Friday Funny 1804: Fitness Funnies #33

Just some funny things tagged with "fitness" from SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com:

I honestly really, really like this.

As always, check out SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com for more funny things. HAPPY WEEKEND!

Read more...

Friday Funny 1803: Bad Yelp Reviews of National Parks

Illustrator Amber Share turned bad Yelp reviews of National Parks into posters:

More funny things on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Read more...

Friday Funny 1802: Brilliant Problem Solving

Never get caught sleeping in class.


















A great way to eat watermelon.

Lots more funnies posted every day on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Read more...

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Two Different Years in the Garden

Last week, I got this gardening memory from 5 years ago:

Since we made our garden bigger this year (AND since we're having a good year out there), our numbers are quite a bit higher! By Aug 4th this year, we had 76 cucumbers (4.5x more), 17 zucchinis (2.8x more), 415 cherry tomatoes (11.2x more), and 50 beefsteak tomatoes (2.5x more). And we've had 7 meals of green beans as well. And a round of green onions and radishes. (Lots of peppers forming, but nothing harvested yet, unlike the 1 we had by that date 5 years ago.) And carrots and onions still coming.

Since then, here's an Instagram post from a few days ago when we got 119 cherry tomaotes in one day:

And 15 beefsteak tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, and a meal of green beans.

It's been a good year in the backyard!

Read more...

Intervals at the Track

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I did some intervals on Friday. My car was getting new tires, and my wife drove her car to work (which is rare). So to get to the track, we hopped on our bikes.

Selfie at the track before getting started.

I was doing what my running team had done the day before. Here's what coach said:

This week's workout:

400m, 800m, 1200m, 1200m, 800m, 400m

@ 5k race pace w/2 min rest

That sounded good to me! I did a workout similar to this many years ago when I was in better shape, and I remember I did like 1:19-1:21 for nearly all the laps. OBVIOUSLY I knew I wasn't as fast now because I've still only done a few speed workouts after coming back from my injury last year... and this was my first time on a track in over a year!

So I wondered if I could keep my laps at 1:25. That was a loose goal. I warmed up a bit more (I mean, more than the bike ride there) by running 1200 on the track, and then I walked for a few minutes before starting the workout.

My first 400 was right on:

• 400: 1:24.88

But I didn't think I could keep that up. So I was happy when my next interval was still holding on:

• 800: 1:22, 1:23 = 1:46.09

NOW came the test: could I hold on in the 1200? If I could, then I probably could for the next 1200 as well. And the final 800 and 400. So this first 1200 was important.

• 1200: 1:23, 1:25, 1:21 = 4:11.44

Still under my goal! My middle 400 there was 1:25, but that would end up being my slowest split of the day. Nice! I really suffered through the last few intervals.

• 1200: 1:24, 1:22, 1:19 = 4:05.85

• 800: 1:22, 1:19 = 1:42.35

• 400: 1:17.04

So every interval "coming down" on the 2nd half of the workout was faster than the ones "going up" in the first half. Solid. I also got my first side-stitch in about a year - it showed up in that first 1200, and peeked its head out during a few of the final intervals.

Between some intervals. There are the boys to the left on the hill,
and my water bottle in the foreground near the starting line on the track.


Sweaty selfie post-workout. I don't look too beat-up. (But I WAS.)


Goodbye track! Thanks for the workout!


The boys getting ready to bike back home. (I wore the backpack
that Charlie's putting on - he was just trying to be helpful.)

Alight, like I said in yesterday's post, time for an EASIER week this week.

Read more...

Solid Long Run (and a Rest Week)

I was thinking last week would be a bit of a "scaled back / easy week," but then my mother-in-law offered to take the boys. And I realized that this coming week would be a little busy, so this week would be a better easy week. So I still hit it harder last week.

• MONDAY started with a long run:

• TUESDAY was a long ride. My boys were gone Monday afternoon through Thursday afternoon last week, so I used that "freedom" on Tuesday for a long ride. I took the Greenway detour and got in 33 miles:

Out near Hwy 100.


I tweeted this after my ride. Add in the upcoming few days
of rides, and I hit 200.7 miles in under 3 weeks.

• WEDNESDAY was an easy run. I'd been doing a lot on these legs, and I needed to watch it.

• THURSDAY was a shorter trainer ride, and then a bike ride home from dropping off my car at the dealership.

Car dropped off and ready to bike home.

• FRIDAY was some intervals at the track, and then another ride to get my car. And the boys and I rode to the track as well, so for it being a "running" day, I ended up biking 5 miles to-and-from the track, and then nearly 8 miles to the dealership to get my car. HEAVY LEGS!

The boys packing up after my track workout. More on this workout tomorrow!

I took it easier this past weekend because I NEEDED TO. Here's what my training log looks like M-F with the workouts from above:

Long run, long ride, easy run, trainer/bike ride, and intervals with 2 bike rides.

I'll have more about the track workout tomorrow. Have a great week!

Read more...

An At-Home Weight-Lifting PR

Last weekend, I set a weight lifting PR.

My "normal" routine is about 5-6 sets of everything for my upper body doing 2 muscle groups at a time (like back/chest x5, lats/shoulders x5, and bi/tri x5). On the weekends, I usually do circuits: I do 1 set for each muscle group as a circuit and repeat that. So it's something like (back, chest, lats, bi, and tri) x5.

On "BIG" days, I've done 7 or 8 of each muscle group. But on last Saturday, I actually got in all the normal repetitions as well, without crapping out near the end. So I did:

CIRCUITS:

8 rounds of:

- 30 push-ups
- 40 lb back rows x20 (for each side)
- 8 pull-ups
- 30 lb bicep hammer curls x32
- 30 elevated triceps dips

I did more than 30 push-ups to start, but averaged 30 by the end. Was able to do 8 pull-ups through 5 sets, then did 7, 7, and 6 (so 4 shy of 64). Did an extra 5 pull-ups when I was done to get there, and that was about all I had.

So by the end, I did 240 push-ups, 640 back rows (320/side), 65 pull-ups, 256 bicep curls, and 240 elevated tricep dips.

I think that's a daily PR for all of those execises. I often like to make it a point to hit 50 pull-ups, so 65 was a PR. I also like to hit 200 push-ups on "good" days, so 240 was a record.

Read more...