25-29-25-25 max: 36
Set 1: Easy.
Set 2: Felt the work in my arms but no biggie really. 36 max seems possible at this point.
Set 3: Felt it more in my shoulders. Mental block! 36 max? No way.
Set 4: Heart beating, quickened breaths and warm shoulders. Unsure at this point about reaching max.
Max: 40 – BAM!!!!!
Thanks to this program my arms are looking amazing!
I am one day closer to closing out this miserable week. YEAH!
How Goes It
In one word? Slooooow.
It was so hard to get out of bed; I was absolutely exhausted. Somehow I got my butt out the door and during my warm up walk, I noticed that my right hip socket was slightly sore. I debated whether or not to run and decided to just see how it goes.
I took the 31 minutes in a snail’s pace mainly because I could not go any faster if I wanted to. My body felt heavier than usual, even though I was carrying less stuff. My hip didn’t bother me during the run, but after the 31 min run, it felt slightly sore again and so did my right knee. I thought about going home instead of tackling my usual post-run intervals, but decided to go for it anyway, being that I wasn’t feeling that bad.
I was so disappointed by my pace that I decided if I was going to go slow today, then I was going to make it an endurance run. I wasn’t planning on running 13 min in set #2 like I did on Tuesday, but I went for it. And even when I was still so tired, I decided to be wacky and make my last set 14 minutes. NOT EASY!
I came home soaked in sweat, half tired and half peppy. Thanks to the initial exhaustion plus the big run, I caught myself falling asleep in the shower. (A first!)
All in all, I feel pretty confident about next week’s 35 minute run. BRING IT!
Run Intervals:
Set 1: 31:05 – 3.26 miles @ 9:34 min/mi
Set 2: 13:00 – 1.35 miles @ 9:38 min/mi
Set 3: 14:00 – 1.44 miles @ 9:44 min/mi
Total: 58:05 min and 6.05 miles
Conditions:
59° F, Overcast, Windy, Partly Cloudy
21-25-21-21 max: 21
Set 1: Didn’t even break a sweat 
Set 2: Got slightly warm, but no problems and no twinges in my arms afterwards. The left side of my chest did get warm though.
Set 3: Getting warmer. Fought the mental fight and won. At this point, not sure about getting to the max.
Set 4: Broke a slight sweat and arms got tired. Pushed to the end no problem.
Max: 32!!!!!!!! Well, with a teensy break at #27, but this is still best I’ve done in for this particular day!
I am so relieved to get this day done and OUT of my life. On to Day 2 for the last time… And for the record, repeating by the week instead of days helped tremendously.
GOODBYE WEEK 4 DAY 1!!!
How Goes It
31:05 + 13:00 + 12:00
I was so bored of running the same 30 minutes over and over that I decided to “spice” things up by tacking on an extra minute to the first 30 minute block and upping the length of one of my intervals. It turned out, however, that I was really tired to begin with (my legs felt like lead at mile 2.75 – maybe I should have taken in an extra slice of pizza last night?) and for a brief moment I didn’t think that I could finish the 3 miles/31 min. The mind, of course, is a tricky thing, and the marker came and went.
I admit that I’m nervous about the 35 minute run coming up, but what I need to remember is that it’s all relative to speed. I need to remember to SLOW THE HELL DOWN on that day.
Is it so strange to start feeling side stitches and out of breath after during the walk after the run? Weird.
Stats
Run Intervals:
Set 1: 31:05 – 3.37 miles @ 9:14 min/mi
Set 2: 13:00 – 1.33 miles @ 9:47 min/mi
Set 3: 12:00 – 1.24 miles @ 9:41 min/mi
Total: 56:05 min and 5.94 miles
Conditions
60° F, Sunny
29-33-29-29 max: 40
Set 1: I can NOT believe how easy this was! Not even a twinge/twitch afterwards.
Set 2: Wasn’t so easy, but it was still easy. Still no twinge afterwards.
Set 3: Broke the tiniest bit of sweat. Wasn’t super hard, but at this point 40 seemed impossible. Twinge as I wrote down the results.
Set 4: Done. Maybe 40 is possible. Slight sweat; this set was more mental.
Max: 40. Okay so I kinda sorta cheated… I had one teensy bit rest, but I still got it done and 40 certainly wasn’t my exhaustion point.
Umm I think Day 3 might be a little lopsided, as it was SO much easier than Day 1. I’d love to move on to Week 5, but I think I’ll attempt at this week once more, doing one day each. Should get me pumped and ready to move on!
Day 1
Lesson: When taking any amount of time off from running (especially when you have a nasty stomach virus), EASE back into it by shortening the distance AND/OR going at a slower pace.
Lucky me got to learn this lesson firsthand Saturday. Instead of slowing my pace, I decided to be an ass and fly my way through it, hence sending me almost to the point of asphyxiation from my lovely exercised-induced asthma, even though I prepped the run with two different inhalers beforehand. Because I can be an ignorant dope, I chose not to carry my emergency fast-acting inhaler with me and had to crawl home after the 30 instead of finishing out with the regular two intervals I like to tack on at the end.
Lesson learned.
Run Intervals:
Set 1: 30:07 – 3.43 miles @ 8:47 min/mi
Total: 30:07 min and 3:43 miles
Day 2
I typically fear running after a traumatizing one, but this time I was amped and ready to tackle and overcome it.
I didn’t do too bad, especially when you consider that I did Day 1 only yesterday. My throat got very dry at a few points (from my inhalers?), but luckily I had a lot of spit in my mouth to swallow (ewww). Towards the end, sharp cramps settled in on the right and I was thankful when the 30 minutes finally ended. Breathing exercises helped to dull it, but after Saturday’s fiasco, I decided to the smart thing and listen to my body, and decided to do two ten minute intervals afterwards instead of the ten minutes and then the twelve.
I’m excited to conclude Week 3 with a sunrise run on Tuesday, because Week 4 is where the action begins! I’m planning on running 4 days a week versus 3, so I may add in an extra 30 minute block run to accommodate.
Run Intervals:
Set 1: 30:07 – 3.36 miles @ 8:58 min/mi
Set 2: 10:00 – 1.07 miles @ 9:21 min/mi
Set 3: 10:00 – 1.07 miles @ 9:21 min/mi
Total: 50:07 min and 5.50 miles
My worst nightmare happened on Monday night: a lovely stomach virus!
What does this mean? NO food with flavor, NO exercise (it was hard to exist to begin with, so this was the last thing on my mind), NO nothing except trashy morning tv.
But-but-but my streak!!!!!
Yes, it was broken. Being bedridden for 3 days, however, allowed me to do some thinking about this goal again and at the end I decided that I am going to make one teensy weensy exception to this goal: illness.
So from now on, I will allow overlook only illness in my streak and adjust accordingly.
In other news: My workout while vacationing in Fort Worth was an absolute blast! The treadmill was a snore, but I got to bounce around on the elliptical for a little while and work with some free weights – two things that I do not have in my fitness regimen whatsoever. In addition, working out in a hotel gym all by myself (by the looks of the people in Texas, no one worked out) allowed me to admire my new body all I want, which only motivated me to work harder. Sweat looks so sexy!!!
And lastly, I realized that I’m unhappy over the 100 Push up Plan because all this time I’ve been looking at it wrong. My road to fitness was never about doing 100 push ups or running a marathon or anything like that. I started to LOOK GOOD and FEEL HEALTHY. So here I was boohooing about repeating Week 4 Day 1 for the 987’s time, yet I ignore the definition forming in my arms. Talk about an oversight! (Think: fitness model vs power lifter) So from now, I’ll use the program to further my definition and not get too hung up over performance. What a relief!
25-29-25-25 max: 25
Set 1: Pretty easy! I did however develop a head trip when I thought about actually having to do 29 pushups early on. I need to focus on the moment.
Set 2: I actually waited 2 min instead of 90 seconds – oops! Could be why the 29 pushups were easy here too, although I felt a slight twinge as I recorded the results afterwards.
Set 3: Arms trembled as I got into the 20s and I encountered a mental barrier, but I managed to bust through both.
Set 4: I was able to pump them out easily, but I did experience a little vertigo when I got up.
Max: Collapsed right after #25
I’m pretty impressed at how much an extra little 30 seconds’ rest can give you. Before today’s set, I went back and for a few minutes trying to decide if I should repeat Day 1 again, but noticed in my handwritten notes from last session that I’d written in huge block letters: “MOVE ON TO DAY 2!!!” Being that it was a few days and a stomach virus ago, I don’t exactly remember exactly what was going through in my head at that time, but I suspect that I probably predicted so and hence wrote that particular note to my future self.
21-25-21-21 max: 21
Week 4, Day 1 #5
Set 1: Great!
Set 2: A sweaty set, it got hard right at 25 and felt twinges in the arm afterwards
Set 3: I didn’t think I could finish it without a break or two, but somehow I managed to push through consecutively until the end.
Set 4: Had to take one itsy bitsy break at #18
Max: 15
I wonder if doing it at a different time of day (6:30 am versus 2 pm) kept me from making progress?
Week 4, Day 1 #6
Set 1: So easy! I didn’t feel a thing.
Set 2: Felt it in the tiniest bit at #24, but no biggie. Slightest twinge afterwards.
Set 3: Got hard at #20 and felt slight twinge afterwards
Set 4: #21 was at or near exhaustion point.
Max: I didn’t collapse, but I knew that #21 was my dead last
Finally, a little progress! I wonder if it had to do with the extra triceps workouts on Saturday?
I didn’t make the max but I’m moving to Day 2 anyway. Today was near identical to when I did it last Monday, and from that day, I went back in progress, thus deflating my little heart. No mas! So Day 2 here we come. :):)
How Goes It
I originally planned on completing this on Saturday while on a treadmill at the hotel I was staying – and did pump out 30 min (plus 10 min of extra running), but truth be told, I HATED it and didn’t feel challenged in the specific way I love/used to when running outside. If anything, I felt like a hamster in a wheel but with a TV in front of me. I am now officially anti-treadmill.
Thanks to an early flight on Sunday, I had plenty of time to run in the afternoon, even though I was too exhausted to do it and was finding every distraction in the world to put it off. Eventually I gave myself a stern talking to and pushed my butt outside. (Main motivator: burn off all the cookies I splurged on all weekend)
Because I was so tired, I didn’t think I was running that fast, but to my (GREAT) surprise, I actually ran the first 30 min under 9 min/mile! I have no idea how that happened, really. In fact, I thought it was just my mind hazing about when I’d pass certain markers before certain times. Could it be that I’ve grown comfortable with my new pace?
The faster pace, however, did end catch up with me. In my first 10 minute interval following the 30, my legs felt like lead. I was so incredibly tired and was 100% sure that I would NOT be able to complete the next 12 minute interval. With 3 minutes left in the interval, my knees started hurting. I was relieved when the interval was over.
Usually, the 3 minute break too short for me to adequately recover, but on this day, my knees felt 100% and my legs were somewhat renewed. I pushed for the 12 minutes and – what do you know! – I beat last Thursday’s 12 min interval.
Overall, this run was more mentally challenging than physically. I definitely felt the trash I ate all weekend (went nuts with my cookie addiction!), but it could be the mental power that enabled me to push through and finish.
Thoughts While Running
Cookies, cake, pie! Cookies, cake, pie! Does anybody else think of food when they run?
It’s hard to believe I once did horribly running 90 seconds at a time!
Stats
Run Intervals:
Set 1: 30:07 – 3.41 miles @ 8:50 min/mi
Set 2: 10:00 – 1.07 miles @ 9:21 min/mi
Set 3: 12:00 – 1.30 miles @ 9:14 min/mi
Total: 52:07 min and 5.78 miles
Conditions
62° F, Sunny
