Burn Off the Bird 5K

Saturday morning at 9am was Phoenixville's annual 5K, Burn Off the Bird. Zim, his mom and I headed to the race after 8am. We met more of Zim's family there and our good friend Brian. It was windy out with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees. Pretty chilly. About 200 runners showed up all bundled up. I've run this race before, and it's full of hills. It's a challenging course.

We all lined up and the bell went off I saw Zim and Brian take off like jack rabbits per usual. I got about 40 seconds into my run when my phone popped out of my pocket and hit the ground. Luckily I have a good case! I scooped up my phone and almost got run over by 10 runners. I got back into the run and felt good. Zim finished 1st in our little group at 22:38 and running on a bad leg. Not bad at all! He came in 4th in his age group as well. I came in next at 24:53. I medaled, coming in 1st in my age group. Woot! Brian came in at 26 minutes and Zim's mom at 41:20. Cathy took off at least 3 minutes from her last 5K. REALLY awesome!

We all had a blast and will do it again next year!

Getting back to the workouts, I took Sunday off and got back into the swing of things today. I ran 4 miles, worked in upper body with P90X chest & back, and finished with some abs. Tough. Shouldn't have had those last two drinks! Oh well!

Playlist: Brown Bird

Warrior Training

Last night I tried Warrior Training at the Dojo. It went really well. It consisted of an intense warm-up, followed by stretching. Then we did of metabolic interval training. Five stations were set up. The first station involved a small medicine ball while doing pretty much a mason twist as fast as you can. The 2nd was pushing a 35 pound weight 30 feet while in bear crawl position. 3rd was sprinting knees up through an agility ladder. 4th was doing a 30 foot sprint while a partner held you back by some resistance with a rope. Last we're push-ups. We went thru these for 30 seconds each, with 30 second breaks in between. Then we went thru them again for 1 minute followed by a 10 second break. Pretty damn tough. We ended with a "hurricane". 30 second sprint with resistance, followed by laying down and meeting your leg with you hands holding a medicine ball (crunch) 30 times, followed by 30 mason twists as fast as you can. Repeat 2 more times. TOUGH.

It was a different and fun workout which I'm interested in trying again. It reminded me of the cardio and plyo parts of P90X, Insanity, Asylum, and Cross-Fit.

Today I went for a nice 4.65 run in over 38 minutes. Nice workout before turkey time! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Eve

One of my favorite days of the year!! I worked in the morning and came home to run 3.15 miles in a little over 25 minutes. I wanted to get a run in this nice weather before the cold air rolls in on Saturday. At 6pm Zim and I (plus a few of our friends) are going to my friend Paul's Dojo to try the "Training For Warriors" program. Tonight is a free introduction running from 6-7:30. Seems pretty interesting. Even nicer to see and support Paul Jackson! Hope I work up a good sweat and receive a butt kicking! Then I'll ruin it all with some beers and vodka later tonight!

Yesterday Chelsea looked quite piss poor and tried a defensive strategy that they've really never done before. Well, it didn't work and Chelsea went down 3-0 to Juventus. They need to win their next Champions league match and need Shakhtar Donetsk to win their match against Juventus. So they still have a chance to move out of their table, they just need the stars to align a little bit. In the wake of this month's skid downwards, Chelsea dismissed head manager Roberto Di Matteo and replaced him with Rafa Benitez. I find this very unfair to RDM, the man came in as an interim coach more than halfway thru the season last year and helped to find a broken team some new light. As an interim manager he won the FA Cup and the MUCH MUCH coveted Champions League of Europe trophy last year. Quite impressive. Chelsea in the month of November has hit a bad streak of a few matches and MAY be out of the Champion's league. They are sitting in 3rd place in the premiership and still can go through the group stage if all goes right in the next Champion's matches. I just think it's too soon. He should have been given until January or if they were eliminated from the Champions League. I'm totally disgusted with this revolving door of coaches. Just my rant of the day. Sunday's match against Man City will be interesting. Hopefully Rafa can improve Torres's level of play and confidence like he did in Liverpool. Oh the drama!

Get Your Game Face On

Get ready to burn off that turkey!!!

Boring Old Tuesday

Today was definately an elliptical day. I'm actually not that sore from yesterday but I didn't want to do a tough workout. I did a half hour on the elliptical, then about 25 minutes of leg work on the machines, and finished with abs. Worked out for a little over an hour.

Juventus v Chelsea is on right now so I'm cutting it short. Go Blues!!!

Presents!!!

I bought these gals about 2 weeks ago. Neon pink Brooks Pure Cadence. So far, so good! I've tallied close to 30 miles on them so far and I really like them. They're lightweight, cushiony and flexible. They have less cushion them my other pairs, but they still feel good. The soles have a curvature to fall with your natural stride. Neat. Overall I'd give an 8.5 out of 10.

Playing Catch Up

Let's finish last week's workouts:

Thursday: 2 and a 1/2 mile run. I was fasting for my blood work appointment, so I really didn't wanna overdo it.

Friday: 2 mile run followed by a light boxing workout.

Saturday: It was beautiful and hovering
around 50 degrees so I went for a run. I watched the first half of the West Brom v Chelsea match, and just had that "feeling" of a lost, but had my fingers crossed for a draw. Glad I ran. They lost 2-1. They lucked out with loses by Everton and Man U. The boys have a tough test tomorrow playing Juventus in Italy. I digress...I ran 5 plus miles and finished with some ab work. Nice workout.

Sunday: I normally take off but decided on a 45 minute boxing routine.

5 minute jump rope
1 round speed bag
1 round shadow boxing
4 rounds heavy bag
1 round calisthenics
1 round sit ups and push ups
Cool down

Monday (today): I wanted to work on running hills so I ran the Valley Forge loop. 5 miles of rolling paved trail. And hills, don't forget them! I ended up running 5 and 1/4 in about 45 minutes. TOUGH run. Damn you Sunday night vodka! Afterwards did P90X chest, shoulders, and triceps. Upped some of my weights, and wow, my arms are spent. Gonna be sore tomorrow!

Playlist: TalkSport talk radio

Early Week Butt Whoopin'

Sunday I did take the day off to rest up and give my body a chance to heal up. It was nice.

Monday it was back to getting my butt back in gear. I worked out with Zim to do a P90X strength workout that I've never tried before, Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. Absolutely KICKED my ass. Slow motion push-ups, Pike presses, Floor Flys, Two Speed push-ups, etc. Moves I never really done before. Halfway through, my body wanted to quit, but I pushed on through. TOUGH. To end I ran four and a 1/4 miles. SPENT!!!

Tuesday I woke up a bit sore. Not can't get outta bed sore, but that good sore. I decided to make it a gym day since it was off and on raining all morning/afternoon. I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and worked on legs in the machines. I ended with abs. Nice workout.

Today was a pretty nice day out, with a bit of a nip in the air, right around 50 degrees. After work I started with a 4 mile plus run at a 8 minute pace. Then I did upper body strength training again with Zim. We did P90X back and biceps. Lotsa pull-ups, curls, etc. I hung pretty well but started fading at the end. That run took it outta me. I pushed on and finished. DONE!

No idea what to do tomorrow. I'm getting blood work in the late morning, so I might just run or box. Oh decisions, decisions!! Zim and I did register for the Phoenixville Burn Off the Bird 5K for next Saturday. LOVE doing Turkey Trots with friends and family! So much fun! My first 5K was 4 years ago at the very first Burn Off the Bird. After I finished I was hooked!! Look for your local run and give it a whirl!

Playlist: Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam, The Clash: London Calling, Social Distortion: s/t.

Jeffersonville 5K

I woke up at 7am and decided to do the 5K. It was the 2012 Mission 1 at the Reformed Church of the Ascension. All proceeds went towards the local food bank and the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Great causes to run for!

Zim joined me on the run. We registered around 8:30am and the race promptly started at 9am. Zim and I talked to a couple different runners and took our places at the start line. There were altogether 20 runners in the race. It was cloudy out with some sprinkles of rain around. Bang!

Zim jumped out front first and never looked back. I stayed in the number 2 position until about a minute left in the race. It was a nice course that had some nice slowly elevated stretches. A bit more hilly than I expected. I got overtaken with about a tenth of a mile left and came in behind Cheryl by 3 seconds at 23:21 in 3rd place overall. Not too bad. I think I might have beat my personal record too.

Altogether Zim came in 1st at 22:02, Cheryl at 23:18, and me 23:21. I got 1st in my age group as well. I had a bunch of fun and glad my money went towards good things!

Get Yer Freak On Friday

Ah Friday!!! *Sigh* It's been a long week at work. Here's my workout recap.

Tuesday I went for a 5 and a 1/4 mile run in Valley Forge Park and went to my dad's house to train him on legs and abs. My run was good. Felt nice to run in the chilly weather with not a whole lotta people around.

Wednesday, Zim and I tried Asylum: Speed and Agility DVD. Pretty ass kicking. At one point I was down on my knees with my head down pouring sweat, trying to catch my breath. There was a lot of agility ladder work. It was different and I'm more than happy to switch my workout up during the week. I'm looking forward in trying it again, since I'll know the moves a bit better. Did pop my ankle out during the end, but I popped it back into place about 10 minutes later. Not fun.

Thursday, I went for a 3 and 1/4 run around the neighborhood and then did P90X shoulders and arms with Zim. I was tired, but still managed to pull off 21 and 18 pound weights through most of the exercises.

Today, Friday, I decided to rest. Zim and I saw Skyfall, which was FANTASTIC!! I'm planning on doing a 5K tomorrow in Jeffersonville, PA. The proceeds are supposed to go to Hurricane Sandy victims and the local food bank. Nice causes. I hope it's not too cold!

Monday Rundown

I decided to sleep in a bit and take Sunday off after I saw Social D rock the Electric Factory Saturday night. Fun show! Was super happy to hear "Cold Feelings". Did have a workout later when I went to my parents to train my dad. We did shoulders, biceps, triceps. I was pulling 20 pound weights. Pretty tough.

Today I waited till the temperature to rise a bit and the vodka to wear off, and went for a 4 and 1/2 mile run. Had a good run at an 8 and 1/2 minute pace. I came home and did the P90X chest and back. DONE!!

Election Day tomorrow and a legs workout!

Playlist: Paul Banks: Banks

Trail Bound

Wednesday I decided to go to my gym and give the good old elliptical a go. I did about 35 minutes while listening to TalkSport on my IPhone. All the cable was out there, which really didn't bother me. After I did a nice 25 minute leg workout with the extension, calf, and abductor machines. I finished with abs and came home to listen to the Chelsea v Man United Capital one cup match. What a frickin' match! And Chelsea prevailed in the end, thanks to Eden Hazard's penalty kick to send it into extra time. Great match, great win for the Blues 5-4.

Thursday was just a pure running day. I had a full morning of work, meetings, and errands. I also trained my father in between all the chaos. We did legs and abs. He did great as always. After I got home, I threw on my Brooks and headed to the trail. I had a nice run at around an 8 minute pace. Felt good!

Friday, I was going to take the day off, but decided last minute to get a 35 minute boxing workout in. Started with 5 minutes of jump rope, 1 round shadow boxing, 5 on the heavy bag, and ended with a 3 minute cardio drill. I showered up and headed to the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville for the First Friday horror flick, The Return of the Living Dead. Great fun flick that I haven't seen in years. Good times!!

Today I headed out for a run through Valley Forge Park around 9am. It was chilly out with the temperature hovering around 40 degrees. Had a nice 5+ mile run in about 43 minutes. I was running again at an 8 minute mile. Showered up, ran into work, and came home to watch the 1-1 draw of Swansea v CFC. Tough to get 3 points in Wales, but it was Chelsea's points to lose. Oh well. Later tonight I'll be in Philly to see Social Distortion play. Should be a blast!

Playlist: Air: Le Voyage Dans Le Lune
Social Distortion: Prison Bound