Week One, Day Five: January 16th

Prescribed Workout:
Running: 2 miles, 8:30 pace (17 minutes total)
Pullups: 3 sets of 3
Situps: 4 sets of 20
Pushups: 4 sets of 15

Actual Workout:
Running: 2.00 miles, 17:23 total (About 8:41 pace)
Pullups: 1 set of 3
Situps: 4 sets of 20
Pushups: 4 sets of 15
Dips: 6 sets of 3

Eating
Breakfast (10:00)
One banana

Lunch (12:00)
One calzone with assorted meats

Snack (3:30)
One Kudos bar

Dinner (6:00)
Two helpings of turkey lasagna
Half a dozen carrots
One Egg

Thoughts
I am pumped! My mile time dropped nearly a minute and a half...in two days!! I'm at a loss as for why it happened, but I have an idea... I ate a Kudos bar one hour before my workout. This seems like small potatoes, but I do think it made a difference. For those that don't know, Kudos are small, 100 calorie candy bars. Previously, I found myself getting tired on the treadmill soon after starting. I reckoned that it had something to do with exercising long after meal times. So, even though it was just a little stick of granola and chocolate, I think the Kudos bar made some difference. Yes, I know...Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc...but this is a blog and my mind is searching for answers, so there you go.

Additionally, when I was on the treadmill, I tried to get my breathing in rhythm. Before, I found that I would breathe at an infrequent rate, and would invariably have to take a huge gasp, which would cause me to break any sort of rhythm I had going. So, this time, I was conscious about my breathing, and it made a huge difference--my panting never really got harder, just slightly more intense, whereas before, I would have to breathe harder by the end to make up for shorter breaths that I had taken previously.

In the end, I only took three (very) short breaks, and still finished in just over 17:00, which is where I'm supposed to be. I ran the first mile completely without stopping, finishing in...wait for it...eight minutes flat. I bumped up my pace from 8:30 to 8:00 to see if there was much of a difference, and if my body would notice. The conclusion? Pretty much the same. Anyway, I only took a break because I started to cramp up--something that had never been a problem before. I fought through it at first, but it kept up and I had to walk for a second. I took a break again at 1:35 and one last one at 1:70. After the second break, I bumped the treadmill up to 7:40. It stayed there after the final one, but I decided to incorporate an aspect into my run: a final sprint. When the ticker showed that I only had a tenth of a mile left, I increased the speed to 6:15, and ran all out for the last few feet. It was instantly more tiring, and my breathing got substantially heavier. With .05 left, I wanted to quit, but instead of hitting the stop button, I yelled (outloud) to myself, "You will NOT fail" and "Don't fucking quit." In the words of a certain sarcastic corporal from Generation Kill, it was cheesy-moto-bullshit, but I didn't care: it kept me going. When the final hundreths of a mile ticked off, I started a countdown. "3.....2....1", and when the ticker struck two miles, I yelled out "GET SOME!!!"

It was a small acheivement and one that most people would scoff at, but it felt good to bring my time down and add a sprint to my routine. We'll see on Monday if this was an anomoly. I hope it's not. More than any other time during the workout so far, this made me feel like I was actually making some progress. So although my legs felt like lead afterwards and I was panting like a dog, I was still enthusiastic.

While I was the gym, I tried to do some pullups, since this is my largest current weakness. Unfortunately, I still absolutely suck at them, so I managed one set before calling it a day. Instead, I added three more additional sets to my dips, which I was already using to compensate for the poor pullup totals. Those went well, though my arms were exhausted by the end.

I came back to the dorm and did my pushups/situps. The pushups get progressively easier for me as the days ware on, but the situps remain difficult. By the final set of the latter, my abs were on fire and I was having a hard time lifting myself off the ground. Nevertheless, I never stopped in the middle of a set, which is a first.

As for eating today, I made sure to eat something for breakfast. Calzone was the only option at lunch, so I did away with most of the bread and just ate the meat and sauce. Same with the lasagna at night--I tried to avoid the pasta aspect of it as much as possible and focus more on the substance.

Anyway, an all together successful day, certainly my best so far. The weekend will be relatively laid back--just some swimming--before starting up again with a slightly more intense workout for Monday, the beginning of Week Two.