kentcowgill.org/blog

August 18:

Push ups: 30 then 22 then 22 then 20 then maxed out at 29. Wow. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 123 in about 11 minutes. I somehow had it in me to squeeze out the 29 max out set. Boy am I tired. But not too tired to do...

Chin ups: 10 then 8 then 8 then 5 then maxed out at 7, I think. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 38 in about 10 minutes. Again, these were from the shorter door, so I think I was cheating a little. I recall counting to 8 on the last one, but I think I only got halfway up on 8, so that's why I've got it as 7.

The chart for this week:

August 19:

Three kettlebell circuits. I'm thinking I really need to start thinking about buying a heavier kettlebell. But then I think that I'm certainly sweating, huffing, and puffing by the time I'm done with this one. Do I really need to push myself that much harder? Also, I've only done this (3 circuits) about once a week. I really think I should let me body get used to this increased activity gradually, because I really think I touched on overtraining there for a bit while I had split the chin ups and push ups onto their own days.

August 20:

I finally got myself to a physical therapist. Turns out that in addition to my previously diagnosed sciatica (compression of the sciatic nerve which causes some hip/pelvis/low back pain on my left side and an occasional shooting sensation down my shin - go figure) I also have a hip deflection. Or rotation. Or something. I don't recall. Also, some of my core muscles are a lot weaker than perhaps they ought to be. Like the gluteal meads, transverse abdominals, mid and rear deltoids, and who knows what else. So the therapist put me through some torture, er I mean strength, tests, and had me do some simple exercises which left me a little sore afterwards, and a little tired. Also the fact that Lisa and I took Matthew to the doctor in the morning, which meant that I had to wake up early. And of course the night before I had to stay up late doing all the normal evening things. So I didn't have much sleep. So I was pretty tired by the time the evening rolled around, so I completely skipped my push ups and chin ups. Which makes me sad.

August 11:

Push ups: 30 then 22 then 22 then 20 then maxed out at 28. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 122 in about 11 minutes. Yes - I did more than the minimum on the max. That feels pretty good. Even though I missed the max on day 1 of week 3 redux, I'll go ahead and move on to week 4.

The chin ups look tough today - almost unreachable - but I'll give it a go anyhow. I've got that 2 minute rest to try to get my muscles ready to go again, so I'll see if it helps any.

Chin ups: 10 then 8 then 7 then 5 then maxed out at 2. Rested about 2 minutes between sets - which obviously wasn't enough to recover to pull off the next set - for a total of 32 in about 10 minutes.

So the push ups week 3 and chin ups week 1 wrap up look like this:

Obviously these number surpass any I've done so far in the last 4 (or is it 5?) weeks. So I'll be moving on in push ups, and repeating week 1 column 2 for chin ups. Not so bad, hopefully the repeat of the week will let me hit all the targets this time around. It looks like the start of week 2 column 2 will be fewer chin ups, but in less time. I'll see if I can hit those - in another week, of course.

I meant to do the kettlebell training the next day, but I was tired. I woke up early thinking I might have to come home early and interview a nanny - but neither Lisa or I had the chance to set anything up.

I'm posting a bit more than a day or two per post, hoping I can catch up to current before too much longer.

August 8:

I think I'm supposed to do week 3, day 2, column 3 for push ups today, but I'm not sure. I'm more sure about doing week 1, day 2, column 2 for chin ups. Regardless of what I've actually worked up to, this is what I'll be doing for the day.

Push ups: 27 then 19 then 19 then 15 then maxed out at 25. Resting about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 105 in about 8 minutes. I actually think I could've gotten one, possibly two more out of the max set before total collapse, but I just stopped at 25. But the really good news is that today, I hit all the targets for week 3 day 2. Hooray!

Chin ups: Not quite so good. 9 then 8 then 6 then 4 and two halves and then maxed out at 2 and three halves. Yes, I tried to get more than two on three separate tries. And failed. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 29 in about 7 minutes. This is definitely more than I've done so far, but it was still short of the target. I think I'll probably end up repeating this one, too. Small bummer. But overall I'm still feeling good about my generally forward progress with the chin ups.

August 9:

Just to wrap up where I've been along the path to 100 consecutive push ups and chin ups so far, I've created a little chart tracking my progress.

This gives me a lot of hope - I can see, now that I've laid it all out, that I'm making some real progress. At times it feels like I'm taking a step backwards for every two steps forward I'm making, but I can see the method to the madness.

Thanks to Lisa's parents being in town to help out after Lisa's wisdom teeth extraction, I got to get out on my bike both days without feeling guilty about leaving her with Matthew! I got out and cleaned up my CamelBak backpack, loaded it up with about 3 liters of water, filled my tires up to 110 psi, and took off. I went just a few more miles today than I did last Sunday, so the total was almost 32 miles. The route was pretty similar to what I did Sunday, just following the trail a little further. Courtesy Google Maps again, here's my route for today:

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Lisa and I interviewed a few potential nannies on Sunday, and we had to take her parents back to the airport, so I took another day of rest on August 10.