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The “catch-up” post
By Kevin | April 10, 2009
Sorry, it’s been a while since my last post, and I’m feeling guilty about it as it has come to my attention that visits to this site have increased by over 200% in the last week. So…allow me to do a little catching-up in today’s post.
Week of 3/15: completed just one run this week, 8.01 miles in 1:22 (10:21/mi avg), but continued biking to work (24.3 miles this week), teaching self-defense classes, and working my way through the 100-pushup challenge (completed 286 total pushups this week).
Week of 3/22: completed two runs this week, 10 miles on Sunday in 1:43 (10:02 avg.), and 4 miles on Tuesday in 36:49 (9:12 avg). Did not bike to work at all this week, thanks to off-site meetings and a blizzard later in the week. Continued pushup challenge, completing a total of 228 pushups this week (with a new max of 40 consecutive pushups…which I don’t think I’ve EVER been able to do before). Late in the week, we learned that Bethany’s grandmother had passed away rather suddenly, and we scrambled to make plans for a trip back east. By the way, I will never fly United Airlines again if I can help it. That story is for another post.
Week of 3/29: completed NO runs this week, NO biking to work, and the Week 4/Day 3 workout for pushup challenge, which should have been in the previous week. Most of the week was spent with family in PA, supporting each other and remembering Nanny Hardcastle. We’ll miss you Nanny.
Week of 4/5 (this week): have not run at all this week, but hope to get a run in today and/or tomorrow. On Tuesday night, I finally got around to watching “Running The Sahara“.Â
It is a documentary produced by Matt Damon’s film company (he also narrated), about 3 runners and their quest to run across the Sahara Desert. Yes, all 4500 or so miles of it. I was so inspired and moved by watching this, that when it was done I decided to spring off the couch and tackle Progress Test #3 for the pushup challenge (which I had been putting off for over a week now). Despite the fact that my previous max was 40 consecutive pushups, I cranked out 61 on this night! The power of inspiration, I guess. It’s a really well-done documentary, and I highly recommend watching it! It was also pretty cool to learn more about this adventure since I got to meet and join Charlie Engle (below) during his run across America last fall. He is one of the 3 runners who tackled the Sahara. He’s an amazing and unique individual. You can check out my story of that experience by clicking here.Â
So, I’m still thinking I’m going to go for it with the NJ Marathon on May 3rd, since I’ll be in NJ anyway. I’m confident I can finish it despite the fact that I haven’t run more than 10 miles for my long run, and only have worked up to 14-miles as my weekly mileage high. Needless to say, I’m not expecting a PR in NJ. I’m treating it more as a long training run…slow and easy. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
April 14th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Been missing your post, but glad you have been working out and running. Running the Sahara sounds incredible and daunting, but as inspiring as that can be, your true inspiration comes from within. It IS in you!