This week...

This week, Cael starts flag football, so I had to move his gymnastics times to Friday for the next couple of weeks. His teacher said that she's sad that she won't get to see her little Green Lantern for a while. :( Oh, he'll be back, don't worry. Today is Robin's birthday. Yea! She gets the day off of school, so she decided to sleep in. I slept in as well, but then I realized I should have gotten my run in, since this afternoon will be pretty much crazy. It's going to be beautiful for the next couple of days, so I'm hoping to take Cael to Wood River tomorrow so we can run a little together on the track, and he can play in the sand while I do speed work. Then we'll stop at the "enchilada store" (the grocery store in WR) to grab some enchiladas for supper. They're Cael's favorite, and they're handmade by some ladies in town. Delish. The only ones better are made by our former neighboors, the Soto family. Still working on goals and getting my pushup number up. Robin and I will hopefully remember to recount in the morning. This week, I need to think of a workout for my buddy. Hmmmmm. Gotta think a little on that one.

Week 5 via Ben

Week Five Theme: Back to the Basics.

We're nearly done with the first month so it's time to dust off those goals we made at the beginning and figure out where we stand. It's also time to think about The next month of the year. Remember, we don't look at New Year's Resolutions as yearlong pipedreams, we set realistic quantifiable goals and we work toward them.

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WEEK FIVE CHALLENGES:

(Since we're all at different places in our health and fitness journeys, there will be some differing challenges.)

• On Feb 1st, write down the goals you made during week one and assess yourself.
• Whatever the result, turn the page and write five new realistic and quantifiable goals for you to achieve by March 1st. (Remember, it's a leap year!) Maybe they are a continuation, maybe you have new goals. Whatever the case, write them down.
• On Feb 1st, max out on pushups or hold your plank. Write the number down.
• Beginners: Do 160 minutes of exercise this week. (40 minutes 4 times?) And 100 jumping jacks.
• Intermediate-Advanced: Do your normal routine, but add 300 jumping jacks into your week.
• Keep planking and pushing up!
• Oh hey look, we're having lots of cool sales on Do Life gear. BUY SOME OF THAT. lol just kidding. OR AM I?
• Stay connected with your partner. Keep the conversation and accountability going. On Wednesday, create a special/fun workout for your partner and send it to them. Complete the one they send you by Sunday.

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And please remember, this is just a kickstart. Keep working on the things you need to work on to better your life. Maybe this encompasses all of those things, maybe it doesn't. But you know as well as I do that it's worth it to keep doing it.

Saturday I'll make an official submission thread. By Sunday, post your weekly reflections, results, and thoughts there. Be sure to take pictures if you can. Get creative.

Do good, do life.

Long run

I got 7.3 miles in yesterday afternoon. My pacing buddy got me through 4 of them. Once again, my pace was crazy on nike+. I tried so hard to keep the same pace after she left, but it dipped. Oh well.

Critterman

Critterman! He was at the Hastings Museum last Thursday evening, so Cael and I had a date. He was pretty cool, but Cael was disappointed there was no lion. An opposum.

A ring-tailed lemur. A baby Burmese python. Cael going in to touch its tail. "It feels like plastic!" There was also a red tegu, a blue-tounged skink, and a barn owl. It was a fun evening - especially when Cael ordered for me at Hunan's. What a gentleman!

100th day of school

The 100th day of school is on Tuesday, so Cael is supposed to take something that has 100 of something on it. He decided to make some volcanoes with shooting lava. Each volcano has 50 toothpick lava spikes coming out. I was impressed that Cael thought of it all by himself. For his counting things, he's going to take a strand of 100 Christmas lights. :)

Sooooo tired

And no, it's not from training. Cael is sick and was coughing all night long. Poor kid. From about midnight on, I'm not sure how much sleep we got, but it wasn't much. He's sleeping now, so I'm just going to let him. It will do no good to wake up an exhausted, sick kid and force him to go to school. I'll check around 11 and see where we stand. If we can just get his cough to subside, I think we'll be ok. No fever or anything, so that's a relief. I will be getting a humidifier though today. Darn Nebraska winter air is so dry, I'm sure it's not helping things at all. I'm going back to bed as well. No need for both of us to be dead on our feet. I'm hoping to get rested up so that maybe I can run a little this afternoon. Pretty sure no gymnastics today, though. :(

Strange...But True!

So, as I got to know my buddy yesterday, I found out that they are stationed at Ft. Knox, KY, and her husband is originally from Kearney and went to UNL. Hmmm, interesting. What year did he graduate? 1996, and he was a band geek. Hmmm, interesting. Did he, by chance, know Alex Sommerfeld? Why, yes. Yes, he did! He also hung out with Rhonda Anderson (I went to Concordia with her). My world just got smaller. Craziness! ALSO - I run with a Nike+ sensor and wristband. It tells me how far I go, how long (time) I ran, calories burned, and average mile pace. Last Friday, I did 6 miles, and last night I finally uploaded my workouts into my computer. It gives me a graph of pace for each mile. What I saw was just really weird. The first part of my run, I was running next to a girl that runs about the same speed as I do. We fall into the same stride and silently push each other. Runners call this "pacing." So, we pace each other. On my graph for this run, I notice that my avg. pace for the first three miles were - 9:35, 8:54, and 8:57. Really fast for me! But, of course, I was being paced. The last three miles, after my pacer buddy left, were - 10:43, 10:43, and 10:42. I had the treadmill on the same mph the entire time, and yet, I had very different paces. I never thought I could get such different results while being on a treadmill.