SuperSatellite ||

Well, I asked for it, and I got it.  After two days of various running, exercises, and now swimming, I definitely feel like I’m working out.  I was fine until yesterday afternoon, then some of the running soreness started setting in to my thighs.  Then I went swimming, hehe.  Now pretty much everything is sore.  My nagging left knee, which recently has been well behaved, is back to its old tricks.  My solution?  A daily, triple shot of glucosmine chondritin (sic?) and more exercise.  I may be sore, but everything is still moving properly.  I am hesitant to toss on the knee brace, since I am trying to strengthen it.  I don’t want artificial support to detract from that.

So I continue full steam ahead.  I expect to revisit Day 1’s routine today, except this time add one more stretch to the running and increase the push-ups and sit-ups by 10%(ish).  We’ll see, I might overestimate my ability a tad, but no reason not to try.  Feel the burn…

This might have been a New Year’s resolution, I don’t really remember.  If it wasn’t, I’m sure as hell adding it to the list.  I have decided that by year’s end, I will be able to pass the equivalent of an Army PT test.  "But Michael," you might not be asking yourself, "why would you be interested in doing that?"  The answer is because I feel like I owe it to myself to really start improving myself physically.

So, the bare minimum goals are 50 sit-ups and 40 push-ups each in two minutes, and run two miles in 16:36.  I think this is absolutely doable.  If I can make it to 80/75/13:00, that’d be a "perfect" score, but I don’t know yet if that’s a realistic goal.  We’ll see.  If I think I can make it, you bet I’m shooting for it. 

I’ve already started daily sit and push-ups.  I’m starting slow, but I can already go up to 25 sit-ups before I start wearing out.  Sad yes, but I also haven’t really done anything like that since my freshman year of high school.  Push-ups I didn’t keep close count of, we’ll say I did 20 yesterday.  I bought some Nike Free running shoes and went jogging yesterday.  Went for a little under a mile, felt like my shins were catching on fire, hehe.  But I don’t feel bad today, which last time I jogged, the next day I didn’t feel so 100%.  I’m trying to pay attention to my pace and such, not jump in over my head.

Let me comment on the shoes.  These are some of the strangest shoes I’ve ever worn.  They’re really light and have a sliced up sole so that when you move, they react to your feet much more.  They were designed to mimick barefoot runners.  Launch more from the ball of your foot when running.  So far I really like them, though I hate Nike.  I also splurged and ordered a 4Gb iPod Nano to run with.  Apple had good prices on refurb iPods, and I wanted the 30Gb iPod Video, but I decided that wasn’t worth it since you can’t jog with hard drive based players.  Plus I really don’t think I’d watch any video on it in the long run.

So that’s that.  I’m gonna be a mean mofo by the end of the year.  I still need to buy a weight bench.  Anyone got one to get rid of?

28.34.  The magic number for today.  I am pleased with it well enough.  Of course, I’m probably one of the only people who can find a way to make a trip out to Foxtown and back take almost thirty miles.  I am, of course, talking about biking.  Today just felt like a good day to get out and see what I had after all winter.  While the distance was good, the average speed, which we won’t speak of beyond this point, left much to be desired.  So for now I think I’ll be working on that.  Anyone can ride distance, but doing it at a pace that’s respectable is another matter.  I managed to get a bit of sun too.  Why I didn’t use sunscreen, not really something I can explain logically.  It’s not bad though, just some red arms.  It’ll be good for me.

Speaking of Foxtown, I’m going out for the second show in two weeks there.  The Lonely is playing tonight.  A friend of mine is their bassist.  I probably wouldn’t bother if it weren’t for that though.  I dunno, we’ll see if they’re any good.  Techno-rock isn’t the top of my genre favorites, but sometimes the mood is right.  If nothing else, I’m out of the house though, so regardless, could be worse.  Just hoping the rain holds off and blows past.  Naturally I washed my car last night.  Oh well.