Sunday, December 14, 2008

The Return of the Chocolate Balls

My apologies for the lack of posts lately but despite the fact that I've been running on most days, the shortness of duration and lack of any real workouts of substance has given me little to gab about. However, today's run with Andrew was a much different story...

We did the full Boyden Lake loop for 17 miles this morning in the freezing cold -13C/10F but thankfully with only a slight bit of wind. It turned out to be quite pleasant for the most part but there seemed to be the occasional pockets of extra cold air that would catch our breath and cause us to pull up our scarves just a bit more. For some added fun and excitement I put together some pictures and video which you can see on my video here (with condolences to Thomas who couldn't be there). This new video site for runner at the new RunCastTV.com is quite amazing but I must warn the fun is addictive. It's almost as addictive as the special treats we had at the end of the run but you have to watch the video to experience that! Mmmm!

On an almost totally unrelated non-running note (and for the guys) although the ladies will get a kick out of this, check out this video with a detailed account of how guys get sent to 'The Doghouse'. BTW, Andrew was full of suggestions for me to try out to see what would happen.

Other bits of news to share include some progress on the 100 Pushup Challenge as I survived Week 5 (for the 3rd week) but this time at the hardest level #3. Yesterday's insane workout amounted to 8 sets of pushups for a total of 190 with a max of 40 in the last set. I'm now ready for another Exhaustion Test and hope to make it to the final Week 6 sets of workouts.

Running-wise, last week was more of the same as the week before with a total of 6 runs for a mere 40 miles. There is a training plan for Boston somewhere in my logbook but I haven't dared to even look at it recently as I continue to attempt to scale back the running and hope the hamstrings self-repair. The stretching, icing, weights, trigger point and ball exercises are keeping me busy but so far have had little effect. I may have to bite the bullet and see a professional sooner rather than later as this aggravating issue just hangs on.

So, that's it! Take care, have fun and enjoy the holiday season!

10 comments:

Thomas said...

"How are the chocolate balls?"
"The chocolate balls are wonderful!"
"Do you think Thomas would like them?"
"... Noooooo ....."
"Thomas doesn't eat chocolate balls"


....


You Bastards!

I hope you realise that I'm coming to Boston mainly to sample some chocolate balls ....

Andrew said...

Those chocolate balls are the only thing that kept me going today!

Grellan said...

Those chocolate balls do look nice. -13, that's bloody cold.

Garry said...

Chocolate balls or no chocolate balls, I'm not running 17 miles in the freezing cold! And if the jokes are anything like on Andrew's blog today, I'm definitely not in for it!

Unknown said...

Probably a good idea to see someone before the problem goes on for too long.

Wayne said...

10F...now that is insane.

Ewen said...

-13C is silly! Our lowest temp this year was probably around -8C. Of course, I'm not silly enough to run in the freezing mornings!

Your video wanted a 'log-in' so I'm not sure what that was all about.

Keep the easy flat runs ticking over and hopefully it will come good. Try the short periods of backwards running too (1-2 minutes at a time).

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Mike - Looking forward to running camp!! Will you be smuggling your chocolate balls over the border?

Michaela read your blog and now has the whole family doing the 100 push-up challenge!

Unknown said...

I would like some of those chocolate balls as well. I wonder if they're good fueling for the pushup challenge. I'm going to repeat week 5 even though I was able to get through the week in pretty good form. I even made the 50 pushup max on day 3.

Love2Run said...

I guess I should post the recipe so everyone can make their own. We will smuggle a few through for running camp Marc (but that means locking them away from me).

Sorry about the login Ewen, but you need to be a user to see my video and I highly recommend the site.