Octopodial Chrome

There was a good reason for all the exercise I’ve been doing: I attended Direct Commission Officer Indoctrination from 19 Apr–1 May. For almost all of my adult life I’ve been overweight & out of shape; I believed that my greatest challenge at school would be to keep up physically, so I developed a plan to address the issue, I executed it—and I ended up not having any problems whatsoever. On the contrary, I actually got the highest sit-up score in the class and didn’t do too poorly overall (I got an Excellent-Medium score).

Of course, now that I’m back I need to keep at it. My new goal is to complete 100 miles of running and walking by the 26th of June. I had 29 miles before I went to school, and with over 6 miles of running and 10 of marching (these are bare minima, since I wasn’t keeping track—I’m pretty sure we did more than a mile a day of marching) that puts me at 45 miles. This week I ran 2½ miles and walked 1; ran 1½ and walked 1; and finally today I ran 2½, bringing me up to 53½. Over the upcoming week I plan to knock out another nine miles at least.

Last week was a pretty good week. Monday I did 146 push-ups (28, 35, 25, 22 & 36) & 221 sit-ups (42, 52, 38, 33 & 56) and ran three miles in 28:20 (½: 4:28; 1: 8:56; 1½: 13:33; 2: 19:16; 2½: 24:00; 3: 28:20).

Wednesday I did 162 push-ups (18, 18, 20, 20, 14, 14, 16 & 42) & 244 sit-ups (27, 27, 30, 30, 21, 21, 24 & 64) and ran three miles in 27:37 (½: 4:26; 1½:13:18; 2: 18:57; 2½:23:27; 3: 27:37).

Friday I did 176 push-ups (18, 18, 20, 20, 17, 17, 20 & 46) & 262 sit-ups (26, 26, 30, 30, 26, 26, 30 & 68) and ran three miles in 28:35 (½: 4:49; 1: 10:13; 1½: 14:45; 2: 20:33; 2½: 25:01; 3: 28:35). I’m pretty proud of that run: while it was my worst two-mile time in quite awhile, I sprinted the final mile and turned in a not-too-shabby 8½ minute mile after already running two miles. That tells me that if I work on pacing I should have no problem getting three miles in under 27 minutes.

My total miles run since I started logging them is up to 29. Not that many—still, almost a third of the way to a century!

I don’t really have an excuse for being late. Of course, I guess my blog readers probably don’t care that much anyway. I was unable to run on Monday due to snow, but did do a sit-up and push-up exhaustion test. The verdict? Not nearly where I want be, but good enough for government work (literally). On Wednesday I combined my sit-ups & push-ups with my running (which is how the real PRT does it), doing 90 push-ups in sets of 17, 19, 15, 15 & 24, 150 sit-ups in sets of 26, 30, 23, 23 and 48 and running 1½ miles in 13:07 (4:03 for the half, 8:40 for the full mile).

Today I did another full slate of exercises: 101 push-ups in sets of 10, 10, 13, 13, 10, 10, 9 & 26; 171 sit-ups in sets pf 15, 15, 20, 20, 15, 15, 15 & 56; then I ran a full three miles and walked half a mile. Unfortunately I didn't properly hit my split timer at the three mile point: my split times were: ½ mile, 4:24, one mile, 9:02, 1½ miles 13:38, two miles19:04, 2½ miles 23:53 and 3½ miles at 37:34. I'm guessing that my three mile time was something like 29:00.

I was unable to run yesterday due to the blizzard. Instead, I used my push-up program as a guide for chin-ups, using the very lowest level of 13 chin-ups in sets of 2, 3, 2, 2 and 4. Today I did 112 push-ups in sets of 13, 13, 15, 15, 12, 12, 10 & 22 (should have been 30) and 177 sit-ups in sets of 18, 18, 22, 22, 18, 18, 15 & 46. Tomorrow I’m going to be doing a max test to see how I shake out.

I did 92 push-ups in sets of 18, 20, 14, 16 & 25. Was supposed to get up to 40 on that last set, but it simply wasn’t happening. I may have to repeat this week.

Then I did 214 sit-ups in sets of 27, 27, 30, 30, 21, 21, 24 & 34. Should have gotten to 60, but as above it wasn’t happening. Will probably repeat this week.

I’m a day late posting this. Went out running yesterday just as the cold snap hit. Not at all fun. Also, I forgot to turn my phone on when I started. If my first ½ mile was like the rest, I turned in a fairly shabby 24-minute 2½ mile run. Kinda a bummer, since I’d done so well Saturday and Monday.

I won’t be able to run tomorrow due to the snow (we’re in the middle of a blizzard), so maybe I’ll do some other exercise instead.

Two days late on my update. I did a mere 48 push-ups today, in sets of 28 and then 20—and then I simply could do no more. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why I was bombing out so really, really horribly (for reference, on Thursday less than a week ago I could do 140). Then I realised: I’ve been doing pull-ups, chin-ups and that thing in between with the hands perpendicular to the body all day long: my arms are worn out.

I’m a moron.

Then I proceeded to do 231 sit-ups in sets of 54, 52, 38, 33 and 54.

I didn’t update (or exercise) on Friday, since I knew that I’d be PTing during drill on Saturday and wanted to be rested & ready. Which I was, managing to do more sit-ups and run longer than the rest. Saturday’s PT was tough: it was lots of warm-up stuff (which burns energy, obviously), plus a mini-PRT with push-ups, sit-ups and running, plus a whole bunch of stretches and yoga. The best thing I can say about it is that—as hard as it was—I was in no pain at all on Sunday: that’s how good the stretch regimen was. LTJG Benham knows what she’s doing.

Today I ran 2½ miles, with these times: ½ mile, 4:12; 1 mile, 8:11; 1½ miles, 12:32; 2 miles, 17:24; 2½ miles, 21:39. I then walked a further ½ mile; by the end of this week I’d like to be jogging it a bit, and next week I’d like to increase my run to 3 miles.

I also bought a pull-up bar and got a push-up aid for free through my company’s award programme. We’ll see if either is useful.

Ugh…managed a very difficult 140 push-ups (25, 29, 25, 25 & 36) and ended up only managing 66 sit-ups in sets of 36 and 30. I really wish I knew why my performance is reversing itself. Diet maybe? Time of day?

Today I decided to do something different: instead of pacing myself to run 2½ miles, I ran the best 1½ mile time I could, then ran/walked the rest of the way. I managed half a mile in 4:11, 1 mile in 8:28, 1½ miles in 12:45, 2 miles in 18:54 and 2½ miles in 24:44. Not too bad, considering that I had worn myself out a mile previously.

No updates for a few days, as I've been out of town (about which more later). While I was out I went cross-country skiing every day: it's supposed to be an extremely good workout, so I did that instead of my usual exercises. Today I resumed my usual exercises, repeating last week; thus I did 120 push-ups in sets of 21, 25, 21, 21 & 32 and 184 sit-ups in sets of 32, 38, 32, 32 & 50.

I did 122 push-ups today, in sets of 21, 25, 21, 21 & 34. Then I did 182 sit-ups in sets of 32, 38, 32, 32 & 48. Ouch.

I ran 2½ miles today; times were: ½ mile, 4:19; one mile, 8:51; 1½ miles, 13:16; two miles, 18:54; 2½ miles, 23:36. Oddly, I ran slower than I ran/walked last Friday. Maybe it was the cold? Or maybe I’m just an old man…every day I seem to run more slowly.

Today I did 124 push-ups in sets of 22, 30, 20, 20 & 32. I also did 181 sit-ups in sets of 33, 42, 30, 30 & 46.

Today I ran two miles and ran/walked another half mile. Times: half a mile, 4:17; mile, 8:48; 1½ miles, 13:18; two miles 18:56; 2½ miles, 23:34. I think maybe next week I’ll be able to run the entire two and a half miles. Then I need to start working back up to three miles…

Today I did 106 push-ups, in sets of 20, 25, 20 (because I misread the sheet—there’s a lesson there!), 15 & 26. I then did 154 sit-ups, in sets of 30, 38, 23, 23 & 40. I hurt. A lot. I can’t wait until I look back on this as easy.

Today I ran two miles in 18:21, which is pretty lame, albeit within reason for one of my age. I’d like to knock three minutes off of that, but we’ll see how long that takes. My split distances and times were: half a mile, 4:17; one mile, 8:43; 1½ miles, 13:11 (just out of good-high range for the PRT, two miles, 18:21. I’ll do better on Friday!

I got lazy last fall: once it got too cold to run, I quit running (which makes some sense) and then quit doing sit-ups and push-ups indoors (which makes no sense, and is sheer laziness). Well, I'm getting back into shape now and to keep myself honest I thought it might be useful to blog my progress. It's a bit embarrassing how out-of-shape I am, but

The advice I've seen is not to do the same stuff two days in a row, but instead to alternate. So on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I run according to an approved programme and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I do push-ups and sit-ups.

I ran two miles yesterday. Didn't track my time; tomorrow I'll bring my mobile phone along and use its stopwatch and see how I'm doing. Pretty badly, I suspect. Today I did Week 3, Day 1: sets of 14, 18, 14, 14 & 24 push-ups, for a total of 84. I then did the same for sit-ups: sets of 21, 27, 21, 21 & 41. Here's looking forward to Thursday!