How to Run

I came across this site a few weeks ago and it has really rehabilitated my capacity for running. I'm not a big time runner but I try to run at least once a week and once a month I like to go at least 5 miles. The problem is that my knees haven't been very happy about this project for quite some time. In fact this summer I was trying to ramp up for a half marathon and by the time I got to 8 mile training sessions my knees (one in particular) really laid down the law. Basically they said stop that. I would end up taking ibuprofen and doing hot/cold treatments for a few days. This did not seem like a very wise course to continue and so I backed off.

So I've been trying the idea of barefoot running for the last month or so and the change is striking. I'm not actually going "barefoot". There is about a foot of snow in my front yard currently, but the running style is still the same. The idea is essentially to run on the front pads of your foot rather than landing on your heel. Rather than sending a shock straight from your heel to you knees and hips, you absorb most of it in the front of your foot.

I did my 5 mile route today and instead of finishing in agony and limping into my house I feel like I could easily go and do it again tomorrow.

It definitely takes concentration and practice to run this way and it doesn't feel completely natural quite yet, but at this point I don't think I could go back to "normal" running again. The main difference currently is that my calves get much more of a workout and I can still feel that and the front pads of my feet are just a little tender. They are absorbing a little more impact so I'm not surprised. It's not the feeling of my foot being abused just the tenderness you feel as you are developing tougher skin.

My wife has also adapted this style. She has suffered from plantar fasciitis for quite a while and she has noticed a huge reduction in foot pain.

So the question is, how is this just now getting around? I sure wish I knew about this 20 years ago. I could have saved my body a lot of wear and tear (possibly removing the need for my knee surgery of 6 years ago). Has this been known forever and I was just oblivious? I'd honestly never heard of the idea but now it seems sort of obvious.]

You can't help but wonder how many other easy fixes for modern problems there are out there.

100 pushups - DONE

OK, it took me about a year and a half. And they weren't pretty. But I finished it.

Sort of anti-climactic somehow after all this time. But kinda cool to have gotten there.

2 questions:
- do I bother maintaining this level? (once a week refresher?)
- what should I work on next? (chin ups probably)

100 pushups milestone - 80

OK, so I'm 80% of the way there (100 pushups).

Just checked my records and I've been doing this for 1 year and 3 months. That would be funny if it weren't so tragic. How can it be taking so long? Oh well, keep on trucking.

I better get a damn spiffy prize when I finish this.

Happy Birthday - My mission to get to 100 pushups is now one year old!

So after a year of the 100 pushup plan, where am I? 75.

Now if you are familiar with the 6 weeks to 100 pushup plan you might detect a slight disconnect between the plan and my success. Just an eentsy bit off...

On the one hand: holy crap I can do 75 pushups. And also: wow, look at the determination and will power.

On the other hand: what is wrong with me? Why can't I finish this sucker? And: why am I wasting my time, focus on this?

So there you go. I'm part super man and part loser. I knew that before I started.

OK. If I haven't gotten to 100 before another year passes I seriously have to reevaluate this whole thing.

(Any tips from the pros out there how to get the last 25?)

100 Pushups: "week 6" milestone - 70

Holy crap. I finally got to 70. So the adventure continues on the hilariously optimistic "6 week" program to do 100 pushups.

The big question now is whether I can get to 100 before a year has elapsed. I think there is a chance. But honestly I'll just be happy to get there. And to think I was going to skip tonight since I felt a little under the weather.

100 Pushups: week 6 (8th try)

It just occurred to me that I've been doing this crazy 100 pushups thing since at least July. I'm still humorously far from my goal, but damn if I'm still making some progress. For instance this week after doing my various reps (150+ pushups in 20+ increments) I was able to get to 53 which is a new record for me.

But nevertheless it is still pretty funny that I've been doing the 6th week of a 6 week program for 8 weeks now. And it *only* took me 6 weeks or so to finish week 5. But I did finish.

The idea of doing 100 pushups seemed sort of comical to me when I started this bad boy, but now it's my mission. I just hope I finish this decade sometime.

real age

I had set a goal to get to a certain weight (210) and then get a physical and blood profile (cholesterol, etc). As it happens I received my results just as it was my 40th birthday.

One of my objectives of getting the blood profile was so I could complete the realage survey in excruciating detail. So I finally filled it in today and was pretty pleased with my results.

physical age = 40
"real age" = 27.9

Of course that is an absurdly precise number, but I'm still proud of my result. And my wife was part jealous and part suspicious. So she went over all my answers with me and helped me adjust them to less fantasy based answers. And my score went from 26.7 to 27.9.

Now we are in serious competition mode. She will be getting a blood profile done later this week.

Any way, I have the body of a 27.9 year old. I can do 50 pushups (and working towards 100). Things could be worse.

100 Pushups: week 5 (finished)

You'd think I had finished the whole stinking program, but I'm feeling pretty good about finishing week 5 after numerous iterations. I checked my records and I've been doing week 5 since the middle of July.

But I did finish it. So, I may suck, but I don't suck as much as people who *haven't* finished week 5 ever. :)

Any way, on to week 6 now. (For who knows how long).

100 Pushups: week 5

I have vowed to get to one hundred pushups. And I *will* keep at it well past the point where a sane person would just cut their loss. But in case any one is wondering, I've been on week 5 for about 6 weeks now.

*sigh*

True, there was a week off because I was sick and another following that for a week vacation. And yes, I did lose a lot of progress during those two weeks. But man, this is a non-trivial challenge.

I really have to wonder how many people have followed this (and exclusively this) plan to victory.

Any way, as long as each time I go through week 5 I get a little better then I don't feel *too* bad about being relentless. It's when I plateau that I have to start wondering about my sanity.

For what it's worth I can currently do a max of 40 pushups in one set. 100 stills seems absurdly far off.

100 Pushups

When I came across this link for doing 100 pushups I just sorted of laughed and thought to myself, "yah right". But the idea got under my skin and so as of a couple days ago I finished week 4.

100 seems like a magical number and impossibly far away. Even at the 4 week mark I'm only up to 40 (ok, 39 and 1/2).

But there *is* something magical about this goal to me. Surely if I can use discipline and hard work to get this goal then I've learned something important about what I *thought* were my limits. If I can reach this far past what I thought was feasible then where else have I unnecessarily limited myself?

Of course if I fail then I've just confirmed that I suck. :)

I'm guessing I'll (at the very least) need to repeat the last couple of a weeks at least once. But, I think I can do this....