Specialization is for Insects

I finished my push up & pull up program. 1000 pull ups & 2000 push ups in 23 days. In the middle of the second week I also started adding 150 bodyweight squats a day.

The jury is still out on whether this program significantly improved my ability to do pull ups. I’m not going to do anything until next Monday; that ought to give my body time to recover. Then I’ll start a new program to get me through December and into January.

We’re headed off to Missouri in a few hours for a much needed break. As soon as the girls get home from school we are loading up and will be on the road.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Annie went to her first TaeKwonDo Tournament today. She competed in both “poomsae” and board breaking, earning bronze and silver metals.

Poomsae.

Ready to break the boards.

Crack!

Annie with her medals.

Last weekend we went on an awesome trip to Deltaville, VA to witness the marriage of my brother Mark & my new sister Molly. Deltaville is a vacation resort town on the Chesapeake. Molly’s family owns a cottage on the bay, and the wedding was on the beach in front of the cottage. Molly’s family was kind enough to arrange to let us stay a beautiful cottage owned by their cousins.

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The girls and I took the train down to the Field Museum today.  We saw three great exhibits: Pirates, Water & Ancient Americas.

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Since there is more to life than exercise, I should probably catch everyone up on what’s been going on lately.

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I ran a 5k last Thursday (Aug 6) in Grant Park. My time was 27:40, which is my best 5k time so far this year. It was a fun race; about 2500 people, with maybe 100 of them dressed as Elvis. The course went up and down the lake in front of Monroe Harbor. At first it was very congested; 2500 people cannot run together on a 10 foot wide path. It just doesn’t work. After about a mile we had spread out enough that I didn’t have to slow down waiting for room to pass people.

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Last Saturday, July 25, my father and I ran the Bix 7 in Davenport, IA. The Bix 7 is a 7 mile race beginning and ending in downtown Davenport. This year over 15,000 people ran the race with over 11,000 finishing. Running in a group of 15,000 people is an incredible experience.

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Yesterday we returned after a 2 1/2 week camping trip. We left on June 25 and drove for 2 days to the Badlands of  South Dakota, staying in hotels at Albert Lea and Kadoka. We camped for 2 nights at Badlands National Park, did some hiking and enjoyed the scenery. The first day the wind was really blowing, and setting up tents in 40+ mph winds is an experience. The second day the winds died down and the heat & bugs returned.

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I finally finished sorting through the pictures from our trip to California and Hawaii this past summer.

Check them Out!