This past weekend I finished my 9th (closing in on those double digits!) marathon and first one in 2 years. Lemme tell you, it felt like my first one in 2 years. It was grueling and I’m still so glad I was able to manage it after the wreckage that has been this pandemic. Ever week that got closer I was racked with self-doubt if I was still trained up enough to run it. My time was not was what it was before, and I will happily accept that as I gain a footing again. Ready for more punishment in New York (NYC BABYEEE) in a few weeks.
Minneapolis remains one of my absolute favorite races and cities. Hands down the prettiest race I’ve done to date.
Tag: Fitness
Hey, welcome to April end of May. Only *checks watch* 5 months late on the start of this. It’s fine. It’s fine, let’s just pretend this is January. I’ll set the mood. It sucks. It’s cold out. Your body is never going to be warm again. It’s persistently grey-skied, and it’s seemingly always night. OK, now that you are sufficiently depressed, let’s get this train wreck a-rollin’.
In summary, 2018 was a good year for fitness for me. Thanks for coming everybody!
Fine, let’s dig into the numbers a bit. This is what we are known for here at Killer Tofu HQ, data dives and frequent, on-time posts. The two things.
I personally approached 2018 as a makeup year for 2017. I really felt like I slacked off in 2017. So, did that show in the numbers? Well, let’s start with the baseline, the number from 2017.
2017
Running:
Total Runs: 86
Total Distance (Mi.): 650.47
Average Pace: 10:42
Average Time: 1:12:14
Full Marathons: 1 (1 failed)
Half-Marathons: 2
10ks: 2
Lifting:
Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 129,741
Days at Gym: 80
2018
Running:
Total Runs: 114
Total Distance (Mi.): 874.81
Average Pace: 10:55
Average Time: 1:25:13
Full Marathons: 2
Half-Marathons: 2
10ks: 1
Lifting:
Total Weight Lifted (Lbs.): 83,896
Days at Gym: 74
I definitely put more miles in. 224.34 more miles! I’m very happy with that. And I will say, it shows in the race outcomes.
I PR’d in Chicago, and then turned around and beat it in Indy. I am so stoked with those races. I also PR’d for a half during the Santa Hustle. I never broke 2 hours for a half-marathon, and I just crushed it by 8 minutes. I am ecstatic how I finished out 2018. I wish the weather didn’t turn because I felt like I was in such a good groove. I would very much like permanent fall please. A breeze 65 degrees at all times would just be peachy. Alas.
The average pace went up, which is not great. It didn’t jump a whole lot, but speed continues to be my weak point. I think that is going to be my goal. I really want to speed my runs up. At the very least I’d like to continue to beat my PRs.
At least for this year, I’ve changed up my Marathons. I’ve done Chicago and Indianapolis for the past few years, trying for NYC. Well, I didn’t get into NYC again, and also Chicago this time. I still want to do at least two marathons, so this year I’m running Minneapolis, Minnesota and Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve never ran Minneapolis, but Madison is one of my favorite towns in the few times I’ve been there. Great running town.
Sidebar, last time I ran in Madison, I ran around one of the lakes, about a half-marathon. I parked at some public garage, near a support. Well, after I was done, and when I was pulling out, I wasn’t paying attention and dented the passenger-side fender on that support. Normally, and understandably I would be extremely upset at myself. This time however I was on such an endorphin high that my reaction was basically, “Oh well, cars are made to be broken.” That was until hours later when I calmed down and then realized the damage I did and had the proper reaction, you absolute idiot (me to me).
Now for lifting. I definitely spent less time in the gym this past year than I did the previous year. It was a 32.6% increase in the number of runs and a 34.5% increase in number of miles. It was also a 8.1% decrease in the number of times I made it to the gym and a 35.4% decrease in the amount of weight I lifted.
These are rough measurements, but it seems like the more I run the less I left and vice-versa. This should be apparent with just how time allotment works, but now it’s in the data! It seems to correlate at roughly the same rate. Glad we can confirm the obvious here at KT HQ.
With any hope 2019 will be better than 2018 with more improvements. OK, I’m going to stop writing or this post will never get out. BYE.
Categories
The Check-In. May 2018.
Already half way into June, I guess this is better than not doing it at all, probably.
Political Stuff
To be honest, I’ve taken a break this month from political stuff. Not entirely, and not on purpose. My body must have just sensed I needed a break. I have a backlog of stuff I need to take care of now, and a mountain of guilt to work through. There were lots of fits and starts, but I could not get it together to work on things.
There is actually a lot on my mind with the state of things currently, but I think that warrants a separate post because it would really just consume this, and I want to focus on that. There is just so much fucked up stuff going on at the moment in the country. Separating children from their families?!? Cages?!? These are human beings you absolute monsters.
Podcast
We’ve recorded and released a second podcast now. I’ve really enjoyed recording these, and this is like my only outlet to talk about game development. I hope to record another one this weekend. The goal is monthly.
Streaming
Tim and I continue to stream on Twitch and archive on YouTube. If you can, catch it live, or on the Twitch VOD. The bitrate on Twitch is so much better than YouTube. YouTube crunches stuff down so badly.
We have been streaming Sonic Mania recently and those have been some really fun episodes. We even had a sitcom style mix-up in the last recording session. What a pair!
Combo Breaker
I also was lucky enough to attend my first fighting game major this year, Combo Breaker. Firstly, thanks to my friend Taylor for the heads up and for being a travel partner, wouldn’t have done it without his instance. I’ve been watching fighting game streams and tournaments for years, but never anything live. It was cool to see fighting game legends in person. I was just there as a spectator because I’m garbage at fighting games, but even just watching everything was intense. Like sports, it’s different when you are there in person. It felt like a sporting event as well. There are crowds cheering, energy in the room with close match-ups, and even armchair theorists pontificating on what the player should be doing. I hope to go to it, or something like it (EVO!) again. There was even a proposal after SSF2T grand finals!
In the moments of downtime, we met up with a guy who hosts a podcast, No Cartridge, which I hadn’t heard before, but Taylor DM’d him on Twitter when he found out he was going to be there. Super cool guy, and after I heard it, really good podcast as well.
Since we were close-ish, we went to the best arcade, Galloping Ghost. I try to go there a couple times a year, just because it’s so cool. A staggering collection of arcade games, all on free play just $20 for a whole day. Can’t recommend enough if you are ever near Brookfield, IL.
Wedding!
My friends got married! They are fantastic and I love them, and they are perfect.
Running and fitness
I am continuing my journey to kill myself break my previous records.
I started taking Wednesday mornings to run a half before work and managed to do that for three weeks in a row. I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy. It’s a bear. I usually have to get up at 4:30 am and get out the door by 5 to get back, showered, and fed before work. Doing regular half-marathons is not something I’ve ever something I imagines being able to do, so it’s really cool and gratifying to see the time I’ve poured into this having a demonstrable effect.
Outside of the health benefits physically, long distance runs like that do wonders to calm my anxiety. I’ve probably talked about this somewhere in this blog before but running is meditative for me. All I need to focus on in the moment is moving forward. If I’m not listening to podcasts or audiobooks, I can throw on music and just let my mind drift. It helps process whatever I’m dealing with at that time. I know myself, and I know if I’m just sitting around, I will not allow myself the time to work through things; the stresses and responsibilities of whatever I need to do will take precedence. Running is a good forcing function.
I feel like half my blog posts are just, “Everyone, I like running, it’s good.”
But may I pose the following:
I like running, it’s good.
May 2018 Total: 82.2 Miles
May 2017 Total: 54.0
Difference May 2017 to May 2018: +28.2 Miles
Difference 2017 to 2018 to Date: +204.9 Miles