1391 mi.

So, my brother IMs me this morning.

-Wanna race?

-Sure. Half marathon?

-No. 1391 miles. That's the distance from my house to yours.

That's just like him to think big. Really, really big. We both have the same GPS running watch: the Forerunner 205. This is how we're going to track our progress. I've started putting together a Google spreadsheet that you can follow along with.

I think the most miles I've ever run in a year is 475. I think we're looking at a three year long race. The winner gets a beer. A single beer of the loser's choice.

Let's hit the road, bro.

Up to the bar

As a kid, we all did the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. Even then, I never managed one measly pullup. At zero pullups, that placed me squarely in the 0th percentile. I was much better at math than at P.E.

In salute to the 98 lb. weakling in me, I've set the goal of doing one pullup. Yes, just one. I'll worry about more reps after I get that first one out of the way.

I'm doing a lot of lat pulldowns on the cable station at the office gym and doing partial jump pull ups every time near the pullup bar. I'm making progress. I can actually pull myself up 1/3 of the way now, as opposed to not being able to budge at all, when I set this goal 6 weeks ago.

Of course, it gets easier as I lose weight. I weighed in at 199.0 this morning. So that's down another 0.8 pounds this week. I'm right on target for 185 on October 1.

Sweet progress

I'm just back from the gym. 100 burpees in 9 minutes and 23 seconds. Brutal and satisfying at the same time. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror on my way out of the gym. I looked like a fuzzy tomato.

It feels good to make a goal and reach it. Now it's time to think up a new one. I think I'll continue to do 100 burpees once a week to keep up the conditioning. Maybe I'll start doing them outside and do a sprint between each set and figure out a time goal for that.

Also on the progress front, I snuck under 200 lbs. at my weekly weigh in yesterday. 199.8 is under 200. Take that, math!