Of High Knees and Noodle Arms

Dobson got another strong run in, as we ventured across many unshoveled sidewalks through knee-high snow. Not the dog's knees, but mine. A route of just over two miles took me just under 30 minutes to complete, and I even stopped my watch for the dog's defecation delays. The pup is getting better at avoiding his instincts to sniff every flake of snow or the crotch of every passerby. Now, if I could just get him to pick up the pace.

The Notorious Jumping Blogger of Summit County
I bought a jump rope last night for $3 from Target. Now, either I'll injure myself the first time I use it or the snow will thaw and temperatures will rise and I won't have any desire for an indoor alternative to running.

Hating on Steve Stenzel
Sometimes I just want to hate Steve Stenzel. He runs faster than me. He runs farther than me. He blogs more than me. He posts more pictures than me. He has way more readers than me. He smiles more than me. He's certainly friendlier than me. My only hope is that I could drink him under the table, but you never know with those hearty Minnesotans.

I was reading Steve's blog yesterday and came across his "Twenty One" workout. Now, I really hate him. As he describes, you do 20 push-ups and one sit-up, then you subtract one push-up and add one sit-up each set until you do one push-up and 20 sit-ups. That's 210 of each when if you finish.

This sounded like an interesting workout, but I knew that I couldn't do 210 push-ups and sit-ups. Not like that jerk Steve Stenzel. I thought, maybe I can do half that. [Faulty math alert!] You know, start with 10 push-ups and one sit-up. Thus the Eleven Workout was born! As it turns out, that equals 55 push-ups and sit-ups. OK, so not quite half. But close.

I knew I was in trouble when I got to the set of seven push-ups. My arms would give out and I'd free-fall from the raised position to the lowered position. Halfway through the set of five push-ups, I had to resort to girlie push-ups. Needless to say, my arms and chest are sore today. And I really don't care for that Steve Stenzel guy.