It's done

Well, for better, or almost assuredly for worse, Trump won again.   I am gravely concerned about what will happen, but I know that I don't trust the people who made this happen.

I would like to be wrong...

I've got the US Blues....

Its finally here

I'm so thankful it's finally election day.  I'm sick of hearing the ads and reading people rationalizing their choices.   IMO both candidates are badly flawed and indicative of our broken system.

Just glad it's almost over.   Well at least this part.

Whomever you support just vote...  

Birthday blues...

It's probably not the first time, but it is the first time I can remember where I really don't want to celebrate my birthday.  I guess that's not completely accurate, but I don't want to have an "event" because both Merinda and I are tired.  I'm emotionally drained by the Yankees loss and physically tired from being up late watching the games and trying to get in the swing of the distance challenge.  Oh, and not to mention the stress of Milton or the election next tuesday.  Thankfully it's almost over.

Ok, enough whining, how was October?  Well, as with a couple of previous months it was both good and bad, but mostly good.   So let's see how I did.

• Maintain weight
• Ride 550 miles - Ideally get outdoors once/week for at least 25 miles.
• Run at least one, maybe two 5k's this month.   
• Swim once, maybe twice this month.   Gentle pace for 500-1000 yards
• Continue weight training
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple October exercise challenge 
• Gold in my Septmber challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc45 and start #mc46
• Start MDC3!

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 213.50
• Ending Weight: 214.1

Exercise info:

• Number of rides:  84
• Time on exercise:  45:37:37
• Distance on rides:  471.39
• Number of runs:  2
• Distance running:  6.53
• Number of walks:  4
• Time walking:  2:21:18
• Distance walking:  5.87
• Number of rows: 0
• Time rowing: 0
• Number of swims:  0
• Distance swimming:  0
• Weight Workouts: 5

Results: 

So, what is there to say?  Second month in a row where I missed my cycling mileage target.   Yes, I know the long ride this month was cancelled, so I didn't need to train for it, but that shouldn't affect my goal.   Now, in my defense, we had a couple of days without power so I probably would have hit the goal if it wasn't for Milton, but I did miss.   What else?  Well, no rows and no swims.   I'll be honest, I've been weight training on what used to be my "row" day, and I haven't had the desire to go to the long center.  Plus the rower is buried behind some stuff we're donating so using it has been "challenging", but that's just an excuse.   I've been prioritizing other things, and I will continue to try and change that.

So, what went well?   I've been running and almost hit my PR for a 5k.  I've been slowly creeping up my milage for MDC3 and am in 3rd place on my team and hopefully will be in second next week.  Finished MC45 and am almost done with MC46, I just need next week and one strength class, and got my apple challenge done.   Weight is right where I want it, and I've been trying to up my protein intake and I've even added some creatine to try and help build more muscle.

Overall?  October was a pretty good month and I am more than satisfied with where I am.    So what's on tap for November?   Glad you asked:

Maintain weight

• Ride 550 miles
• Run every week as long as my knees/hips are ok with it.
• Race in a turkey trot
• Ad hoc walks to complete the November challenge
• Continue weight training
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple November exercise challenge 
• Gold in my November challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc46 and start #mc47
• Scuba certification

And a few optional ones:

• Swim once or twice this month
• Row - Try to row twice this month.

Slight change with moving some things to being "optional" but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.   I've been struggling with motivation since I don't have a fitness goal right now, so keeping myself from feeling dragged down is key and I don't want to feel guilty because I didnt go to the long center, or chose to lift instead of rowing.   Being active is what's key.   With that in mind, this should look pretty consistent.   Really the biggest change is prioritizing getting my scuba done.  I'll be disappointed if I cant dive on the cruise.

It's a short post today as I really don't have that much to say.   Not looking forward to the election or my birthday, but I'll post throughout the month.   Talk soon.

Its that time of year

As well as being reminded that I am almost a year older, I'm once again looping around to the events that brought me to where I am today.   It was just two years ago that Merinda and I went to the woodwright and I wasn't able to stand up for more than 20 odd minutes without pain.   Yes, I've talked about it before, but when I look back it really was the first in a chain of events that got me here.  With that, while I was miserable that night, I am thankful that it was the beginning of a healthier, and for the most part, happier life.

Now if my knee and hip would agree life would be perfect :) 

Sigh...

Well, I'm going to have to really bust my ass to hit my mileage target for this month.   Those couple of days with no power/Internet really put me behind.   I'm going to have to average ~28 miles/day for the rest of the month.  At least I've been able to catch up on my Apple monthly challenge.

Also feeling a little demoralized because one of the teams in the challenge is completely stacked and have a 1200 mile lead after one week.  That's 170 miles per day more that their team is racking up.   Kind of frustrating to try and keep up.   Add in my already sore legs and it feels like an insurmountable challenge.  I guess it's a good thing the Yankees are in the world series and I can sit and pedal away while watching the game.

However, on a brighter note, I went for a run on Wednesday night.   It's been a hot minute, or month for that matter, since I ran, and I ran the fastest I've run since July.  Apple and Strava disagree on the "fastest" 5k, but I was pleasantly suprised at how good it felt.  It went so well that I signed up for an Alzheimers run as well as finally signing up for the race up in VA over Christmas.   Since my ride next month got cancelled I need a few more events to keep me moving.   Look for some more runs to come.

Tough month.

Well, I'm off to another rough start for this month.  Between Milton and losing power for a few days and then I completely spaced on the Apple challenge, so I'm behind on miles as well as the challenge...

I guess it's a good thing the distance challenge starts on Saturday. 

Fuck off Milton

I guess I'm a real Floridian now since I rode out a Cat-3 storm.  We had planned to evacuate to Jax and then were going to stay with a friend but they got evacuated so we ended up staying here.  We lost power for a few days and had no Internet, except for the phones.  Was hard to find gas, and I sat in a line for 3 hours to get some which really sucked.   I did go up to Pasco county and found some a lot easier on Saturday.

The good?   We have all our plywood to board up the house and it's organized and stored in the garage.   We're also set up with the generator now and it runs, so we can keep food cold.   I also have gas cans so we're ready.

The bad?  Well it sucks for a lot of people and we did have water come up through the slab.     That and the next storm coming.  Yes, I did say next storm.  Yes, the joys of Florida life.  

All in all it could have been worse, a lot worse.