Andrew is getting fit

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I redid day 03 of week 01 of the 100 pushup challenge yesterday evening.  I couldn’t complete day 3 of week 01 last week.

However, this week I’m happy to report that I managed to do 15, 13, 10, 10 and then 16 pushups which means I qualify to move on to week 02 as I only had to do 15 for the last set.  To be honest I probably could have gutted out a few more but I wussed out and stopped after doing 1 more than the minimum.

The weather has been rather wintry (funny that) here in Auckland this week and today was no exception.  There’s been thunder, lightning and lots of cold rain.  Having said that, I needed to get my run in so I decided I would just wear my jacket and head out anyway.  While I was getting changed the rain started really crashing down and I started making excuses in my head but fortunately it stopped by the time I got to the front door.

I normally like to run by the coastline but after my experience with the high winds the other day I decided that I would be better off sticking inland today so I headed out towards One Tree Hill.

It was really nice out once I warmed up and the rain wasn’t really a problem.  I think the fear of rain is more of a problem than the rain itself which is probably true of most of our fears in life.  I was strangely happy to be out in the rain actually.  I think I get quite a kick out of doing things that I would have thought were the height of lunacy not too long ago.

Most of the run was along suburban streets except for the bit where I ran around One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park.  The park was rather deserted today.  Normally it is teeming with people out exercising but I guess the conditions weren’t really conducive to a nice day out.  I saw three other runners and one guy going flat out who zoomed past me.  I had a look behind me to see if he was being chased by the police but I guess he was just fast.

I passed quite a few bakeries and coffee shops on my route and I have to say it was a real struggle of the will to run past them but I managed.

Overall I did 13.9km in 1:25:33 for an overall pace of 6:09 minutes per km.

I’ve been having issues with snacking the last few days which is really annoying.  I’m a bit of a stress eater and I’m booked in for surgery next Friday and I guess it’s leading me to cookies and chocolate.

There has been a positive that has come out of finding out I need surgery next week.  It’s confirmed my status as a runner.  You see,  the first question I asked the doctor after he finished explaining the procedure was “How long until I can start running again?” He said about a week so I should be ok for my 10K race on Sunday.  I’ll just treat it as a nice slow long run.  Any time I set will be a PR so might as well make it one that is easy to beat!

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Tags: fitness, running by AndrewE
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I restarted the 100 pushup challenge yesterday evening.  As you may recall I couldn’t complete day 3 of week 01 last week so I’m redoing week 01 this week.

I’ve decided I will do my pushups in the evening instead of first thing in the morning as I have this suspicion that attempting a lot of pushups on an empty stomache is not a good idea.  Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Anyways, I was supposed to do 10, 10, 8, 6 and max (min 7).  I did all the required and a max of 16 so there is already a 100% improvement from last week when I could only do 8 for my max.

I did a gym run this morning as the weather is still nasty.  Winter has finally arrived in New Zealand and it looks like we’ll have rain for a while.  I’ll run in heavy rain for a race but not for my normal runs on a workday.  I did 7.5km in 40 minutes which is a bit faster than I normally run and it was good.

My beloved scale has gone wonky.  I replaced the batteries and now it thinks I’m 37 kgs heavier than I am. Boy it brought back some memories seeing those high numbers flash up this morning!  I’ll have to go and get it replaced or fixed as I can’t do without my daily weigh in!

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Tags: fitness by AndrewE
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I attempted day 3 of the 100 pushup challenge today and it looks like I’ll be repeating week 01.  The program calls for 15, 13, 10, 10 and max (min 15) with 2 minutes rest between each set.

I managed 15, 13, 8, 8 and 8.  In the past this may have caused me to give up but I will just repeat week 01 until I can do it properly.  Hopefully the rest of you are having more luck.

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Tags: fitness by AndrewE
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I did day 2 of the 100 pushup challenge today and it was tough!

Day two calls for 5 sets of pushups (12, 12, 10, 10 and max (min 10)) with at least a 90 second break inbetween each set.

I have to admit that when I woke up today my pecs were sore.  Yesterday they were fine funnily enough.  Anyways, I did the first set no worries, the second set I started to get worried and by the third I was thinking uh oh.  I nutted out a fourth set somehow and then had a two minute break to recover.  I was determined to beat Bill who did 13 for his max but today I have to admit he was the victor.  I had jelly arms by about pushup number 6 and it was all I could do to do the minimum 10.  Nonetheless I did it.  I’m thinking I may be having to repeat a week or two here and there but I’ll keep plugging away at it.

In other news, my gym was holding a mini sprint triathlon today and I’ve always wanted to participate but have always been too unfit too self-conscious to do it.  However, my confidence levels are so much higher nowadays so I jumped in and had a go.

The way it works is you have to row for 1000m, then cycle for 2000m and then grind for 1500m.  Your cumulative time is what counts including changeover. I haven’t been on the rowing machine or the grinder in well over a year so I thought it would be quite tough as it’s a hell for leather kind of event.

Well, the rowing wasn’t too bad.  I decided that I would settle into a rhythm and try and stick to it rather than go hard out and fade rapidly.  For the last 250m I pushed it a bit and ended up with a time of 3:42.

I then jumped on the bike and cycled 2000m.  In hindsight I went too easy on the bike as I think I could have pushed quite a bit harder.  Cumulative time 7:20.

The grinder was tough.  About two thirds of the way through my heart rate was above 200 bpm but I stuck to it and finished with a total time of 9:41.15.

That put me in second place behind last years winner!  Before you get too excited I was at the gym bright and early and was only the 3rd person to compete. ;)  I’ll go have a look at the final standings tomorrow.  I’m just really pleased that I got the gumption to give it a go this year.  And I know I’m not going to be last!

And a big shout out to my lovely wife who started C25K today!  The running bug seems to be spreading.

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Tags: Milestones, fitness by AndrewE
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Well, this week I’m down to 93.86 kgs (206.9 pounds) which is a healthy .84 kg loss (1.85 pounds) for the week. That means I’m down about 50 pounds for the year so far and 101 pounds overall. Pretty incredible isn’t it?

I started my 100 push-ups challenge today:

Today I was required to do 10, 10, 8, 6 and then my max (min 7) with a minute break in between each set.  I saw over on Bill’s blog that he completed his yesterday and did the minimum for his max.  I was determined to beat him so did 8 as my max! :)  Aaron did 26…but that is another story.

In other news, spare a thought for Tim who got tripped in a race and broke his collar bone.

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Tags: Weigh in, fitness by AndrewE
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