Back at it

Time to get back after it.  I took a few weeks to let my body recover by only running, I am needing to get back to it.  With a pregnant wifey and little man keeping most of my attention, I fell off the path and it took me a few weeks to get back on.  I made it in this morning to the 5:45a class and it felt great.  Waking up at 5:15a was no fun but my logic seems to help when it is tough to get out of bed.  I have been telling myself on those cold, early mornings that an additional 30 minutes in bed waiting until little man wakes up (which I am more than likely not sleeping for that time) is not better than the feeling I have all day when I go to my class.  At first, I kept talking myself out of that thought process and chalked it up to cheesy "You can do!" mantra but it is true.  I feel it starts my day off so well to have that done.  It also gives me a chance to move around all day and keep soreness from setting in (at least I think it does).  I have not medical backing to that but I'll run with it.  
To piggyback on that, it also gives me an excuse to eat better.  More often than not, I find myself giving myself a cheat day because I was not working out.  Not a good idea when you are taking multiple days/weeks off to "recover".  On top of my body recovering, I also recovered 5 pounds I had once lost.  No bueno.  So finding a reason to eat good after a few tough weeks is another good feeling.  I try not to waste my workout days with eating bad.  If I can string a few workout days together, I will be back on track before I can get back into AmeriCone Dream (you are evil people Ben and Jerry).  

-N

Push-ups Update

Well... I made it 34 days and hit a wall.  Mostly a wall comprised of knowing I had finished my goal of 30 days and 3,000.  On top of what I mentioned in my previous post about tracking things better, I want to make sure I have a target that is perpetual in nature or have another challenge ready to go.
I am brainstorming what we are doing for November so stand by.  We will have something determined shortly.

-N

3,000...and Counting

September has come and gone and so have the push-ups, for the most part.  If I stopped now, there would be something wrong about posting on TPUD so I will keep them going.
I really hit a wall on day 27 & 28 as I was battling a nasty chest cold. Every time I did a set of 10 (when usually I did sets of 20-25) by chest felt worse with each ensuing set.  I considered stopping but knowing how close I was to finishing out the month and that they really wouldn't hurt me long term, I decided to get it done.  Looking back, I am happy I did but during it was not comfortable and had me considering the unsavory alternative.
The experience of doing the push-ups was not exactly what I wanted out of it as it became a chore to power through them.  I really wanted it to be an eye opening experience where I tracked my progress on different levels (chest size, max number I could do in a row, etc.).  Now that I know more that it is possible, I may revamp the challenge knowing it is possible and start with a baseline on a number of different things.  As some of you may know, I LOVE data and spreadsheets.  Having data to backup what you are doing is a great feeling (for me).  I am not sure why but I think it is my nerdy-ness that takes over.

3,000 push-ups is a lot for a month but focusing on the smaller goal each day really made it more manageable.  Lots of small goals equal big changes.  One day at a time.

-N