Eisenhower Park

Wyatt is helping me stay more consistent on the bike by joining me for weekly rides. He’s not been cycling much either, so we’re starting and progressing at the same speed. After a month of cycling, I might try to schedule some rides with Steve. Steve is always willing to ride, but he has a tendency to ride hard, which takes the enjoyment out of the ride.

Wyatt and I rode two loops inside Eisenhower Park and beat our prior time by 2:30 minutes, plus we added three extra miles. We plan to use the double loop as a measure of our fitness.

The weather was perfect. We saw four other riders in the park. After our ride, one of the older cyclists (60's) talked to us for 30-minutes about the sport. He was an interesting gentleman and I wish I was half as healthy as him. He mentioned he was already 3-hours into his morning ride and still needed to log another hour. He’s the MAN!

I finished my push-ups early, because I keep forgetting till late in the evening. I’m feeling a little stronger. I think the program is going to be a success!

Road Bike:

13.78 miles

57:50

Push-ups: 30

14.31 mph

Homework at work...

Worked 24-hours at Humble FD

I had a great shift on Medic two. I was able to finish lots of homework. The only call of the shift came in at 1:30am.

Not a bad day at all…

Push-ups: 28

Pride

I took the kids on a four-mile walk through the neighborhood, collecting trash. I used the opportunity to teach the kids about community service, pride, and recycling. 

I didn’t realize it, but today was a “Klean-wood” day, so there were large groups of people already on the streets picking up garbage.  We still found aluminum cans, which we collected for our recycling bin.

The rest of the day was spent being lazy with the kids. I attached a couple videos of the kids acting silly...

Walk:

3.97 miles

1:29:30

22:33 pace

First road bike session of 2012

Wyatt and I went to Eisenhower Park to ride our road bikes. It’s been more than six-months since either of us has been on our road bikes, so we decided to go for a nice and easy stroll around the park.

The weather was on the borderline of being too cold to ride, but it ended up being ideal cycling conditions.  The ride went well, although the hills took an exhausting toll on us. We worked on shifting into the small ring to climb the hills rather than standing up and aggressively climbing. This should help us better prepare for rolling hill terrain.

Alyson wanted to run this evening, so I followed her on my trail bike. Even though the bike speed was slow, it was another couple miles in the saddle.  

Push-ups: 30

Road Bike (plus 2.5 miles on trail bike)

12.92 miles

1:18:19

8.84 mph

Rain

I spent most of the day doing homework. I’m starting to wonder if going back to school to finish my BS is a smart idea. I have so much going on right now and it is starting to become another stressor, which I do NOT need.

Strong thunderstorms came through the area, leaving us with 3-4 inches of rain.

The rain continued for most of our evening run, but it wasn’t enough to scare away the Texas Trail Nerds! At least the rain distracted me from the huge loss of trees inside East End Park. It seems most of the large mature trees are all gone. This is very sad for our little park. I can tell the boardwalks have taken a beating from the fallen trees, but KOA seems to be on top of repairs.

The nerds were six strong and good times were had by all. I’m going to continue bringing my cooler with drinks. It was fun hanging out and talking before everyone took off.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t bad enough to scare away the mosquitos. They were swarming with vengeance this evening, OUCH!

The evening ended on a sad note. Erin emailed me a copy of Alison's 4th grade "pre-writing notes" for the STAAR practice essay. Alison chose to write about an important person in her life, me. The essay was sweet and loving, but I literally broke-down when she talked about seldom seeing her dad. I wish things were different...

Push-ups: 25

Run:

2.53 miles

33:50

13:22 pace

Night Run

Worked 7 hours at Humble FD (on a shift trade)

I’m learning to squeeze in time for homework wherever I can. Even though we ran three EMS calls during the 7-hours I worked, I still managed to complete another math homework assignment. Textbooks for the other two classes arrived today, which means more reading in my future.

It’s a rather long story, but I talked with a psychotherapist today. Within the first 30-minutes she labeled me as “passive-aggressive” based on one particular incident we discussed. She encouraged me to research the behavior and report back to her if she is correct. Well, I read about PA on multiple online websites and she missed this diagnosis. Seriously, 18 of the top 20 most commons signs of PA don’t fit me at all. In fact, many are complete opposites. I wonder why she said I was PA?

I took advantage of the slightly cooler weather with a two-mile run. The run pace was faster than I expected, yet the walk pace was slower than I anticipated. Either way it was a good workout. I ran on the greenbelts at night, without a light. Not being able to see more than 10-feet ahead heightens your senses and allows me to forget about the uncomfortableness of the run.

Push-ups: 23

Run:

2.34 miles

33:49

14:27 pace

Worn out

This year’s obligations have already taken a toll on my body. School, work x 2, training, and a small social life keep me going 100-mph. It’s been exceptionally tough for the last three weeks and now it is catching up to me. I’m feeling sickly.

This morning Alyson convinced me to go for a walk at Lake Houston Park. Even though I didn’t feel well, I enjoyed my time outdoors. It was nice to see the trails were in good shape and the trees fared significantly better than they did in Kingwood.

We added a handful of small running intervals on our out-and-back route, but our overall pace makes it appear we walked the entire duration.

I’m on day two of my daily push-up challenge.

Push-ups: 22

Run:
5.25 miles

1:32:08

17:33 pace

Nasty weather

Working 21 hours at Humble FD today

I took off a few hours this morning to attend a college orientation class. Afterwards I managed to squeeze in a small walk/run.

The humidity was off the charts and it was warm, resulting in a miserable run. I left the house in a good mood and came back cussing the Houston climate.

I’ve been talking about starting a daily push-up challenge, which I finally started today. It’s rather simple. I do push-ups every day. I look to see what day of the year it is and I do that many push-ups. For example, today is the 21^st day of 2012, so I did 21 push-ups. I’ll increase by one push-up every day. Sounds simple enough, but let’s see how the retention fares.

Push-ups: 21

Run:

2.35 miles

37:49

16:06 pace

Trailwood Village Bike Route

Busy day at work yesterday yielded an unproductive day. Once I got home I took a quick shower and slept till 3pm. 

I lounged around the house before I finally decided to take my trail bike out for a neighhood stroll. The nearly full-moon lit the streets and the mild winter weather was ideal for cycling. My goal was to ride on every street in Trailwood. Once I uploaded the workout data I realized I missed a few streets.

Trail Bike:

13.14 miles

1:20:21

9.8 mph

First 5-miler of 2012

The first run of 2012 was almost perfect. If today’s run is an insight to the year ahead, then it is going to be a GREAT year!

I pushed Preston in the stroller while Alison biked. Even Alyson joined the fun, making a last minute plea to be able to complete the Woodlands Half Marathon in March. The regimen was an odd mixings of running and walking. I’m proud to say there was a lot more running over the last half of the 5.4 mile loop.

Run:

5.36 miles

1:19:57

14:54 pace

Happy New Years!

I’m totally slacking with my usual New Year recap and resolutions. I’m not even sure I want to set new resolutions, as I tend to seldom adhere to them for more than a month.  

I managed to squeeze in a small 3 mile run (with a lot of walking) this evening. We set out for six miles but had to make an adjustment and settle for three. I forgot my knee brace, which is unfortunate because my knee is quite bothersome now.

The scale was unfriendly to me this morning, revealing a number I was NOT expecting. Sigh...

Run:

3.09 miles

49:08

15:53 pace