton of time to knock out many pushups. We'll see how I feel but it'd be nice to get 300 or so on a no-run day.

GOOOOOOOOOOOO SEAHAWKS!!!

Pushups: Today-150 YTD-1790
Running: Today-4mi YTD-30mi

Tired

Flight school is exhausting. Post from bed, was falling asleep then remembered I need to update daily. I think the YTD numbers are correct, will fix tomorrow if not. Gnight, cruel world. See you at 0400.

Pushups: today-150 ytd-1640
Running: today-4mi ytd-26mi

Morning Person

Today was basically a repeat of yesterday. I felt great in the AM but only did 50. Then I had to force myself to do 50 before dinner and 50 after to get to 150 for the day. I'm on AM Flight Line for the foreseeable future, which means I show up to work at 0500 and go home at 1230 every day. I'm going to need to get used to knocking out at least 100 when I wake up, before I go to fly, and then doing a bunch more around lunchtime, when I get home at 1300. There's a point, around 1500, when every ounce of energy is drained and pushups become much harder. I did get in a 4 mile run at 1530 so the day wasn't a total waste. GO HAWKS!!

Pushups: Today-150 YTD-1490
Running: Today-4mi YTD-22mi

AM energy

Woke up this morning feeling great, like I wanted to do a thousand pushups. But I only did 50 and went to class all day. I did 50 during a break but by the time I got home at 1600, I was exhausted and had to force myself to do two more sets, before and after dinner. So I got 200 done but I'm pretty sure I could have done 200 this morning alone. Next time I wake up feeling that good, I'm going to do 100 minimum. Tomorrow I start my 0500 flight line days and 0400 wake-ups. I'm even going to miss the National Championship game so that I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. Rooting for Bama to lose but really, I hate both teams. Thank goodness I can skip this one and focus on the Hawks. GO HAWKS!!

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-1340
Running: Today-0mi YTD-18mi

Pretty nice little Sunday

Seahawks win!! They play the Falcons next week and you can bet your sweet tush I'll be in Atlanta to cheer them on. I think Cliff and Molly are going to be in the area so it'll be some good family bonding time at the football game. There are tons of tickets available online, it shouldn't be too hard to score some for this one.

I ran 7 miles today with my friend James and felt infinitely better than I did on Saturday. I still hacked up a ton of phlegm and my lungs crackled like a chain smoker but I never stopped running, even if I did slow down a lot on the hills. But for a hilly course, I was proud of my 8-minute/mile pace. By February 24th, the New Orleans Rock and Roll Half should be no problem.

I also did 200 push-ups today. The push-ups themselves are coming easier but the motivation to do ANYTHING after 7 miles of running is hard to muster. I'm so glad I made this bet, I believe I'll do about 2-3x as many pushups as I would have otherwise. And push-ups are a part of my job so they're pretty important.

Full day of school tomorrow, boooooo. School is for fools!!

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-1140
Running: Today-7mi YTD-18mi

Bleh

I can't seem to kick this cold. I still have raspy breaths and get pretty congested at night. I went for a slow 3-mile run today and it felt horrible. I'm glad I went but I was wheezing and coughing the whole time like a 82 year-old man. Time waits for no man so I need to keep training but right now my body's telling me no. Just gotta make sure the mind is stronger.

I did sets of 50 pushups after each meal today and did one random one in the mid-afternoon for a total of 200. I think I could definitely do more but I'm going to keep on taking it easy. My body seems to be responding pretty well and I like where I'm at. It's definitely a marathon and there's no need to be killing my shoulders to get too far ahead of pace. I'm slowly building a decent cushion as it is and will probably continue to do 200-300 a day until next weekend at the earliest.

I could not possibly be more excited about a Divisional Playoff game than I am for tomorrow. This teem seems to have limitless potential but in the NFL it's one and done so every game is going to be insanely nervewracking. And we're facing a team in their house that's on a 7-game win streak. Some Seahawks fans think it's a lock. I definitely think we're the better team and deserve the -3 that Vegas has given us but this game is not a lock. 15:30 can't come soon enough. GO HAWKS!!

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-940
Running: Today-3mi YTD-11mi

Android

This is my first post ever using the Android app on my phone. Its pretty simple and clean, I'm a fan. Today was a rest day for running and I knocked out 250 pushups. The sets of 50 are coming much easier and I really should have gotten to 300 but I got real lazy after dinner. My shoulders are talking to me a bit so I think I'm going to keep my max around 250-300 a day until they feel stronger and then I'll try to up the ante. It'd be awesome to get up to 400-500 a day and knock out this challenge in 100-125 days. We'll see if I get there.

Pushups: today-250 ytd-740
Running: today-0mi ytd-8mi

Lethargy

I've been pretty sick for the past week and feeling super lethargic which doesn't help my physical fitness or academics at all. I still managed to run 4 miles this afternoon but I was super sore and felt like taking the day off from pushups. Then my roommate made some delicious Thai Curry with Chicken and I managed to do 50 right after dinner then 40 a bit later and 30 just now. I feel strong enough that I could probably do 50 each time but I don't want to push things too far right away. My chest is starting to feel great but my shoulders and triceps take a bit longer. Anyway, I got 120 done on a day that I felt like doing nothing. I'll take it!

It's really really hard being in flight school right now. We had 2 weeks of Blackhawk class before break and we're supposed to have retained all that info after the long holiday. Fat chance! I felt like such an idiot in class today and will be studying hard this weekend to refresh my brain. I don't really care about the AFC Divisional games so I'll study and work out during the day and watch football at night. Sounds like a pretty nice little weekend to me.

GO HAWKS!!

Pushups: Today-120 YTD-490
Running: Today-4mi YTD-8mi

Back to the Grind

Today was pretty productive and provided a much needed buffer for the transition from alcoholic bum to professional Army Aviator. I got a load of laundry done, did some grocery shopping, went for a 4-mile run, and did a bunch of studying. My brain isn't working quite as efficiently as it was before break but I'm hoping it won't be too hard to shake off the rust. Tomorrow should be an interesting day of class.

I also got 200 push-ups done, with sets of 40-45-35-40-40 spread throughout the day. I am sorer than I hoped I would be but I'm thinking I'll get back into the zone soon. I spoke with my buddy James, one of the biggest PT studs I know, about the bet and he thinks it's going to be hard to accomplish. It's not necessarily the 150 push-ups per day, it's having the motivation and commitment to do them every single day. I'm going to try to do at least 200 per day so that I'll have some buffer on days where I'm just not feeling it. We'll see. So far, I can't foresee having too many issues.

Pushups: Today-200 YTD-370
Running: Today-4mi YTD-4mi

Happy New Year!!

I'm happier on this New Years Day than I have been for a while. I feel like I really accomplished a lot in 2012 and worked my ass off for most of the year. I'm hoping I remember this feeling and take it to 2013 like I did 2012. I'm also hoping I remember how much of a slacker I was for most of December and I don't do that in 2013. January is going to be wasted making up for my horrific December. For shame.

Last night, I decided to DD because my flight home was at 0600 and I was feeling kind of sluggish. I bought two bottles of nice champagne and shared them with everyone, drinking only 3 glasses myself. I was able to give 5 different groups rides home because the cabs were obviously never coming and it made me feel good to be the one to look after their well-being. I'm thinking that I'll make this my NYE tradition and hope that the good karma follows me into each new year.

I think I like getting really drunk when others are relatively sober and staying sober when others get shit faced. It's an obvious poker parallel too: When others are playing loose and aggro, you tighten up but when others are playing too tight, you start to shit on them. I think that I enjoy sticking out from the crowd. Who wants to be ordinary and drink just because it's NYE? Who wants to be ordinary and remain sober, just because it's a tupperware party?

The trip back to Alabama is always brutal. My flight left Sea-Tac at 0600 and I didn't get home to Fort Rucker until 1800. Beyond the 12 hours of travel, I have to deal with the emotional pain of leaving my favorite city in the US for my least favorite region of the US. Sigh.

I'm definitely excited to get back into my regimented lifestyle. I have proven many times that I'm terrible at self-motivation and I need the Army to force me to study and work out and be productive. It's so easy to just lie in bed while I'm at home and do nothing all day. My pushups came slowly and painfully today and I'm not looking forward to my first run tomorrow.

I did 50 pushups this morning before getting driven to the airport and I did 3 sets of 40 throughout the evening so I'm logging 170 for the day. Around December 1st I would never have considered doing only 40 pushups in a set but I'm not feeling 100% and had a long day. Hopefully I'm not too sore tomorrow and I can rely on my 50 pushups per meal plan. I'll end with a running total every day, something like this:

Pushups: Today-170 YTD-170
Running: Today-0m YTD-0m

GO HAWKS!!

Staying on Pace

I've been playing with the numbers trying to determine the best way to stay on pace for my running and pushups. I've determined that mentally it's easiest for me to shoot for 150 pushups per day and 10 miles per week. Neither of those look particularly daunting, especially considering that I like to do 50 pushups before or after every meal. If I never did a pushup other than the 50 pre-meal pushups, I'd still reach my goal. Too easy!! The running goal doesn't seem too bad either, but I'm going to try to make sure I spread my miles out over 3-5 days and not just run 10 miles on the weekends. The #1 goal is obviously to stay injury free for the whole year. Pacing and moderation will play a big role. Can't wait to do some pushups at 12:01!!

2013

I'm not really a huge New Years Resolution kind of guy but this year I feel like making a few. Thanks go my buddy Kennedy for booking me in a push-up bet. The number is 50,000 by 12/31/13 and whomever doesn't make it there has to buy whomever makes it a NFL, NCAA, and futbol jersey of the winner's choice. I know for sure that I'm asking for a Russell Wilson authentic Gray, whatever UW jersey is all the rage next year, and a Lionel Messi jersey of some sort...probably an Argentina World Cup '14 jersey, assuming they'll be released by then.

50K pushups is a lot, and I haven't done a single one in the past 3 weeks, but I'm fairly confident that I can do it. I'm also going to try to run 500 miles in the year but I'm less confident about that one. I have a half-marathon planned for February 24th in New Orleans so that should help my motivation a bit. It'd be nice to have someone betting against me but I think I'm just going to do this one on my own.

Lastly, I'm going to try to eat super healthy in 2013 and enhance all the exercise crap with proper nutrition. I really let myself go during November and December and I'm feeling like quite the bum. I'm excited to get back to Fort Rucker and put my nose to the grindstone...both academically and physically. I know the academics and flying will be forced upon me, no matter what kind of resolutions I make, but the physical health is all up to me.

I'll be tracking my progress on twitter and here on this blog. Hopefully I'll make more meaningful posts and fewer short tweets but I know how consumed I will be by Blackhawk school and I can't promise to devote much time to blogging. At any rate, I'm glad that this site is still around and glad that I was able to make one post in 2012. Here's to more blog entries next year and a healthy and safe 2013!!

Running in the Hood

Yesterday I was scheduled for a 30-minute run but we play soccer on Wednesday nights so I figured that would take care of it. If anyone's curious, here's my running schedule for the next few months. I talked to a buddy about training for the half-marathon and he said that his running coach recommended running for a set amount of time rather than a set distance. I have no running knowledge to speak of so I'm taking his advice.

I was short on time today so I decided to run around the neighborhood instead of heading to Greenlake. We're in a bit of a valley so there's less than a mile to run in any direction without hitting some major hills. I did three out-and-backs and felt pretty good but even the flattest route we have has a decent sized slope making the run much easier away from the house and more difficult coming back. One of these days I'm going to head to a track and run in flat circles to see how fast I can run.

Here's the map of the run:

I would like to have a more consistent pace but it's hard to run the same speed on a light incline and a light decline.

I recently read a book called Green for Life and I decided to add these green smoothies to my daily intake. On the Slow Carb Diet I stopped eating all fruits and I think green smoothies are a good way to reintroduce fruit to my life. Yesterday I made a smoothie with dinosaur kale, strawberries, bananas, and avocados. Today I made one with mangos and kale. The first one was delicious but the second one may have had too much kale and was a little bitter. I do think that these greens are full of awesome nutrients and will be great for my health.

Saturday I leave for LA and even though it's only in the 60's down there, I'm excited for something a little warmer. Hopefully I'll be able to eat well on this trip and run well and not lose everything I've gained. Holla.

Chicken Wings

Last night I ate about 15 chicken wings from the Kangaroo and Kiwi while watching that ugly NCAA Championship game. This morning, I was 202.8 lbs which is annoying because I really want to see 199 on the scale at least once. It's totally an empty and shallow goal but sometimes I'm an empty and shallow person. Since turning 30, I've felt a ton of motivation to "grow up" and get in shape and whatnot that was never there in my 20's. I don't think I was under 200 lbs for a single day of my 20's. 30 is just an arbitrary indicator of age but something about those round numbers really gets me motivated.

So, the weight gained is a minus but I felt pretty good on my run today and that's a huge plus. I would probably rather be 230 lbs and a strong runner than 195 and a weak runner. I think that after running, I'll post the details of my last 3 meals and try to find correlation between food and running strength.

4/4 lunch(noon): Small Chicken Pho, Fresh Prawn/Pork Spring Roll
4/4 dinner(7 PM): 15 Chicken Wings at K&K and 2 large spoonfuls of Athletic Greens
4/5 breakfast(10 AM): 2 Eggs, Black Beans, Spinach, 25g Whey Protein
4/5 run (11:30 AM): 5 miles, 43:00, felt strong, 8 out of 10

Here's the map of my run:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77438177

It seems like the high-calorie wings could have helped give me energy this morning. For now, I'll assume that's the case.

I re-read my last post and I realized that I made the Slow-Carb Diet sound like it left me sluggish and without energy. This isn't the case at all and I've felt great for the past two months. It's just on longer runs that I feel like I need a little more gas in my tank and I'm making the decision to eat more on days before longish runs. The Slow Carb Diet is amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone. The key aspects of the diet that I'll keep with me forever are:

(1) Eat a high-protein Breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up
(2) Don't drink calories
(3) Don't snack
(4) Schedule one cheat day per week or, at minimum, one or two cheat meals.

The cheat meals are key for discipline reasons. It's easy to pass up pizza or ice cream or chow mein when you know you can have it later that week. The author of the book claims that binging has a practical reason for boosting weight loss but I think it's mostly psychological. Anyway, I'm a big fan of what this diet has done for me and I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Someday my blogs will be about something other than the Slow Carb Diet. Someday.

Life and Stuff

I'm writing this on my iPad 2 which is an awesome device but isn't great for word processing. Portability is its best feature and it's great for Facebook and email but I don't know how many blog entries I'll want to compose on here.




On January 19th, I was 230 lbs and as of this morning I was 201. I've been following the Slow-Carb Diet from The 4-Hour Body and it's worked extremely well. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to lose weight. The book is only $14 on Amazon and could change your life. Anyway, I only mention it because I'm about to get off the diet. I'm training for a half-marathon in June and I haven't had the energy that I need for some of my longer training runs. A 5-day bender in Vegas hurt me too, but I think that reintroducing some carbs will help a lot. I want to use this blog as a sort of food and training diary...what I ate before certain runs and how I think they affected my performance. I think it might be interesting to read about and will simultaneously help me become a stronger runner. I also might get bored and quit blogging but that's a risk we're gonna have to take.

On Saturday, I'm heading to LA with my girlfriend for a few days. She was planning on flying to Japan on Tuesday the 12th, but for obvious reasons she canceled her trip. She's going to fly home instead and save the vacation time for a trip to Mexico this summer. On the 12th, I'm flying to Baltimore to visit my brother and his fiancé. Cliff is graduating from a nine-month Army course and he's really excited. My Mom is flying in on Thursday and it'll be a great little family reunion. Cliff is probably the best athlete I know and I'm looking forward to running with him. It's still a difficult concept for me to grasp, excitement about running, but I'm really starting to enjoy it. Who could have guessed it?

In May, I'm heading to Madrid for a week to play in the EPT Grand Final and the EPT Champion of Champions freeroll for all former EPT winners. It's not a huge prize pool but the tournament will be televised and sounds like a lot of fun. My good friend Mike Martin will be there as well and we'll probably check out a Real Madrid game while we're there. Madrid is an awesome city and the EPT Grand Final has to be the 2nd best tournament of the year, after the WSOP Main Event of course. Estoy muy excited!!

Ok, that's all for now. I'm planning on a 30-40 minute run tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes.

Travel Blog

I'm realizing that I blog a lot when I travel and I never blog when I'm at home. It's not really the life of Brandon but more like the travels of Brandon or something like that. Anyway, I'm fine with that. Feel free to check in periodically...if there are new entries, then I'm traveling somewhere cool. If not, I'm enjoying myself at home so stop harassing me for mundane entries about walking my dog.

I actually do want to write about something other than travel for a second. On Saturday, the Seahawks won the best game I've ever seen live and I've seen a lot of great sporting events. It helps that I had a decent amount of money riding on the game but it would have been phenomenal without any financial gain. After about a month of getting torn up by the media, we fans were fed up and Qwest Field was absolutely electric. It's always really loud and fun but Saturday was something else. I'll never forget the chills up and down my spine and the tears in my eyes when Marshawn scored that TD.

Someone asked on Facebook if Lynch's run is the equivalent of Edgar's double. A walk-off double is so hard to top in football but I actually think the analogy could work. Bear with me.

I think that the Edgar double helped kick off the "golden era" in Seattle sports where the Sonics, Mariners and Seahawks were all competitive for a lot of years. However, to me the double helps define the golden era as an era of underachieving. With all of the superstars and great teams that we had across those three sports, one of them should have won a Championship. Instead, the Mariners era is defined by Edgar's double...in the ALDS...and David Justice's homer against Arthur Rhodes in the ALCS a few years later. The Seahawks are defined by a poorly played Super Bowl XL, aided by some poor reffing. The Sonics era is defined by Mutumbo's finger-waggle. Tons of talent, no championships.

I'm hoping that the Marshawn Lynch run, and this overachieving Seahawks team, helps kick off a new era of Seattle sports. The Seahawks have no business being in the NFL's Elite Eight, yet here they are. I'm thrilled with the job that Pete Carroll has done and I can't wait to see what he can do with more talent on his roster. The Mariners have nowhere to go but up and it was just last Spring that people were calling Jack Z a genius. Did he get really dumb all of a sudden or were the Mariners victims of a lot of bad luck? We still have Felix in his prime, we still have Ichiro, we still have Guti. If the role players can play decent baseball, this team definitely has a chance to "overachieve". I think that only time will tell if the Lynch run will be as important as the Edgar double in defining Seattle sports but let's hope that it is.

OK, now that that's off my chest, I'm ready to blog about traveling again. On Monday, I'm heading to Singapore and I'll be spending 3 weeks traveling through SE Asia. Here's a link to my itinerary, in case you want to stalk me.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DahJ5SO-wQTHinCmpkUwZZZH9IFukWyd9qpaayOu5Ho/edit?authkey=CKSg9NsE&hl=en#

I'm really excited to see Kento in Singapore. He moved there 2 years ago and I promised that I'd visit him someday. It'll feel good to make good on that promise. I've also wanted to see Malaysia for a long time now and it'll be fun to lay on those beaches. Thailand is the land of smiles and I'm excited to return. My friends Will and Kat are Peace Corps volunteers in Thailand and we're going to spend a week with them as well. It's going to be awesome, stay tuned for pics and stories.

I've been learning French, using Rosetta Stone, and I really like it. I'm done with Level 1 and I'm on part 1 of Level 2. It's an awesome little hobby and I can't wait until I finish all 5 levels.

The other hobby that I just picked up is running, believe it or not. I've been getting faster and running longer but my foot has been hurting for the past week so I'm going to rest up for a while. I'm pretty sure that I increased my speed and distances too rapidly, considering I hadn't run in about 5 or 6 years. Here's my Garmin Connect page. Cliff bought me a GPS watch for Christmas and it's pretty sweet to look at the maps:

http://connect.garmin.com/explore?owner=bkschaefer#owner=bkschaefer&sortField=relevance¤tPage=1

That's all for now, please pray for my foot to heal.

xoxo

Today I took my Volvo in for its 30,000 mile check-up and got new spark plugs. Maybe it's psychological but I swear it's running better post-service. My Volvo mechanic is my brother's best friend from high school and nothing's better than finding a mechanic you can trust.


After Volvo, I drove to Shoreline had SoonDoBoo for lunch with Kenny, Megan and Emi. I always forget that I'm trying to start the blog up again until the end of the meal so here's a shot of the aftermath. I really love Korean food and it was fun hanging out with the Barron Family. After lunch we all went to Costco where I filled gas and bought groceries. Emi was really great all day but started acting up toward the end of our Costco shopping. I don't really blame her, after a lot of time in Costco I start to lose it too.

Tonight, Jazmin and I decorated our tree. Here's a pic...I think it looked better before I put the lights and ornaments on. It really was a nice little noble fir and now it looks all crooked and lopsided. Oh well.


I'll end with a video of myself dancing with Emi. I didn't realize Kenny had the video camera rolling but the video is pretty funny so I'm going to post it. Quickness with the video camera is a good skill for a parent to have; kudos, Kenny.

Home

I love being home, hanging out with friends, sleeping in my own bed, but those things just don't inspire me to blog. I'm going to force it for a while and see if I can get into a rhythm.

Today I was planning on meeting Davis, Renee and Mingie for Happy Hour in Bellevue but I never told Jazmin and she booked us for dinner at Kenny and Megan's place. Luckily, I was able to get the Kenny and Megan dinner pushed back to 7:30 so that I could do both. Communication is important in a relationship and I need to get better at that. I was a single roamer for 5 years and I'm not used to having to plan for anyone other than myself.

Here are two pics: One of Oysters from Happy Hour and one of Emi, Kenny and Megan's daughter. Emi is one year old and at a really cool stage of life. She's sweet and loves sharing, is just starting to become vocal, and is curious about everything. She also likes to mimic people so you have to be extra careful about what you say around her.

The City

I really love New York City and could definitely live here at some point in my life. Mike and Jenn are always so hospitable when I visit and I've never had a bad trip to New York. I have some other friends that live here and I'd like to come back soon, for longer than 2 days, so that I can catch up with them all.

Today we had lunch at a burger place in Madison Square Park called Shake Shack. The burger reminded me of an In 'N Out burger and I think everyone knows how much I love my Double Doubles. Obviously I had to get a shake and I wnet with one called the black and white. I think it was a half-chocolate half-vanilla mix and tasted pretty good. Here are some pics:




After Shake Shack we went to a bar on 14th Street called The Blind Pig to watch the Arsenal-Man U game. Mike is a huge Arsenal fan and had high hopes but it was a pretty bad game for Arsenal and they lost 1-0. Man U's defense is really good when Vidic and Ferdinand are healthy and Arsenal couldn't do anything all game. Man U got a fluky goal from Ji-Sun Park on a lucky header off a deflected ball but they definitely deserved to win. JS Park is amazing and definitely the best Asian soccer player of all time.


At the bar we had 2 beers and 3 bloddy marys even though Mike had a hockey game to play later that night. After the game I went to Trader Joe's Wine Shop and bought 6 bottles of wine. I always buy a ton of wine at TJ's because it's so damn cheap. 6 bottles and a reusable wine bag cost me a total of $36. What a deal. My friends Julia and Lisa came over to watch a bit of football and we put a dent in the wine. Mike drank water to sober up and at 10 PM we went to his hockey game.

I play co-ed soccer in Seattle and I was kinda expecting something similar. I suck, half the players on my team never played soccer when they were younger and we would probably lose to a serious group of 12 year-olds. The hockey was very different. I was shocked at how fast they were and how well they played. Mike had to try out for his team and 2/3 of the players who tried out didn't make the cut. Our soccer team is a hodge-podge group of high school friends who want to screw around on Wednesday nights. The hockey game was really exciting but sadly, Mike's team lost 3-2 in overtime.


Groupie!!


Mike's so fast, he's a blur.


Faceoff


Our Hero


Casualty of War

I'm flying home tomorrow and I'm excited to see my girlfriend. It's going to be a busy two weeks with Christmas right around the corner: I've got a lot of present shopping to do, I'm hosting Christmas at my house this year so I've got a lot of cleaning to do, and my brother will be in town December 23-31 so I've got a lot of drinking to do. Holla.

T-Dot Layover

I guess the weather's pretty bad in Newark because the airport has ordered a complete ground stop of incoming flights. There will be more information in 45 minutes but the amount of time I'll be lain over is indefinite. I'll use this time to post some pics, using the free Internet in Air Porter's lounge. Air Porter rules, I can't say it enough.


The weather outside was frightful. Amazingly, my five-fingers provided enough warmth for me to walk for about a mile before my toes got numb and I had to hop inside a bar to avoid frostbite. The cold was never an issue but the snow and slush on the ground eventually got the shoes wet and wet shoes in 20 degree weather are never good. I owe the warmth to the socks that I recently bought, the five-fingers are much colder without socks.



The fight was pretty awesome. I won $300 off Daut, which is pretty much the most I could have expected to win. Two of my big underdogs came through and I ended up going 6-3-1. Holla!! GSP dominated Koscheck and really humbled the man. Koscheck is a tough dude and wouldn't get knocked out but he was contrite afterwards instead of being his normal asshole self. I think getting punched in the face for 25 minutes was like a spiritual awakening. The crowd still hated him for what he said about Montreal a few months ago but he did his best to almost retract his previous sentiments.

May 8th:
“Don’t worry, Pittsburgh Penguins are going to kick your ass next week baby! And then I’m going to beat St-Pierre, so you guys are going to lose twice. How about that? Yeah, that’s right Montreal!!!”

It must be pretty sweet for GSP to be able to defend his city with his vicious left hand. I'd love to get in a ring with David Stern for what he did to Seattle. I'm pretty sure I could take him and defend Seattle's honor.


I had some absinthe last night and it was delicious. You don't see absinthe in bars every day so I had to take advantage. Yum.



We also ate poutine. We didn't go to any of the fancy or famous places, just some cafeteria-looking fast food place. It was still delicious and artery-clogging. Daut complained the whole time he ate but he still shoveled it down. Yum.


Football kicks off in an hour and I'm going to miss it. I was really looking forward to eating pizza on Mantan's couch this afternoon but I guess I'll fill up on free almonds in Porter's lounge and "watch" football updates online. Oh well, I guess that's better than getting on an unsafe plane and skidding off the runway. I'll get to Newark when I get there.

UFC 124

I'm really pumped for the fights tonight. Daut and I looked for action on the fights but couldn't find any decent lines so we bet each other. It's probably a mistake on my part since he's 100x more knowledgeable than I am but I like to gamble. Here are my fighters:

Pierson +230
Bocek -115
Almeida -160
Miller -230
Audinwood -135
Bongfeldt +160
Howard +260
Danzig +250
Miller +155
McCorkle +135

We bet $50/fight so if I go 0-10, I lose $620. I definitely can win a lot more than that if I go 10-0 because I have 3 of the 4 big underdogs. Anyway, hopefully neither of us get buried too bad and if someone does, it's Daut. We didn't bet the GSP fight because the line is so big, like -400, and neither of us want to be seen rooting for Koscheck. I can only imagine what the rowdy French Canadians would do to us if GSP lost and one of us was celebrating. Plus, look at that photo above...how could you ever root for that Koscheck clown?


The only other goal we have is to get Poutine by the end of the night. I would love to hit the bars and whatnot but the weather is really gnarly and the meatheads are out in full force. It's just not that fun when everyone looks and acts like they're straight out of the Jersey Shore. Anyway, that's enough negativity. War GSP!!!

Heading to NYC tomorrow, gonna watch football with Mike the Mantan then go out for dinner and drinks at night. Monday we're going to watch Arsenal-Man U and then I'm going to Mike's hockey game at night. Tuesday I fly home. Pretty nice little weekend, if you ask me.

Montreal

I made it to Montreal!! Hope no one was too worried about me. The flight to Newark sucked, I was in the middle seat between two fat old guys, but getting to Montreal was awesome. Porter Air is an amazing airline and I thoroughly enjoyed their service. Their planes are smaller so everyone has an aisle or window seat and they give you small meals, even on 1.5 hour hops. I'll definitely try to take advantage of this hook-up again.



Fisherman's Night was awesome, as promised. I ate 3 plates of food so fast that I forgot to take pictures. This is a pic of my friend Matt's plate. The food was unreal and I got just drunk enough to ease the pain of my stomach stretching. I made a dumb joke at some point, Jazmin went to jab my ribs, and she was rib-blocked by my turgid stomach. It was rock hard and I'm confident I was pretty close to its maximum capacity. Yum.

I wandered around Montreal a bit this afternoon and bought groceries. There were a lot of meathead types wandering the streets too and I have a feeling that the bars aren't going to be as much fun with all that testosterone floating around. I'll try to have fun anyway. Tomorrow is the big fight and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Ants in my Pants

Woop Woop!! I've been running around all day, getting ready for my trip to Montreal. I'm on a red-eye to Newark that leaves Sea-Tac at 10:40 PM and arrives at 6:15 AM. I was originally planning on spending half a day in NYC but no one is going to be awake at that time. When I land in Newark, I'm going to head to the Porter Air desk and try to get on an earlier flight so I can spend more time in Montreal. Wish me luck.

Tonight I'm going to a Norwegian function called Fisherman's Night. Here is the history of the night, if you're interested. Basically, it's a huge banquet with unlimited seafood and booze. The seafood is always top notch because all the fishermen like to show off how good their catches are. I'm really excited. I'm going to gorge myself and get drunk from 6-9 PM then head to the airport, drink lots of water, and pass out on my plane. Sounds grand to me.

I'm still loving my Kindle and if you like reading, you should definitely think about buying one. I just bought Lost Vegas by my friend Paul McGuire and I'm excited to read it on this trip. I haven't read a single sentence yet but I know it's going to be awesome. Pauly is one of the best writers I've ever met and his ability to capture the nitty gritty details of stories is what sets him apart.

I've been learning French using Rosetta Stone's software. I finished Part 1 of Level 1 yesterday and I'm pretty proud of myself. There are 4 parts to each Level and 5 Levels total so I'm 1/20th of the way there. It's pretty addictive and I'm really enjoying using my brain again. If I stick to it, I think I can finish in about 6 months and hopefully be able to read and understand French. I have no delusion of being totally fluent and probably can only develop my speaking ability by immersing myself in a French speaking country for some time. Maybe I'll love Montreal and want to move there for a few months!!

Next post will be from Montreal, hopefully with pictures of tonight's delicious seafood buffet. Holla!!

Pot Limit Omaha

The Huskies won last night but they still look sloppy and need to work on a lot before they can be considered a real contender. I guess that's what the early games are for and I hope we look better once the conference schedule is underway.

Today I played a bunch of PLO and won a little bit. I feel like I'm getting better but I still like to 10-12 table and I always lose when I do that. If I could stick to <8 tables I'm pretty sure I'd be a big winner. I just get bored and distracted too easily. When people ask me for a poker tip, I tell them that patience is key. Most people these days know what hands they should and shouldn't be playing but the people who can stick to their "rules" are the ones who can be consistent grinders. I need to start practicing what I preach.

One of my friends posted a video on Facebook today that made me cry. For real. It's Fred Rogers, aka Mister Rogers, testifying before Congress in response to Nixon's proposed funding cuts for PBS. Mr. Rogers delivers a phenomenal address and really wins over the crowd. Check it out.



Mr. Rogers. What a hero.

Starting Fresh

What's up.

Obviously the list-type blog idea failed so I'm going to try to go back to normal blogging. I want to start over from scratch and considered opening a wordpress account and just blogging in the dark for a while, but I like this address and I like feedback so I'm going to stay here. Hopefully the 3 or 4 people who have me bookmarked will click that bookmark and find something worth their time.

On Thursday night I'm flying to Newark on my way to Montreal. My cousin, Marisha, has a hookup with a Canadian Airline called Porter Air and somehow I get to fly that airline for free. Newark is the only American city that they fly out of so I had to get there for the flight to Montreal. Flights from Seattle-Newark were $300 and Seattle-Montreal was $700. I actually have to pay $50 in taxes to Porter Air but $350 is, ummm, about half of $700 AND I get to spend 2 days in NYC visiting friends. Holla. I'm only going to be in NYC for about 8 hours on the way to Montreal but I get about a day and a half on the way home.

Anyway, the point of that story is to brag about going to Montreal. It's definitely toward the top of my list of places I want to visit. Off the top of my head, here's my top 25...places I've never been or just barely been:

Croatia
Malaysia
Philippines
Egypt
New Zealand
Brasil
Costa Rica
Poland
Russia
Lebanon
Montreal
Guadalajara
Portugal
Scotland
Morocco
Ecuador/Galapagos
Nepal
Seoul
Sweden
Bali
Argentina
Greece
Cuba
Mayan Peninsula
Austin

Again, these are just off the top of my head, in no particular order. My Dad spent a lot of time in Montreal when he was younger and always raved about the bar scene. I've also met a ton of people traveling who love it and for some reason it's always held a special place in my heart. Looking forward to reporting back with pics and stories.

The reason I'm going is to see GSP fight Koscheck in UFC 124. I went to Toronto about a month ago and my cousin Marisha told me she had 2 extra tickets to the fight. I am a mild UFC fan at best but my 6 months living with Ryan Daut made me a huge GSP fan. I contacted Daut, who said he'd love to go, and now shit is on. GSP is from Montreal and it'll be awesome to see him fight at home. I just watched a bunch of his old fights and they got me all fired up. Here is my favorite:

http://georgesaintpierre.com/gsp-vs-matt-hughes-3/

Tonight I'm heading down to the Bank of America Arena to see the Huskies play the University of Portland. Should be a blowout and a fun game to watch. Go Dawgs!!

Errands

Good:
- Hung out with Mom for 45 minutes.
- Walked the dog.
- Ate lunch with Dookie, Davis and Jazmin.
- Unloaded the U-Haul.
- Ran a bunch of little errands.

Bad:
- Lunch was at a burger place and I ate a giant plate of Yam fries. At least they were delicious.
- Haven't packed at all for my trip to DC.
- Lost money playing poker.

To Do:
- Pack for DC. Flight leaves at 1 PM, gonna have to catch a bus at 10:30, so I better get up early.

I'm pretty pumped for the next 10 days. DC this weekend is going to be a blast and then I get to visit with my brother for a week. I'm home on November 8th and will probably be local through New Years. Holla.

Hooooome

Good:
-Made it home from San Fran in 12.5 hours. Google maps says 13h50m, boo-yah!

Bad:
-Ate at Micky D's twice for my only meals. They're so GD convenient and I was trying to get home fast so I sacrificed my health. One day I'll eat healthily, one day.
-Texted and yakked on the phone way too much. The weather was pretty gnarly and I think I was a bit unsafe on the road today. One day I'll stop texting and talking on the road...but maybe not.

To Do:
-Unload U-Haul.
-Wash clothes and pack for DC

I'm heading to DC on Thursday for the Jon Stewart rally this weekend and will hang out with my brother the following week. DC is a fun place and I'm excited to get out there for a few days. Here are some pics: The double rainbow appeared on the drive this afternoon and the other one is an older pic from the Olympic National Park.

San Fran

Good:
-Drove to San Francisco. ~1000 miles down, 813 to go.
-Spent all day drinking beer with Robert and Nichole. Lots of good convo and whatnot.
-Woke up at 5:30 AM to start the drive. So nice getting out of LA before traffic got bad.
-Walked Nichole back to her hotel around 10 PM. Got about 2 miles of walking out of it. Holla!!
-Ate Ethiopian food, family style, with our hands. Delicious.

Bad:
-Ate McDonald's breakfast. It's just so good and so convenient and so cheap. Argh.
-It's midnight and I'm still awake. I'm getting up in 5.5 hours and I'm driving 14 hours. Gross.
-Didn't call Mom. Must do that tomorrow from the road.

To Do:
-Drive to Seattle. Only 13 hours and 50 minutes. Great.
-Call Mom.
-Answer all my emails and texts and crap that I've been avoiding.
-Learn Guitar?

Today was an awesome day. Left LA at 6 AM, got to San Fran at 12:15. Ate lunch with Robert and Nichole came over at 2 PM. We bought 24 beers and drank them on the roof of his apartment...does it get any better? Long drive tomorrow, wish me luck.

Let's get Motivated

Yo.

Life is pretty damn good. There are a few things I could bitch and moan about but no one wants to hear about that crap. I'm going to try to get the blog rolling again, this time using it as a motivational tool to improve my life. I think I'm going to use a simple list format with the categories: Good, Bad and To Do. Kind of like this:

Good:
-Drove ~530 miles from Tucson to Los Angeles. 1/3 of the way home.
-Bought dinner for Swass because he's letting me crash on his futon.
-Told my girlfriend I love her.

Bad:
-Overate at dinner. Toooo much sushi.
-Didn't get any exercise.
-Didn't read at all.

To Do:
-Driving to San Fran tomorrow. Should make an effort to walk a few miles around the city. Maybe some push-ups in the AM.
-Eat at least one healthy meal. Maybe some fruit for breakfast and In N Out for lunch.
-Call my girlfriend and mother.
-Spend some quality time with my San Fran friends, Robert and Nichole.

At a minimum, I'll try to get something like that up every day. At a maximum, I'll ramble for a few paragraphs about non sequitur junk. We'll see how it goes.

I just spent an excellent weekend in Tucson. My girlfriend, who moved to Seattle in June, is from Tucson and this was her first trip back. These homecoming trips always end up being too busy...so many people to see, so little time. In addition to catching up with old acquaintances, we packed a U-Haul with her bed, dresser, clothes, shoes, nightstand, etc and I'm currently driving it to Seattle. Jazmin was with me today for the drive to LA but she has to work tomorrow so she flew home tonight. I don't mind driving, road trips are my favorite thing in the world, but I'm going to be a bit lonely as I cruise North on the boring I-5 route. I think I've driven that route ~15 or 20 times. I do enjoy Mount Shasta and Silva's Restaurant in Weed, CA but the rest of the 1000 miles are pretty painful. Anyway, I'm hoping to hang out in San Fran tomorrow night, not drink too much, get up early, and get home late on Tuesday night. We'll see how that goes.

I recently got a Kindle and it's rekindled(HAR HAR) my love of reading. As a child, I was constantly reading. Charlie and the Chocolate factory and any book by Roald Dahl were my favorites. At some point in High School, I basically stopped reading unless I had something assigned. Over the last few years I've read ~1 book per year. Pitiful. With the Kindle, I read 1.5 books just this weekend. The book that I started at the Seattle airport and finished in Jazmin's mom's living room is called Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History. The book was pretty interesting, although the writing style is a little dry. The authors are being extra careful to give you all the facts and the book comes off kind of like a scientific textbook. I think this is because much of the information contradicts the Ringleader's account that he gave Wired Magazine from prison. You can find that here. Anyway, the book is a good read if you want to learn about diamonds, Antwerp, or Italian criminals. I certainly don't regret reading it. The book that I'm halfway through is Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the book that the 1st season of Dexter is based on. It's pretty good and the author does a good job of painting images with his writing. The storyline is pretty consistent with the show but it's still fun to read even though I know what's going to happen. So far, so good.


Last week, my brother was in town and he introduced me to Five Fingers by Vibram. These shoes make you walk as if you were barefoot and that has all kinds of health benefits. My brother owns 6 pairs and tries not to wear anything else. Since I trust his judgement, I immediately bought 3 pairs and haven't worn anything else over the past week. They're a great conversation starter and I've found them to be really comfortable. My feet do hurt but I think it's a good hurt...strengthening my arches and whatnot. I'll let you know if I develop stress fractures and cripple myself for life but for now, I'm enjoying these things. The next step is to buy a pair for running and start jogging. Baby steps for now.

There you have it...my foray back into the world of blogging. I'll leave you with a pic from this weekend's UW-Arizona tailgate. The pic was probably going to be a good one but for some reason the camera on my phone was set to "Solarize". Strange. We won't talk about the game itself but tailgating was pretty fun. Hope to see you again tomorrow.

Israel

We've been in Israel for about 20 hours and I'm really enjoying myself. It's pretty amazing how well everyone speaks English and I heard two great jokes at dinner yesterday that I want to share.

First, we were eating some appetizers which included 2 different kinds of hummus. Dani was teaching me that "huh?-miss" is incorrect and his cousin interjected with "Hamas is a terrorist organization, don't go around asking Israelis for Hamas. It's 'hoo-moose' that you want to eat." It was funny and delicious at the same time.

Second, the owner of the restaurant was talking to us about the Super Bowl and how we felt about it. I told him I was rooting for the Saints and he said, "yes, it's good to help the people of New Orleans forget Katrina...now we need Haiti to win the World Cup." This brought down the house because Dani and I had talked earlier about how it was kind of ridiculous how often commentators were bringing up the hurricane even though so much time had passed. Brilliance out of the kind restauranteur.

Tonight we're going to hit the town and hopefully I'll have some good pics of Israeli girls for everyone. =)

Man

I was planning on limiting my drinking in February and then I went out and got DRUNK for 4 straight days, Feb 2-5. The worst was last night. I threw a going-away party for my buddy Marcus who is joining the Peace Corps and ended up getting extremely sauced. I had a flight this morning at 8 to NYC and it was one of the most miserable of my life. Oh well, the party was a blast and Marcus enjoyed himself so that's what's important. I bought a bottle of Louis XIII at the Canadian border about a year ago and I had been waiting for a good reason to open it and this ended up being that reason. It's weird having a bottle of liquor that retails for $1500-2000 and it's been hard to deem an event worthy of the opening. However, Marcus joked early in the night that we should open it and I suddenly felt really good about doing so. Marcus is a guy who definitely enjoys and appreciated unique experiences and I'm happy he was the first one to share a shot with me. I'm thinking I should ration it out for close friends at big events, like births of children, weddings, and other cool things that happen in lives. It should be easier to ration out now that the seal has been cracked.

I feel like some sort of sick is coming on and that would be brutal since I'm flying to Tel Aviv on Monday. I rarely get sick so hopefully all I need is rest but being sick on vacation is the worst.

Here are some pics from the party and my buddy's balcony in NYC. This is such an amazing city, I would love to live here for 6 months to a year. We'll see if I can make that happen.