So bad

Ok it has been more then a month since I wrote something but I saw Brandon finally pulled the trigger and felt I needed to do something to get back on track as well. Here are my random pushup numbers from the last month. Oh and I randomly ran a half marathon one night.

Wednesday day 2x30, 2x30, 2x30 - ran 13.1 -- 180

Thursday 60

Saturday 100

Sunday 25

Monday 60, 40 9am, 10x30 Lunch, 50,25 3pm 25, 25 6pm  -- 525

Wednesday 6am 30, 45 -- 75

Thursday 25

Friday 25, 25, 50 -- 100

Saturday 25, 25 -- 50

Sunday 50, 25 -- 75

Monday 25, 10x20, 5x20, 2 miles on elliptical, RipDeck 208 13:45 Situps 8:33 Pushups 5:12 -- 533

Tuesday 50,25,25

Wednesday 75

Friday 4x25

Monday 50,20

Thursday 85, 50

Monday 25, 25

Tuesday 60, 50

Week break

Wednesday 50, 25

Thursday 50

Sunday 40

Monday 40, 50

Monday 50

Tuesday 63

Wednesday 70, 60

Friday 50, 25

Tuesday 70

Thursday 80, 70

Tuesday (10/1) 90

Total is 3271 added to my earlier total of 23788 and I am at 27059. 23k in 4 months is definitely not gonna happen but what the hell might as well keep on keeping on and track it.

Slippin'

Geez I thought I was getting into the groove and then I fell of the wagon.

12 days to try and recap. I was working on the cabin the first 3 days and didn't do any other exercise. Sunday I went up with Josh who is doing the plumbing. We weren't up there too long because he needs to get a part from work to connect to the main drain that is in the concrete. But he was able to chip away enough concrete so that connecting in should be straight forward next time we go up. I also rented a heavy duty rotohammer that I used to drill a 4" diameter hole in the concrete wall for the dryer went. Doing that took so much effort. The wall is 8" thick and probably took at least a good 45 minutes to drill because of needing to take so many breaks. He hooked up the new water main valve and pressure relief valve too. Friday and Saturday up there I remember ripping out the garage electrical, cutting up the old oil drum and doing some other electrical work.

Since we got done early Sunday I was able to make it to my soccer game and have my brother come play as a sub. Beginners luck for him as he put a ball off the post in the first minute and then ended up scoring in the second half. We got beat because the other team had a striker that scored on 3 breakaways.

Nothing special happened the next few days but I did manage to try to pick up some slack on the pushups. Getting 705 in Mon-Wed. Thursday I lost some pushup momentum because I took the afternoon off work and went to the cabin. I put up some foam insulation, did some framing in the downstairs bathroom, a little electrical, and then started tearing out the chimney.

Friday - I made it out for a run for the first time in over a week and did a 1/4 marathon during lunch. We finally had one of those date nights I promised. Tasha picked me up from work and we had a fun night planned to celebrate her birthday. First we went to new place by my work https://www.urbanfloat.com/. I thought it was pretty cool it takes a little while to let yourself completely relax but once I hit that point it was easy to totally zone out. After that we headed downtown. My work happened to have an event planned at the space needed and chiluly glass museum. Tasha had never been up the space needle and I can't remember if/when I have. We did that and then did dinner before looping back for the museum. For dinner we went to a Brazilian steakhouse. All you can eat meat brought to your table on a fat skewer. Can't think of much better than that. After I ate until I wanted to barf we walked back for the museum. The museum was extremely impressive and I'm thankful my company sponsored that because I wouldn't have thought to do it on my own.

Saturday was Tasha's actual birthday so her family came over to bbq. Her grandpa helped me look at our upstairs bath faucet that has dripped for quite a while now. We were able to change the cartridge in the faucet but that didn't fix that problem. Meaning our only solution is to replace the whole faucet which would mean cutting a hole in the wall through Dawson's room. We'll see if we decide to do that or just let it drip.

Sunday headed back to the house and spent 7 hours ripping out the rest of the chimney. It was the dirtiest I have been leaving the house. I got home and had to hose myself off before even taking a shower.

Monday I was glad to be back working on a computer after the chimney adventure. I went for 4 mile run at lunch. I added some intervals to the workout and did 1/2 easy and then a 1/4 mile around 6:00 pace with the exception of the end when I did a full 1/2 hard.

That brings us to today. Went back to construction mode. Cleaned up the remaining pile of bricks, installed a bathroom fan, finished the downstairs bathroom electrical, furred one of the bedroom walls on the top floor, finished the electrical in that bedroom by relocating the heater, installing recess lights.

Now time for the totals

Monday 2x30 6am 30 8:30am, 7:30pm 30,30, 30, 30, 30 -- 240

Tuesday 2x30 6am, 9:30pm 45, 45, 50 -- 200

Wednesday 6am 50 8:30am 25, 10am 25, 11am 75, 3:30pm 65, 25 -- 265

Thursday 7am40, 12pm 40 -- 80

Friday 30w/urijah 6am Run 6.55 -- 30

Sunday 4x30 -- 120

Monday 40,35 6am, Run 4.0, 25x2 -- 125

Tuesday 7x30 -- 210

Pushups - 240, 200, 265, 80, 30, 0, 120, 125, 210 / 23788 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1201 YTD

Running - 6.55, 4 / 193.22 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 240.92 YTD

Terrible 3's

Tasha had a follow appointment from surgery so I took the day off work today and helped take care of the kids. The doctor pulled a massive clump of god knows what out of one of her nostrils which explains why she has felt like crap the last couple days. Urijah has hit an age where is a lot more disobedient and I feel like he gets in trouble constantly. It his hard when kids are doing something they aren't supposed to but they are so cute doing it. Today he dumped a big bin of sand out on the patio after I told him multiple times not to do it. So I put him in his bedroom for timeout while I go to clean it up. Next thing I know there he is downstairs with different clothes on saying 'I have blue running shorts  like you do, lets go running'. I think he knows to try and combat being in trouble with funny behavior. Being cute didn't last long as he tried to lock me in the back yard. Imagine that sequence repeated for 12 hours and that was about our day.

After Dawson went to sleep I snuck out to go run. I went down to the track again to run 800's I planned to do 5 this week with the same amount of rest. I was really close to quitting after the 4th one but sucked it up and struggled through the last one. 5 800's 4 minutes rest (3:00, 2:56, 2:51, 2:52, 2:51). My target times were to start at 3:00 and take 4 seconds off each one. I think next week I am going to run 400's instead, it will probably hurt a lot.

Pushups - Wednesday 150 / 22518 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1201 YTD

Running - Thursday 4 / 182.67 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 230.37 YTD

Portlandia

Friday night headed out to Portland for a joint bachelor party for Ramil and Jamie. How can two guys that have known each other since elementary school wait 25 years and then get married within one week of another? Beau and I drove down together, we hit some gnarly traffic getting from Tacoma to Olympia but 4 hours in a car with one of your besties ain't a bad way to spend a few hours. Jamie and a few others took the train down and had a bit of a head start on their drinking. I didn't even notice that he was that drunk until we couldn't get into the first bar because he was too wobbly. At the next bar I handed him his ID and cover money RIGHT before we stepped up to the bouncer. He then proceded to  drop it right in front of the bouncer. So off to bar #3 we went. This place was super chill and I don't think they sweat him at all. Drank some beers played some pool then headed to the obligatory strip joint. Nothing made me appreciate my two sons more than watching girls crawl on floor naked for some one dollar bills. It was a pretty calm group of dudes and everybody stayed out of trouble. Beau and I only stayed for one day and took off early in the morning. I then spent Saturday sleeping because 1) Tasha was staying at her parents 2) I felt like crap. When you only drink until closing time once a year, you can expect a pretty good head ache the next day.

Sunday I went to work on the cabin and did some electrical work and then took another load of trash to the dump. I had to spend a bunch of time cutting up the old oil heating drum. I might be able to get the rest of the garbage in one more truck load.

Monday Tasha and I met after work and went down to the beach at Redondo and sat in the sand and soaked up some sun. It was really good to sit and relax just the two of us and talk. Between 2 kids and the 2 houses we haven't spent much one on one time together. We decided we are going to make an effort to do more stuff just the 2 of us so expect some blog entries filled with wild dates as we pretend to be young again in the near future

Pushups - Friday 140, Monday 215, Tuesday 180 / 22368 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1201 YTD

Running - Sunday 3.61 / 178.67 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 226.37 YTD

Back on the track

Wow I didn't realize how long it had been since I ran on the track. I looking back I think it might have been all the way back in March. Tasha is staying at her parents house tonight so that I don't have to drop her off really early in the morning before catching the van to work. I took advantage of the alone time and went down to the track. I ran 4x800 with 4 minutes rest. My goal was to go 3:00, 2:55, 2:50, 2:45 and I wasn't too far off 3:01, 2:58, 2:53, 2:47. Starting last 200 of the final one I at about 2:10 and had to kick it into gear to get my time close to where I wanted it. All the other ones was able to keep a pretty consistent pace and not have to sprint at the end. Mile warm up and mile cool down.

Pushups - 0 / 21833 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1201 YTD

Running - 4 / 174.76 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 222.76 YTD

Full Time Dad

Monday 8th - Not much worth writing about. Did 90 pushups in the morning another 210 at the gym and 50 at night. At the gym I did a little bit of heavier chest lifting after finishing my pushups. I can't wait to finish this pushup challenge so I can do some conventional lifting.

Tuesday 9th - Tasha had surgery to repair a deviated septum, remove a cyst, and open her sinuses. Pretty much the kitchen sink of surgeries. Everything went well and the doctor thinks this should eliminate a lot of her recent problems. She is going to be out of commission for a while and that has put me on kid duty. I was able to do an easy job in the morning before we left for the doctor's. This time I wasn't so lucky and had to pop a squat in the bushes. Oh well, shit happens. Literally.

Tuesday 9th-Wednesday 10th - Since Tasha has always breast fed the extent to my late night duties has been to occasionally change a diaper or fetch the baby from the crip. Well this was my first taste of full responsibility. If any parent wants a reason to breast feed, it is having to warmup a bottle at 11pm and 4am while a baby is crying on full blast. Dawson did ok after the first bottle when I almost had to force it down his throat because he didn't know what the heck was going on.

Wednesday 10th - After the 4am feeding Dawson went back to sleep until 7am. Since then it has been non-stop. I took the boys to the 'medium' park around 9:30 in the morning. Urijah wondered why there were no kids there. Maybe because everyone else is sleeping. We made it home for a little while and by noon we were at the 'big' park. Baby Bjorns are amazing. I did 13 pull ups with Dawson on my chest. 5 one set and 8 the second. The afternoon was a little more difficult. Dawson began getting cranky, Tasha is guessing it is because his teeth are hurting. He is in bed now which means I need to run and take a shower so I can get a little sleep before he wakes up. I did Rip Deck in 13:00 5:00 pushups 8:00 sit ups. And that is with still cheating the situps using my arms some. I wanted to do more push ups but I also want some sleep.



Pushups - Monday 350, Wednesday 208 / 21833 YTD

Pull ups -   13 / 1201 YTD

Running - Tuesday 2.75 / 170.76 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 218.76 YTD

Happy Birthday America

Finished the week with 1275 pushups, 13.5 miles, 2 days of working on the mountain house, and 2 projects at our house. My hamstring started feeling really tight and my body is trying to throw in the towel today.

Thursday 4th of July - After looking back wanting to compare year or year I decided to try to run 2 miles hard around my neighborhood to see how the time compared with last year. It wasn't the same route so it isn't apples to apples but 13:06ish was around 20 seconds faster than the quickest time I had from last year. Considering I haven't done any running on the track in a long time I can't be too upset there. I have been wanting to do a half marathon but not until I feel good enough. Maybe setting a trigger of doing 2 miles in 12 minutes as my mark before signing up will give me incentive to do some speed work. Ok I convinced myself one 2 mile time trial each 6 weeks until I get there. Back to 4th of July after the running detour. We took the kids down to a big 4th of July festival at a park in Auburn for the afternoon and let Urijah play on all the bouncy house toys. Then came home and went to our neighborhood block party for the night. Is 3 too young to let kids have sparklers? We made sure to be right with him but after a few beers the thought was you might get burnt a little but a sparkler isn't going to blow off a finger at least.

Friday 5th - Woke up and headed to the mountain. Wasn't as productive as I wanted but was going to be heading up the next day so I cut it short and headed back home. Tasha was headed out for a playdate so I decided to try and surprise her and finish the walkway path in our backyard that I have been procrastinating on. Picked up a half yard of sand, 90 sqft of the rubber tiles we were using, and grabbed some lumber for the mountain house and headed home to get to work. Big Tad came over to help and then Tammy rode up with Tasha and did a little stall job and we were able to finish up just before they got home. Score one for me.

Saturday 6th - My parents hadn't been to the house and they offered to spend the day with me helping and keeping me company. For being in their 60's they still are really active. I was giving my mom some odd jobs cleaning and removing light duty stuff and then was going to have her stripping the sheathing of the electrical wires. That might have been a bad idea because she accidentally clipped 2 wires completely off. After a little worry I think we found ways to work around it but after that she was relegated to bagging busted chimney and sorting bricks. Felt bad she was outside on her own while Dave and I were inside framing up the laundry area and replacing the wall the plumbing manifold was hanging on. Did a little bit of wiring after that and then loaded a bunch of garbage for the dump. I can't wait for the day when I am finally done having to take debris to the dump. That will be a huge landmark.

Sunday 7th - My brother's family just finished the drive from St Louis and we all hung out at my parent's place and bbq'd for the day. Urijah loved playing with his cousins and Ryan and Reece seemed really happy to play with him too.


Pushups - Thursday 300, Saturday 100, Sunday 125 / 21275 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running - Thursday 2, Sunday 3 / 168.01 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 46 YTD

Run total - 216.01 YTD

Signs you are growing up

Other than being constantly sore from working out I think the biggest sign I'm getting older is that I am starting to care what my backyard looks like. So when the new lawnmower blade came in the mail today it was like getting a new toy that I was excited to try out. Between the new blade and cleaning out the bottom of the mower that thing is putting in work now.

I didn't have to go into work until 10 this morning so I went for a 6.5 mile run when I woke up. Running first thing in the morning takes a while to warmup but I was glad to get in so many miles. A minute slower per mile than Sound to Narrows and it still seems hard but I guess that isn't going to change. That makes the 10 miler I did last September randomly at 7:50 pace seem pretty damn good looking back. I can't imagine I was fast last year but maybe by the end of summer I was in better shape than right now. Hopefully I can try to do at least one of the same races next year to be able to compare year to year.

I did 3 sets to hit 100 for pushups tonight and hope to celebrate the 4th of July with a bang in the pushup numbers.

Pushups - 100 / 20750 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running - 6.5 / 163.01 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  2 / 46 YTD

Run total - 211.01 YTD

On a roll

Finally starting to be able to string together consecutive days and not be too sore. I did a set of 50 when I got to work and then at the gym did 2x50, mile elliptical, 3x33(34), mile elliptical, 2x25 with sit-ups between push ups sets. Then while watching American Ninja Warrior tonight did the same sets of pushups as at the gym. It felt a lot better to be doing pushups while watching tv than just vegging out. The athletes on the show are ridiculous. They had Jordan Babineaux who played for the Seahawks, and considering he only made it half way through the course validates what these guys are doing. Pretty awesome to see a pro athlete get schooled by some of these dudes.

Wrote this on Monday the first. Blogger decided it didn't want to post it until the 3rd

Pushups - 650 / 20650 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running - 0 / 156.51 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  2 / 46 YTD

Run total - 204.51 YTD

20k

Good news I hit 20k. Bad news I'm behind schedule. I spread out random sets of 25 and one set of 30 to round off at 20k.

Renee had her yearly suite at the Mariners game yesterday vs the Cubs. In the last couple years her suite game crowd has changed quite a bit. There were a number of babies in the house and we were celebrating Bryan and Renee being pregnant. 3 years ago we took Urijah to the suite for his first game when he was only a month old. Dawson had to wait 8 months before his first sporting event. Downside to being baby number two is your day is planned around what will work for your older brother.

Here are the 5 month totals. A little behind in each category but I think I can fill the gap this month.

Pushups - 155 / 20000 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running - 0 / 156.51 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 44 YTD

Run total - 202.51 YTD

These are my posted numbers from last month.

5/30 167.34 16985 

6/10 180.44 17565 

6/18 187.04 18245 

6/23 187.04 18320 

6/30 202.51 20000

In the first 3 weeks of the month I only did 1335 pushups. And there was a 5 day period where I didn't run and only did 75 pushups. The last week I did a good job to catch up 13.5 miles and 1680 pushups. Couple more weeks like that and I'll be back on track.

Picture Dump

I thought I added a few of these before but was wrong.

Dawson and Grandpa Dave at Urijah's birthday dinner

GoKarts at Urijah's birthday party

Urijah running into the buckets which caused the GoKart freeway pile up

My plumbing nemesis

New electrical panel

3" whole through 9" thick concrete ready for the new service wire

Entry / Laundry room

Electrical panel and water heater closet

Hot

Having a Seattle style heat wave right now. weather.com says it hit 86 yesterday and my dumb ass decided it would be good to go for a run around 5pm which was the peak of the heat. I worked on the house the first half of the day so between that and a run in 80+ weather I zonked out on the couch. The house was so hot that I was laying with my damp towel from the shower no the couch to keep cool.

I did a little of everything at the house yesterday: insulation, framing, electrical. The entry area is starting to come together.

After it cooled down I walked to the Redbox and rented Silver Playbook Linings. Katniss Everdeen as a sex addict, hey why not. Oh yeah and it was nominated for a bunch of awards if that's your kind of thing.

This morning rolled out of bed and took the dog for a run to beat the heat. It was still pretty warm at 7am. The last quarter mile I was pretty sure I was going crap my pants. It's a tough call to make to decide to duck into the bushes and pop a squat. Once I got onto my street I that option was gone because there isn't anywhere to hide. That was the most awkward 150 yards of running I've done in a long time. Luckily made it home and avoided an embarrassing mess.

Pushups - 0 / 19845 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running -  3 Saturday, 3.47 Sunday / 156.51 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 44 YTD

Run total - 202.51 YTD

Closing the gap

I've done a pretty good job the last 5 days of trying to get out of debt. Today I did 4 sets of 40 spread out through the first half of the day and then 12x20 over the last hour. Only two more days left in the month. Pace would be 20833 and 208.33 I'm not going to get to either of those but hopefully I get close enough that I can hit the half way point at the end of July.

I worked from home because I felt like crap during the night and was coughing a lot. Which allowed me to get some stuff done in the evening. I was cleaning our lawn mower and couldn't believe the amount of grass that was built up underneath it. It is a miracle it was cutting any grass at all and rather obvious now why the bag wasn't picking anything up. I ordered a new blade online after seeing how dinged up the current one was. Hopefully I don't wait 8 more years to do the same thing next time.

Tomorrow construction and hopefully a couple mile jog at night.

Pushups -  400 / 19845 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running -  4 / 150.04 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 44 YTD

Run total - 196.04 YTD

Digging out

I created quite a hole to dig myself out of by not doing much for a few weeks. I highly doubt that I'll be on pace at the end of this month which will be the first time I fall behind pace. On the bright side I don't have soccer next week which will give me an extra day that I usually lose to that. Our game last night couldn't have been timed worse. For most of the first half it was raining harder then I've ever 'had' to be in. You have to wring your shirt out because it was so heavy. To make matters worse we lost 1-0, where the one goal was a deflection off of me. Other than that minor issue I thought I played a pretty good game.

After the game I went to meet an acquaintance/friend to chat with him about a graphic novel that he has written and wants to turn it into an app for tablets. It was nice to see him and his girlfriend. We hung out with them when we used to go down to Black Butte and stay at another friends cabin to go skiing. He just started getting pretty serious into running so maybe we'll try to meet up some. It would be super good for me to get some running partners.

Today I made it to the gym during lunch and did 5 sets of 40 pushups with minutes rest on the exercise bike then did 5 sets of 20 with a set of curls in between. A set of 75 with the pushup group at work and 2 more sets of 25 at home. Really didn't have time for much else today because traffic was horrible and didn't get home until 6pm. My legs are really sore but I want/need to go for a run tomorrow.

Pushups -  Tuesday 25, Wednesday 425 / 19445 YTD

Pull ups -   0 / 1188 YTD

Running -  1 / 146.04 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  0 / 44 YTD

Run total - 192.04 YTD

Must break funk

Another week long slump. Maybe today is the day I turn it around.

Weekly recap

Tuesday - Soccer, Tasha brought the kids to the park during the game and they hung in the car the first half hour because they both were asleep. Then Urijah played on the big toy the rest of the game. My legs felt like crap. It is taking me a while to bounce back from working on the house on the weekends right now.

Wednesday - Went to see Fall Out Boy with Marcus at the Showbox Sodo. I'm so sheltered. This was the first concert I've been to see there. We had a good time rocking out. I knew something was up when he asked me to go and there were a couple other times he's tried to do stuff recently but didn't have it work out. So it wasn't a big surprise but our man date was so he could ask me to be in his wedding. It will be nice to take a vacation out to NY for the wedding. At this point I think we are going to leave the kids behind which will be their first overnight away from Mom. Not sure who that's going to be harder on.

Thursday - My Mom and her friend Miko from Hawaii came and hung out after work and I watched the kids and chatted with Miko while Tasha did my Mom's hair. Miko is one of the coolest ladies I know. Typical Hawaiian attitude just ultra chill. Her husband used to work with my Dad at Northwest when I was a baby. They lived right next to us for a few years before moving to Hawaii. She still gets her flight benefits so she drops in once or twice a year. Last time she came was before Christmas to pick up a gift for her grandchild that couldn't be shipped to Hawaii so she shipped it to my parents house and flew to pick it up. Genius plan except no one foresaw the package being stolen from my parents front porch. Workout consisted of one set of 75 pushups

Friday - Took the day off work to prepare for the electrician coming to the house on Saturday. Now that I have the power turned off at the house I need to run everything off a generator. I didn't bring a gas can so I only had power for a few hours and got enough of the wall up that was needed to hang the new electrical panel on. Made it home and then we went to Seattle to eat dinner with Dustin and Nicole. Went to the Icon Grill where I'd never been before and thought it was pretty good. Cool fact - Tasha was an extra in a scene from Life of Something Like it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282687/). Pretty funny that she didn't remember that is where it was filmed until I told her.

Saturday - Woke up crack of dawn to head to the cabin. Stopped at HomeDepot to buy all the breakers for the panel and rent a rotohammer to drill through the concrete wall. This is when things started going down hill. HD took way longer than I expected. Get to the top of the pass and it is closed for rock blasting. Traffic is backed up like crazy but was able to make it to the first pass exit and drive down the shoulder on the left hand side of the road to get around the traffic waiting to get on the freeway and make it to the house. Drill a 2" hole through the concrete wall before the electrician realizes the current service wire is only sized for 100amp service. For 200 amp we need the pipe to be bigger. Which means we might have to completely replace the service wires and weather head. I had Tasha go to HD to rent a 3" drill bit to support the bigger pipe. We ended up getting most of the panel done and just now need to figure out the service issues. Needless to say I am learning a lot.

Highlight of the day was sitting on the couch in the evening and Urijah runs down stairs completely naked with a $10 bill yelling about the ice cream man driving by. We frantically put some underwear on him and he goes darting down the street after the truck. He was running so fast super excited and yelling which way he saw him go. "No not that turn (pointing left), that turn (pointing ahead)". Pure joy and it made my day.

Sunday - Finally a day to sit and relax. Dawson started crawling for the first time. Which means it will probably be the last day to sit and relax for quite a while.

Monday - I decided instead of throwing in the towel on these pull ups that I need to get back into the groove. I did 200 (40,40,20,34,33,33) before I left for work another 100 (34,33,33) when I got to work, 250 at the gym with 2 miles of elliptical (34,33,33, 1 mile, 34,33,33, 1 mile, 25, 25), 75 at 3pm (50,25) and 50 more at home in the evening (25,25). I also went for an easy 2 mile run with Cosmo.

Pushups -  Thursday 75, Monday-675 / 18995 YTD

Pull ups -   / 1188 YTD

Running -  2 / 145.04 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  2 / 44 YTD

Run total - 191.04 YTD

Bad habits

Starting to form some really bad habits about not blogging and not working out. I'm so busy and so soar that it has been rough the last few weeks. See if I can remember what happened the last 7 days

Monday - Made it to the gym during lunch. Did Pushups 6x30, 25,25,20 and Pull ups 3x10. I haven't had the amount of energy there that I would like because I'm so beat up from the weekends. After running the jackhammer all day on Sunday and the race on Saturday I was just happy I made it there. We did dinner with Tasha's parents and then hit the pool for the 2nd to last swim lesson.

Tuesday - Drawing a blank for what I did on Tuesday. Only thing I can think of was watching the US mens world cup qualifying game on TV. A little disappointed I didn't go watch in person. I guess when they come here next time, its only been 30 years since the last one. Doh! Now that the Sounders are here and Seattle is known for soccer fans I'm sure we'll get one soon.

Wednesday - Happy Birthday to Urijah! It was Urijah's 3rd birthday. I worked from home and then we went to Trampoline Nation before meeting both sets of grandparents for dinner. After dinner we went for the last swimming lesson. Dawson wasn't feeling good so he slept and watched from the sidelines. This was the first time the teacher brought out life jackets for the kids. Urijah thought it was awesome. He was able to float on his own and roll from his back to his stomach spinning in circles over and over.

Thursday - Really long work day. In total I put in around 12 hours. REI was doing usability testing the next day in the store so I wanted to take care of a bunch of things before they did that. It worked out good because then taking Friday off I only needed to use a half day of PTO. Workout pushups 9am 40, 10am 40, Gym 6x25 Pullups 5,5,6,6,7,7  Rest 3 minutes Repeat

Friday - Took the day off work and went to work on the mountain house. I ran wire for the last smoke detector, re-configured some of the upstairs light wiring, added outlets in the entry, washer machine and started the bathroom outlets. Moved the downstairs bathroom door over a few inches so the shower can be bigger.  We didn't do much at night just hung out at home.

Saturday - Work up at 6am and ran 6.6 miles to my parents house. I hadn't run since the race last weekend and needed to get some miles in. Unfortunately there isn't a good route to their house. You have to go down the giant hill leaving our house and up the other giant hill on the other side of the valley. It was a good run though. I like running one-way to places. It gives you a real sense of freedom that you can go anywhere and do anything. I ran there because I was going with her to look at the house my brother and his family are moving into next month. We had to do the walkthrough and point out any damage. This house is like 6 years old but is in amazing shape. The owner seems ADD over the top obsessed. He probably shouldn't be a landlord, hell I can't believe he is married. His poor wife must walk on eggshells. 

After that we had Urijah's birthday party at Family Fun Center in Tukwila. I was shocked to learn they had go-karts that 3 year old kids could drive, and that they let all the kids go at the same time. Urijah does pretty good at home driving his little ATV and cars but this was way more difficult. The track was a really tight oval. And if that wasn't bad enough they have obstacles to go around. Urijah cause a four car pile up when he didn't see the pile of buckets in his way. After the guy got him going again he couldn't make the tight turn and ended up running straight into a fence. At this point he had enough. He took his seatbelt off and got out of the go-kart. I'm yelling at him to get back in the car before someone runs him over. Luckily nobody was close and he made it to the gate safely.

Sunday - Happy Father's Day to me! I woke up early to go work on the house. Did some framing, needed to rebuild one wall in the bathroom upstairs to surround the main stack vent, finish a corner in the downstairs bathroom. Ran wire for the dryer, and last of the bathroom outlets and lights. Loaded up a ton of wood to take to the recycling plant. I was beat afterwards. I was there a little more than 8 hours and was exhausted. Got home and relaxed as much as possible with a 3 year old who loves to climb on top of me. 

Monday - Went to work. Did 50 pushups. Went to bed

Pushups -  Monday-250 Thursday-380 Monday-50/ 18245 YTD

Pull ups -  Monday-30 Thursday-72 / 1188 YTD

Running -  6.6 / 143.04 YTD

Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD

Elliptical -  / 42 YTD

Run total - 187.04 YTD

Good times

Ohhhh geez I'm really falling off lately. First post of the month shouldn't be happening on the 10th. Last post was over a week and a half ago. Since then we have been super busy, even more than usual. Normally I wouldn't be able to recap 10 days but we did enough eventful things that I think I can do a pretty good job.

Friday 31st - We dropped the kids off at my parents house and went to dinner with Tina and Davis. We need to make a point to get out more often because it was lots of tun and we hadn't seen them in forever. After dinner we went to go see Hangover 3. Tasha couldn't remember the last movie she saw in the movie theater but guessed it was before Urijah was born, sign #2 we need to get out more. We timed hanging out with them perfectly because Tina had tickets to the Kenny Chesney concert from a friend that she decided last minute not to use on Saturday and we were able to snag them.

Saturday 1st - Went with Josh to work on the cabin. I ordered a bunch of plumbing supplies online and we picked them up and bought more stuff on the way to the house. Unfortunately we weren't able to do much because I haven't dug the concrete out that is needed for running the drain for the shower and toilet downstairs.  More on this later. The upside was we didn't stay long and I got home and had a little bit of time to hang out before we dropped the kids off with the in-laws and headed up to Seattle for the concert. The seats weren't very good and we sat and reflected on the horrible acoustics while Eli Young Band played. Mid-way through Eric Church we realized it wasn't the band it was the seats and decided to walk around. I won't buy concert tickets unless I can get really good seats because I don't think it is worth it. The people sitting up above were all so clueless. You couldn't hear a damn thing and yet they still clapped. I guess ignorance is bliss. Not sure how those people could have thought it was good. I don't care how big a fan you are or if you have never been to a concert before. You couldn't hear shit.</rant> During intermission we tried to find Duane and co. Ironically we found all of co. but none of Duane. Drank some beers with Eric Oh, Chuck of Show me what you showed Chuck fame, and Ben. Free tickets + $80 of beer = a good night.

Sunday 2nd - Wanted to wake up early and run. Beer from the night before prevented that from happening. Think I took Urijah to the park and played for a bit. Then we had Addison's birthday party. Tad and Ashley's go to b-day spot is a Chuck*e*Cheese type place down in Lacey. Urijah took a while to warm up but was the last man standing and didn't want to go home when it was time to leave. But I could only crawl through so many tubes and slides with beer sloshing around in my stomach.

Monday 3rd - Swimming lessons at night. Pushups 8am 40, 9am 40, Gym 3x10 pull ups, 10x30 pushups

Tuesday 4th - Soccer. Got killed, glad season is over. Hopefully we get moved down a division and are more competitive in the Summer. It was hot and I felt super blah. Had a few bright spots but quite a few moments to forget. One mile jog to start

Wednesday 5th - Hurray for Brandon coming home. I picked him up from the airport when I got off work and we ran to my house chatted with Tasha for a second grabbed the dog and headed out for a run. We ran down by the river which is 3.6 miles. It was pretty warm and I could tell Cosmo was struggling and wasn't pulling at all the 2nd half. Take that back we were all struggling, but we were running pretty fast 7:08ish pace. When we got done I noticed Cosmo's back paw was all bloody and I was trying to get her water because she was panting so bad. We ended up walking down to the river where instead of just getting a drink she plopped down in the water and laid there drinking it. She barely would move and would try to roll over to lay down only to realize that she was under water. We finally drug her and walked towards the car. I looked down and am pretty sure she had thrown up but wasn't 100% at the time because I didn't hear anything. Loaded up the car and headed home. I decided to skip swim and keep an eye on Cosmo. She layed on the grass in the front yard and it was clear she didn't feel good. Almost right as I was looking up heat exhaustion on dogs online does she throw up 3 times in quick succession. I jump up and throw everything in house and grab the truck keys. We take off for the vet and I'm worried we killed the dog running. Everything checked out at the vet and they figured she just overdid it running and drank too much water. It took her almost 2 days to bounce back but she seems totally fine now.

Thursday 6th -  Pushup10:45 60, Gym 25,25,25,25,40 Pull ups 5x10, 1 mile elliptical

Caught up with Brandon and Matt Kolve after work and drove downtown to eat dinner with a big group of friends.

Friday 7th - Impact Day at work. Once a year Deloitte sets up a number of community service projects and expects all employees to volunteer at one. Last year, I picked black berry pushes all day at Lake Sammamish park. I learned my lesson and signed up to work at an elementary school in Rainier Beach. We had an artist at work he outlined a massive mural for people to paint, others painted playground sidewalks, some landscaped, and I worked with a group that painting cutouts that we hung on different fences. It was a lot of fun and extra rewarding to see the kids head out for recess and comment how cool everything looked. Not sure I would have been as affected by it before having kids but it made doing the work more worthwhile to see their appreciation.

Me risking my life to hang signs for the kids

Mural part 1

Massive Mural

After that we went to Davis and Tina's place to bbq in honor of Brandon for shedding his blood sweat and tears in the sand. Or at least that was his drunken go to line when trying to convince anyone to do something. I showed self restraint and only have a couple beers because of running the race the next day. Brandon on the other hand wasn't going to let 7.5 miles of running stop him from having a good time. We hung for a few hours at which point Urijah's head was probably overfilled with obscenities from Brandon and Davis' rowdiness.

Saturday 8th - Sound to Narrows - Brandon and Tina picked me up just after 7 for the race. Brandon was laying in the back yelling along to the music on the radio and then passed out for the rest of the car ride. We joked that he won the competition for drunkest person in the race. This was my first time doing a race at this distance and the course added the challenge of being start to end hills. The first 1.5 miles are all down hill after that it is rolling up and down with two fairly steep hills towards the end. It was tough mentally because you just try to survive each hill by the time you recover you are at the base of the next one. Official time was 53:55 7:14 pace 156 place out of 2246, though my watch had a longer distance and said 7:09 pace. Brandon was 58:11, not bad for being half drunk.

We got home and threw together an impromptu garage sale and sold some baby stuff and made a quick benji. Our neighborhood gets pretty hectic when they have the city wide garage sale weekend. After that we had a birthday party for Urijah's friend Max. Max just turned 3 and can already swim completely on his own. His parents rented out the pool at the Federal Way community center. Urijah had lots of fun and I did my best to keep up with him with legs that didn't want to do anything.

Sunday 9th - I rented a jackhammer and Tad was foolish enough to come with me to the house to demo the concrete slab. Things were going pretty well until the bolts on the bottom started coming loose. After we tightened them it seemed like it wasn't impacting the way it should. We thought it would be a good idea to take the bolts off and look inside to see if something else was loose. This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't try to pull the trigger to see if things were moving alright. Next thing we know 4 pieces come flying out of the shaft. You would think that with only 4 pieces it wouldn't be tough to find the correct order. After some incorrect attempts Tad found a schematic on his phone and we got it put back together. It will seemed a little off but we kept going and got it to function. Not sure if it was running at 100% but we made do. Part of the slab was only 6 inches thick and we made pretty quick work of it. But as we moved towards the wall we encountered a giant rock that I estimated at 80lbs after we finally were able to pry it out. After we got the rock out we ran into 18 inch thick concrete. We weren't able to finish everything because the edge became so steep that the jackhammer would just slide down. The big issue is that the drain stack is still surrounded by concrete. At this point I'm thinking we will have to use a roto-hammer or handheld demo hammer so we don't crack the cast iron stack and cause a MAJOR MAJOR issue. If there is a time in my life I could use some good luck it will be when we go to try and finish that.

Pushups - 380 Monday, 200 Thursday / 17565 YTD
Pull ups - 30 Monday, 50 Thursday / 1086 YTD

Running - 1 Tuesday, 3.6 Wed, 7.5 Saturday / 136.44 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 1 / 42 YTD
Run total - 180.44 YTD

The Missing Link

Made it out to lunch today with Davis and Mike Gonzalez. I can't remember the last time I've seen Mike. He switched jobs at the bank and said he should be a lot more flexible and be able to do lunch more often. I don't have much room to talk because I have barely seen any of our friends lately but Mike has been a hard guy to connect with the last few years. It was good to see him and not much has changed because our conversation ended up involving lots of talk about working out. Mike might be the person I spent the most hours at the gym with during college. Freshmen year I worked out with Denny and Tyler from FW a lot. Sophomore year I lived at home Fall and Winter and was running quite a bit and can't remember who or if I lifted that consistently. But after that it was a revolving group of Mike, Jimmy, Gough, and a few others. Hard to believe that it has been over 10 years since then. No wonder I'm having a hard time remembering many details. I'll never forget driving down in Jimmy's car and if you didn't have enough u-pass cards to park for free having someone get out and lift the gate arm just high enough to drive under.

Yesterday I managed 2 sets of 50 pushups one in the morning and one in the afternoon. My chest is pretty sore from Monday's 600. I did a short run to the restaurant and then had Davis drive me back to the office.

Pushups - 100 / 16985 YTD
Pull ups - 0 / 1006 YTD

Running - 2.75 / 124.34 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 167.34 YTD

Where's Dave

Up to this point I've done a decent job of making progress even if I wasn't writing daily. This break was different. As each day went by where I didn't do anything I was becoming less motivated to write daily updates. After the race and playing soccer last week my shins have been really hurting. I haven't run for a week now. They are starting to feel better but even working on the cabin causes them to flare up. All this adds up a to a week with a whopping 1 mile run, that was my warmup before soccer last week. I'm glad we have the week off and then only one more game left this season. 

I haven't done a whole lot better for pushups in that time either. I did 40 on Wednesday, Saturday, and Monday to total a pathetic 120 for the last 7 days. I managed to right the ship today and knocked out 600. 40 before leaving for work, 40 after getting to work, 300 at the gym  (9 sets of 34 or 33), 50 before leaving work, 30 w/Urijah on my back after getting home, 40 an hour later, and finished with 4x25 while writing this. I did 3 sets of 10 pull ups at the gym and some other bicep stuff.

What I lacked in working out I made up for in manual labor. I worked on the cabin 3 days straight starting Friday. Which was one of the main reasons there was no running or pushup'ing. Sticking with this challenge is important but I feel good about having a handle on working out and working on the cabin is going to take priority during the summer. It is going to be a race again the calendar to get enough done to make it usable before the snow starts coming. I made really good progress on the electrical work and had an electrician out on Saturday to help and Tasha's Dad helped out on Sunday. The stress level is still pretty high but it feels good to be turning the corner and having things cleaned up and seeing things come together. This weekend a guy I know from high school is going to come up and lay some pipe. Not sure how much too expect to get done but the first time he went up we made quick work of the supply lines. 


Pushups - 40,40,40,600 (720) / 16885 YTD
Pull ups - 30 / 1006 YTD

Running - 1 / 121.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 164.59 YTD

Day after

I could tell first thing in the morning that I wasn't going to get my real big monday pushup number. I wasn't feeling really sore anywhere but I think in general my body was worn up from the weekend. I did sets of 50 and 40 before leaving for work and then at the gym 3x10 on pull ups and 10x30 for pushups between my other exercises. I did one more set of 50 before leaving work and took the night off.

Urijah keeps talking about wanting to run another race so I'll have to keep an eye out for other events that have little kid races.

We had swimming at night so by the time we made it home at 8pm I was ready to just sit on the couch. 14 hours on the go is quite the day.

Soccer tonight if my shin lets me play. It hasn't been happy after the race.



Pushups - 440 / 16165 YTD
Pull ups - 30 / 976 YTD

Running - 0 / 120.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 163.59 YTD

Out of retirement

My work is a sponsor for Beat the Bridge and along with that they will pay employees entry fees. I can't pass free stuff and even though I would like to be running more before doing a race I decided to sign up. Friday during lunch I ran 4 miles to keep my legs loose before Sunday. I left my watch at home so I have no clue how fast I was going. Our exciting Friday night was renting Hotel Transylvania. I'm not very picky but didn't it was a stinker. In hindsight Adam Sandler hasn't faired too well in animated movies. 

Saturday I got up early and went to work on the house. I ran some wire, ripped out some old wire, did some demo, then ran more wire before cleaning up a bit. We have an electrician coming up to work on the house next weekend so I'm pushing to get ready for him. I sat down and actually watched the Sounders game on TV last night and it was one of the most exciting games I can remember. Lots of goals (4-2 Seattle) and a number of other close chances.

Race day, we loaded up the troops and took off around 6:45. It was a madhouse at the stadium. There were 5000 runners along with a big contingent of walkers that started before the run. I had run 5 miles at lunch a few weeks ago and felt like I was pushing it even though I didn't warm up. I averaged 7:18 that day so I was hoping to be somewhere around 7:10 per mile today. I foolishly started way too far back in the pack and had to really fight through people the first mile. I was weaving in and out like crazy. But being so far back gave me an odd motivation to keep blowing past people. A couple hundred meters in a noticed a woman frantically passing people at the same pace I was. It was funny because we ended up running near each other then entire race and congratulated each other at the finish. I was really consistent and ran increasingly faster miles as the race progressed. My official time was 33:33 (6:45/mile). I was really surprised and felt great about the time.

I've only run a 5 mile race one time before this. That was FIFTEEN years ago. Can't believe how long ago that was and how old I am now. I googled and was able to find the results from that race. The Seafair Torchlight Parade run was super cool and I might try to do it again this year. You run through the parade route and there are thousands of people cheering. God bless the internet because I found my old result and can't believe that I beat my time from that race (34:21). This was the summer before my sr year and I hadn't done a lot of runs longer that 6 or 7 miles back then. Whereas now I do quite a bit of longer runs but don't have near the speed I used to.

http://athlinks.com/result/43981/64213/33077616/98210429

I wasn't the only one running a race today. We signed Urijah up for the 'diaper derby'. He had a huge grin running to Tasha. He is impossible not to love. 

Now these are kind of matching shirts I can go for

I don't think he understands the urgency of the race but he had a lot of fun

3.5 miles in and flying past people

Pushups - 0 / 15725 YTD
Pull ups - 0 / 946 YTD

Running - 9 / 120.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 163.59 YTD

Ups and downs

40 pushups in the morning, 10 sets of 30 between sets at the gym (including 3 sets of 12 pullups and one set of 5 at the end of the workout), set of 60 before leaving work. Starting to get my groove back at the gym which has me feeling really good. I'm only going a couple times a week but with all the other exercise I can see a huge difference.

Things Brandon has given me over the years: laptop, camera, car, and now motivation to get back in shape. What a guy! I guess I should add in numerous hangovers to things he's given me.

I really want to get back to working on the rip deck app. Google just announced some libraries  for gaming on android that would handle the communication between devices and score tracking that would make it easy to do the workouts together.

In bad news. Someone is using my credit card. Charges include iTunes, Walmart $500, Match.com, and another dating site. Amex was good and caught it pretty quick so hopefully it will be painless to take care of.

Pushups - 400 / 15725 YTD
Pull ups - 41 / 946 YTD

Running - 0 / 111.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 154.59 YTD

So busy

Our schedule right now is so packed. With the kids having swim on Monday and Wednesday and me with soccer on Tuesday it wipes out the entire first half of the week. Unfortunately they don't have swim lesson classes that are only once a week.

Tuesday I worked from home and then went to another losing effort at soccer. We had some good chances but couldn't finish anything. My only workout for credit was the 1 mile warm up I've been doing before games.

Wednesday I went for a run during lunch and did 6 miles alternating between easy and hard every half mile. The hard times ranged from 3:10-3:17 and easy from 4:30-5:00. I'm not making it to the track at all but at least I'm mixing in some faster pace running.

Pushups - 60 / 15325 YTD
Pull ups - 0 / 905 YTD

Running - Tuesday 1, Wednesday 6 / 111.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 154.59 YTD

Mondays aren't all bad

Somehow Mondays have become my big pushup day. I started with 40,45,40 before leaving for work. Did another 30,30,30,35 an hour after getting to the office. At the gym I did 16 sets of 25 between my others of pull ups (10x4), curls, and sit ups. Did one more set of 50 with the folks at work. And then a final set of 50 in the evening. I was hoping to get more in at night but my elbow started hurting and I didn't want to over do it.

We had our first lesson for this swim session and have both boys doing it this time. Urijah might be able to swim on his own by the end of these lessons. Although he is more interested in dunking himself under water than swimming. Dawson didn't cry so that's good.

Pushups - 750 / 15265 YTD
Pull ups - 40 / 905 YTD

Running - 0 / 104.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 147.59 YTD

That week went by quick

Well I did 700 pushups last Monday and only 165 for the rest of the week. How is that for balance. I can't even say that I was resting. Here is the lightning recap for last week. 

Tuesday - Skipped worked, built house
Wednesday - 4.1 miles alternating 4:00 easy 1:30 hard
Thursday - Soccer with a 1 mile warmup, 40,40 pushups
Friday - 5.71 miles, ones set of 85 pushups
Saturday - Wake up at crack of dawn work on house, Tasha's grandma's funeral
Sunday - Shovel rocks for 4 hours

Pushups - Thursday 80, Friday 85 / 14515 YTD
Pull ups - 0 / 865 YTD

Running - 10.81 / 104.59 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 147.59 YTD

Pics or it didn't happen.

Bonus pictures of the deer I found waiting for me outside the house Saturday morning and Urijah in a firetruck

Pushup gallore

I've been sore for the last week straight but pressing through. Saturday we made it up snowboarding. Going in the spring is pretty awesome to see people riding around in board shorts. We saw a couple girls wearing sports bras, one was welcomed the other we could have done without. We rode for a couple hours grabbed a beer and then went to work on our house for a few hours.

I took a break from workout numbers on Saturday and managed only 150 pushups spread through the day on Sunday. Today I decided to get after it. I did 40,40,20 before leaving the house. 34,33,33 shortly after getting to work. At the gym I did a set of 25 with each set a different exercise. It totalled up to 12 sets between various bicep workouts 3 of which were sets of 10 on pull ups. Back at the office before leaving did sets of 50,25,25. After getting home from work I went for a 3 mile run. It was 85 degrees today and I was absolutely dying and only ran 8:00 miles. I just finished the night with 4x25 to add up to 700 for the day. I'm at 1850 for the month already and for the first time in a long time pushups are ahead of running.

Pushups - 150, 700 / 14350 YTD
Pull ups - 30 / 865 YTD

Running - 3 / 93.78 YTD
Treadmill - 0 / 2 YTD
Elliptical - 0 / 41 YTD
Run total - 136.78 YTD