Monday, Started the day with a 5 mile run at 6:30 AM at the Sam Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge. Joseph got in 7-8 miles. Since we were there, and since it was freakin beautiful out and since I brought kayaks, we paddled around Bluff Lake for a while. Saw two gators, tons of birds, and lots of other wildlife. Pretty morning, and surprisingly cool under the cypress trees as we lazily meandered about. Finally, I remembered that I had to go to work, and we headed out!
morning light
Joseph
me
cypress tree
great blue heron!
Went home briefly mid afternoon and did 4 sets of bench (15 reps each set) with 185 lbs, 4 sets of curls with 95 lbs counting curl bar (15 reps each), 4 sets of one arm cable triceps pull downs, some oblique shrugs with 40 lb dumbell, and various crunches with a 25 lb weight. This was a rather fast workout as I needed to get back to work, but effective.
Later, at 6 pm, I got in a little 4 mile run thru part of town and the campus. Slightly warmer today, but ended up with a 7:15 average mile pace.
Tuesday, Morning workout with 7 sets of 50 plus reps, 5 sets of pullups with 15 reps each, some ab stuff, and then to work. At 5 pm, I got in a little 4 mile run. First mile was 7:24, then 6:22, then 7:32, then 6:15. Cool. Biked about 10 easy miles when I got home. Did three sets of about 10-15 reps of handstand pushups after supper.
Wednesday, 6:30 AM run with Joseph out here in Sessums. Super easy, no watch, about 3.5–4 miles. Worked out at home at lunch with several sets of pushups with 75-100 reps each, probably 8-10 sets. Didn’t keep track. Also, some dips, curls, militaries, random weird pullups, and various ab exercises. Pretty good workout. Listened to some Cage the Elephant! Followed that with a ridiculously good tasting T-bone steak that I grilled. Vegetables along with it included some grilled yellow pepper, red onion, and portabella mushrooms and fresh tomato, sliced avocado, and some habanero cheese. Tasty, tasty, tasty. This meal was so perfect, I almost had an out of body experience. The steak was a great cut of meat and although I cooked it fairly rare, it almost melted in my mouth. Yeah. Oh, and wow, the tomato! This crazy heirloom tomato grown locally from Bountiful Harvest Farms was probably the best tomato I have ever eaten! YES!!!
At 7 PM, I met Joseph, Lucas, and Morgan Henry for a run. Did our downtown loop. We started together, but by about a mile or less, Joseph and Lucas got ahead of us on this easy run. I ran with Morgan for about 1.5-1.7 miles, then picked it up a bit. My first mile was about 7:24, but the next 4.5 of my 5.5 mile route were all under 7 and averaged about 6:54 per mile. It was a nice evening to run with overcast skies and even some delightful light rain for part of the run! Lucas and Joseph ran about 6.5 miles averaging 6:50 something. Morgan ran about 4.6 miles I believe, and that happy car selling joker was grinning from ear to ear just like when he started. Morgan is a happy dude!
Thursday, Woke up and did 4 sets of bench press (185 lbs, 10-15 reps each), some ab stuff, and a few curlbar curls. Nothing crazy. Went to work, but came home for lunch to finish up my workout. Did 8 sets of 50-60 reps of pushups with about half of them with my feet elevated about a foot or so. Did some dips off of a chair, and a few hanging ab deals. Did all this while grilling some lunch outside.
At 6 PM, I met Morgan Henry at the parking area near the MSU rec fields and tennis courts for a run. The Starkville Academy XC team was there as well getting ready to start their practice. One of their better runners, Lake Spradling, has run with us off and on this summer. Coach Christiansen told him and her son Will to go run with us, and so they did! Lake has apparently had some type of virus, and was not his usual self, but that was ok with me because I was not planning on killing it today anyway. We ran around campus and the loop around the Sanderson Lake, then returned for a 5 mile loop. Averaged about 7:20 per mile. Not bad. Pretty warm day. Morgan was a bit behind us, but he looked as happy as ever when he showed up!
Friday, No run today for me. Did some pushups and stuff like that. Pretty much everyday here lately I have been doing between 500-1000 pushups and various ab exercises. Seeing some noticeable differences, so thats cool. Always am doing something, so this is not exactly new.
Saturday, Morning run with Boardtown club. Joseph seemed confused this morn, as there were no other speedy folks for him to run with. He started out ahead, took a wrong turn, came back, then mostly ran with Drew Boyles. until 9 miles, then added some more, probably getting in about 14 miles or so at around a 6:38 pace, nothing crazy. The route was 11.4. Not a bad morn, warm and humid, but not unbearable. I averaged about 7:05 per mile today, with plenty of energy to spare. Ran the last mile around 6:40. Nice to see Will Kallfelz out there, and I ran with or near him most of the way. He was slightly ahead of me for most of the 2nd half of the run, but with about 1.5 miles, I kicked it up a notch and ended up finishing a little ahead of him. Our giant shouldered friend Robert Morgan ran with us for 4 miles, then turned around to go back and run with a friend. Vicky McCurdy once again had a great run and she also ran with us for most of the first half of the run. However, she killed the 2nd half and I did not see her again until I got back to the house!
After stopping by the Farmers Market, I headed home. Got in a workout, of course! Weighed myself before starting, and yes, this was after the run, but still, I weighed 163 lbs. I have not been this light in at least 20 years. Holy moly. Yep. This eating better routine may be something after all? You think? Or simply not pumping useless calories into my body. The best shape of my life ever was in early to late 20’s when I weighed about 155 lbs. I could dunk a basketball behind my head, rep out 275 lbs on the bench, run 20-20 miles at 6 minute pace, and could pound out some miles on my bike. I know I will be able to do all of those things anymore, but I feel pretty good for 50 years old!
getting there! ARGGH!
WOW! Our bud Lucas Muniz, who is basically a novice triathlete, has been smashing his first few tri’s! He had a great race today at the Heart of Dixie Triathlon coming in 2nd overall and beating some quality athletes! Way to go dude! After the half mile swim, he said he was in the top 15 at least, then went thru the 28 mile bike ride at 24 something miles per hour, and followed that up with at 7 mile run at 5:45 pace! Nice. Our young friend Lake Spradling also had a good day as he ran the running portion for a relay team that placed 3rd! Way to go guys!
Did some crazy yard work that afternoon and my goodness, it was hot! Relaxed for a while, then finished off the evening with Laurie Burton at a Starkville Area Arts Association function called Corks ‘n Forks. This was a competition between local chefs for various awards and a fund raiser of sorts for the arts council. Of course, wine was available as we sampled delectable dishes and chatted with arts association members. Interestingly, I bet I saw 20 plus folks there who were at the running club earlier that morn! Cool!
Sunday, Got up early and headed to Choctaw Lake with my kayak and bike. Saw one boat with two fishermen in the lake, but otherwise, it looked look I would the place to myself. Basically, this beautiful place is deserted most mornings. Fine with me!
Choctaw Lake
Choctaw Lake
Arrived about 6:40 AM and started the day out with some awkward swimming. Awkward because I suck at swimming! Did not even learn how until mid 20’s and really have not have much opportunity to practice or really went to the effort of finding a way. Probably because I don’t really like to swim. Anyway, yeah, whew boy! I do need some practice. Have not swam in years. I went back and forth a few times in the swimming area. Had to stop halfway thru each time.
ready to unload
After floundering about for a while, I then pulled out the mountain bike and headed toward the trails. There are miles and miles of trails in the adjacent Tombigbee National Forest with lots of elevational changes. I have a couple of older Treks, and I decided to bring the one with the clip pedals today. Have not ridden it in a while and it needs some work. The seat is not right for sure, and I need to fix that. Very uncomfortable! Anyway, put my shoes and and started up the hard gravel paved hill toward the trails. Then, dang, something locked up and I could not pedal. Tried to kick out of the left pedal and my shoe would not come out, and, well, that was it. I went quickly sidewise and fell pretty hard on the road hitting my knee and shoulder. Ouch. Looked under my shoe, and the dang clip was missing a screw so it was spinning around. No wonder I could not get out of that pedal! I got the bike going and managed to lock that shoe in and started out again. Ended up having a pleasant ride. At some point near a creek, I almost ran over a moccasin that was chillin’ on the trail. I came within inches of that joker, and nope, it did not like it! The snake struck at me coming about two inches from my ankle on the down-pedal! I got off the bike and came back to take a photo of the snake, who had managed to wiggle off into the weeds. Found it though, and it opened its mouth up wide for the photo!
snake
smile!
After a couple of hours of goobing around on the trail, I attempted a brief run, but did not go very far because my knee was actually pretty sore from that spill earlier!
random creek in the woods
Well, anyway, smacked around with the kayak and bit and called it a day. Maybe the knee will feel better for the evening run!
I guess the knee was not overly bad, as I did not have any issues when running at 7 PM. Just me and The Joseph today. Ran about 2.3 miles with him, then split off as he was doing 7 miles and I was doing only 5. Verrrrry warm today! Yowza. Or so it felt with the humidity. Felt good though and averaged 6:58 per mile with the last couple about 6:40 and 6:35. Nice. I was soaking wet when done though!!
Joe MacGown's Running Blog 