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.