The time I did drugs in my car.

Lots of good stuff to post about today.  I met my friend Lauren for our annual shopping trip to Birch Run.  We usually have pretty good luck kicking off our Christmas shopping together sometime in mid-November.

I managed to pick up a few gifts this year, and I cherish the time we spend together chatting and catching up on things.  Lauren is getting married in June, so between the wedding and my treatments, we had plenty to talk about.


After we had dinner, I had to get down to business - it was stim shot time.  Since these injections are in my stomach, I have no issues doing them myself. I probably could have waited until I drove home, but wanted to be sure I was keeping things as consistent from day to day as possible.  So, I set up shop and did the shot before hitting the road:

I am hoping the guy that parked two spots over didn't call the cops when he saw me drawing up drugs from a vial into a syringe in my car.

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This was most likely my last good workout for a while, so I made sure to get in a few good quality runs.  Here is how the week looked with 18.7 miles:

Su 11/13: rest
M 11/14: 3.51 pace, 30:51, 8:48 pace
Tu 11/15: 5.28 easy, 48:16, 9:09 pace
W 11/16: 3.76 easy, 34:11, 9:05 pace
Th 11/17: Insanity Cardio Recovery and Cardio Abs 50:00 min
F 11/18: rest
Sa 11/19: 6.15 long, 57:51, 9:24 pace

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And, I can't forget college football picks for the week:

 

10 pts: LSU over Ole Miss

9 pts: Oregon over USC

8 pts: Oklahoma over Baylor

7 pts: Florida State over Virginia

6 pts: Clemson over North Carolina

5 pts: Ohio St over Penn St

4 pts: Miami (FL) over South Florida

3 pts: Michigan over Nebraska

2 pts: Iowa over Purdue

1 pt: Rutgers over Cincinnati

Update: NOT a good week.  I managed 19 points, which was 2nd highest in our group and moved me into 3rd place just ahead of Josh.  The entire group had a dismal week with all of these upsets.

Make Your Move

It was a great day for a run here - I'll be thankful anytime I can get mid-50s in mid-November in mid-Michigan.  So I cranked out a solid 8 miles - what may be my last long run of the year.  I still managed a decent total for the week - 19.12 miles - while doing 2 Insanity videos.

Su 11/6: 3.51 easy, 33:25, 9:31 pace
M 11/7: 3.52 pace, 30:38, 8:42 pace
Tu 11/8: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance 40 min
W 11/9: Rest
Th 11/10: Insanity Cardio Core & Balance 40 min
F 11/11: 4.01 easy, 37:20, 9:18 pace
Sa 11/12: 8.08 long, 1:18:56, 9:46 pace

And of course... its Football Saturday!  With only 4 weeks remaining in College Pick 'Em, I need to make my move.  I'm tied with Josh for third place, and we are 13 points out of first.  We will need some help to climb to the top, but lets be real:  the only competition I care about at this point is the guy sleeping next to me each night.  Just need bragging rights in the house and I'm happy :)

10 pts: Arkansas over Tennessee

9 pts: Oklahoma St over Texas Tech

8 pts: Georgia over Auburn

7 pts: Florida St over Miami (FL)

6 pts: Texas over Missouri

5 pts: Kansas St over Texas A&M

4 pts: Michigan over Illinois

3 pts: Stanford over Oregon

2 pts: Michigan St over Iowa

1 pt: Nebraska over Penn St

Update: 46 points this week, moved 1 point ahead of Josh, but still 13 out of first.  Three more weeks to go.

Insane

I have access to a great gym at work, and they recently ordered copies of the P90X and Insanity workouts by Beachbody (NOT a referral link).  I have done P90X before, following the full 90-day program as written (well, minus the diet part anyway).  I still occasionally throw a P90X video into my workout rotation every now and then for weight training.  On Thursday, I thought I would give Insanity a try. 

I tried one Insanity video a while ago, and I remember it being hard.  This time around, I went with Pure Cardio - at a little under 40 minutes, it fit well into the limited time I had.  Let me say this - wowza.  Two days later, and I sorta feel like I ran a marathon on Thursday!  That 40 minutes packed one heck of a punch.  I was breathing quite heavy and pretty out of breath after the 10-minute warm-up!  (I should have worn a heart rate monitor, but I bet the warm-up got me to at least 80% of my max HR.)

The workout is basically this: 10 minute "warm-up" that get progressively more intense, break, stretching, break, 15 minute "work-out", break, cool-down stretches.  Yes, the actual workout segment is only 15 minutes.  But because of the intensity of the warm-up, and even the stretches, I felt I got a very solid cardio workout in.  Shaun T encourages you to take breaks as needed, and I definitely took a few myself to catch my breath.  I didn't find any of the moves difficult or needing modification, but there were plenty of times I couldn't keep up with his maxed-out pace, so I just did as much as I could.  My glutes were definitely feeling this workout the day after, and today my calves, upper hamstrings, glutes and inner thighs are rebelling.

I think I will try a few more Insanity videos here and there, but I don't plan to follow the 60-day program.  I plan to be sidelined from this sort of activity very soon..... (wink)

I still managed to run a few miles this week as well, though today was pretty darn slow.  I took off early and it was freezing (literally, like <32 degrees).  It took me the first 5 miles of the run to feel warmed up and loosen my legs enough to have a comfortable stride.  Here is how I fit the 20.34 miles in:

Su 10/30: 4.02 easy, 38:28, 9:34 pace
M 10/31: Rest
Tu 11/1: 4.04 easy, 38:26, 9:31 pace
W 11/2: 5.02 easy, 47:43, 9:30 pace; Ab Ripper X
Th 11/3: 40 min Insanity Pure Cardio
F 11/4: Rest
Sa 11/5: 7.26 easy, 1:13:51, 10:10 pace

And of course, its football Saturday.  Go Blue!

10 pts: Oklahoma over Texas A&M
9 pts: North Carolina over NC State
8 pts: Arkansas over South Carolina
7 pts: Texas over Texas Tech
6 pts: Alabama over LSU
5 pts: Michigan over Iowa
4 pts: Cincinnati over Pitt
3 pts: Baylor over Missouri
2 pts: Utah over Arizona
1 pt: Syracuse over UConn

UPDATE: Pretty bummed that Michigan lost.  Not sure how they are going to make it to Indy now...  As for this week, I had 34 points, and Josh and I are tied for third in our pool.